VITIATED SENSATION.-In the incipient stage of various forms of cerebral disease, the sensibility is not only heightened, impaired, and paralysed, but it shows marked evidence of being vitiated. The patient complains of the existence of pricking sensations in various parts of the body, as well as of the existence of formication, particularly at the extremities of the fingers and toes. For some time previously to the development of well-marked symptoms of cerebral disease, a patient remarked that everything he touched was extremely cold. In some

cases a gritty body like that of sand, and a piece of cloth, appeared to be interposed between the patient's fingers and whatever they came in contact with. Other invalids have affirmed, that whatever they touched felt like a piece of velvet. Andral notices this phenomenon.* Six weeks before a paralytic attack, a patient complained of one-half of the scalp feeling like a piece of leather. In the case of a gentleman who died of apoplexy, there was for some time previously to his illness a feeling in both hands as if the skin were covered with minute and irritating particles of dust or sand. He repeatedly complained of this symptom, and was frequently observed to wash his hands with the view of removing the imaginary annoyance. Impairment of sensibility in the

the bodies and limbs, and which, in its progress, occupied some five or six minutes.

"Each one was then instantly raised with the cords, until the weight of his body was suspended by them, and then, while the blood was streaming down their limbs, the bystanders hung upon the splints each man's appropriate shield, bow, quiver, &c., and in many instances the skull of a buffalo, with the horns on it, was attached to each lower arm and each lower leg, for the purpose, probably, of preventing, by their great weight, the struggling which might otherwise take place to their disadvantage whilst they were hung up. When these things were all adjusted each one was raised higher by the cords, until these weights all swung clear from the ground. The unflinching fortitude with which every one of them bore this part of the torture surpassed credibility,"

* He terms it the “velvet-like sensation" accompanying the alterations of sensation preceding attacks of paralysis and softening.

arm, preceded first by a feeling of intense cold in the part, and subsequently of numbness, followed this perverted state of the sensation. The patient had also slight paroxysmal attacks of headache, and, occasionally, considerable confusion of thought. In another case, some time prior to a paralytic seizure, the patient imagined that he had extraneous particles of dirt and stones in his boots, or inside his stockings, irritating his feet, and interfering with his personal comfort, as well as freedom of locomotion. This perverted state of the sensation was observed for two months previously to his attack of acute cerebral disorder.

CHAPTER XXI.

Morbid Phenomena of the Special Senses.

THIS section of the subject will be considered in the following order :

a. Sight.

B. Hearing.
7. Taste.

S. Touch.

e. Smell.

In estimating the value of all morbid evidences of the special senses supposed to be symptomatic of brain disease, we must carefully consider their normal state, making proper allowances for any previously existing idiosyncrasies in their mode of action. The sense of vision, of hearing, &c., is occasionally seen extraordinarily acute. I have known individuals in whom the sense of smell and taste was so exquisitely developed, that certain substances and odours produced a severe degree of mental torture, when brought in contact with the gustatory and nasal organs. The slightest particle of ipecacuanha has caused violent vomiting in certain nervous temperaments. In other instances, the smell of rhubarb has produced a severe action upon the bowels, and the faintest odour of aloes has affected, in a marked manner, the lower portion of the bowels. It is literally true that a person may,

"Die of a rose in aromatic pain,"

for there exists among the North American Indians a tribe whose mode of punishment consists in subjecting their prisoners to the influence of the odours of certain plants. This produces the most exquisite mental distress and bodily pain; and occasionally, if the prisoner be exposed long to its influence, death has been known to

ensue.

It is said that in some portions of China, and in the South Sea Islands, the natives are in the habit of exposing their victims as a punishment to what Falstaff terms, the "rankest compound of villanous smells."

We occasionally observe unnatural manifestations and exquisite conditions of the sense of seeing, hearing, touch, and taste, quite apart from disease of the brain. In some persons the sense of hearing is in an exalted state of manifestation, the slightest sound coming from remote distances being at once perceptible. Celebrated musicians, owing in the first place to the natural vigour and acuteness of the sense of hearing, and secondly, to the careful education and long-continued exercise of this faculty, have had this special sense in a high state of activity. It is said of Mozart that, during the performance of a most complicated piece of concerted music, he was able, among several hundred musicians, to detect with wonderful precision and quickness the slightest deviation from the correct score. He was able also to name the instrument that was at fault. Any aberration of harmony produced the most painful sensations in the nervous system of this wonderful musical genius.

Among blind persons we often notice an extraordinary capacity of recognising objects by the sense of touch. A person who became blind at an early period of life, was able to distinguish individually, by means of the touch, a number of botanical plants, and to single them out

with wonderful accuracy. We occasionally witness, as the effects of certain diseases, particularly of the nervous system, a great acuteness in the capacity of the special senses, as well as positive perversion in their modes of action.

I have known instances in which the sense of hearing and smell have become painfully sensitive after recovery from attacks of fever, conditions of nervous debility and exhaustion. In other cases the various special senses have been perverted, or their functions either diminished in power, or entirely lost.

Dr. Heberden records the particulars of the following case :-"A man about forty years old had in the spring a tertian fever, for which he took too small a quantity of bark, so that the returns of it were weakened without being removed. Three days after his last fit, being then employed on board a ship in the river, he observed at sun-setting that all objects began to look blue, which blueness gradually thickened into a cloud; and not long after, he became so blind as hardly to perceive the light of a candle. The next morning, about sun-rising, his sight was restored as perfectly as ever. When the next night came on, he lost his sight again in the same manner, and this continued for twelve days and nights. He then came ashore, where the disorder of his eyes gradually abated, and in three days was entirely gone. A month after he went on board another ship, and after three days' stay in it the night blindness returned as before, and lasted all the time of his remaining in the ship, which was nine nights. He then left the ship, and his blindness did not return while he was upon land. Some little time afterwards he went into another ship, in which he continued for ten days, during which time the blindness returned only two nights, and never afterwards." It appears, however, that this indi