Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. I

by Erasmus Darwin

Many of the paralytic patients, whom I have seen, have evidently had diseased livers from the too frequent potation of spirituous liquors; some of them have had the gutta rosea on their faces and breasts; which has in some degree receded either spontaneously, or by the use of external remedies, and the paralytic stroke has succeeded; and as in several persons, who have drank much vinous spirits, I have observed epileptic fits to commence at about forty or fifty years of age, without any hereditary taint, from the stimulus, as I believed, of a diseased liver; I was induced to ascribe many paralytic cases to the same source; which were not evidently the effect of age, or of unacquired debility. And the account given before of dropsies, which very frequently are owing to a paralysis of the absorbent system, and are generally attendant on free drinkers of spirituous liquors, confirmed me in this opinion.

The disagreeable irritation of a diseased liver produces exertions and consequent quiescence; these by the accidental concurrence of other causes of quiescence, as cold, solar or lunar periods, inanition, the want of their usual portion of spirit of wine, at length produces paralysis.

This is further confirmed by observing, that the muscles, we most frequently, or most powerfully exert, are most liable to palsy; as those of the voice and of articulation, and of those paralytics which I have seen, a much greater proportion have lost the use of their right arm; which is so much more generally exerted than the left.

I cannot dismiss this subject without observing, that after a paralytic stroke, if the vital powers are not much injured, that the patient has all the movements of the affected limb to learn over again, just as in early infancy; the limb is first moved by the irritation of its muscles, as in stretching, (of which a case was related in Section [VII. 1. 3].) or by the electric concussion; afterwards it becomes obedient to sensation, as in violent danger or fear; and lastly, the muscles become again associated with volition, and gradually acquire their usual habits of acting together.

Another phænomenon in palsies is, that when the limbs of one side are disabled, those of the other are in perpetual motion. This can only be explained from conceiving that the power of motion, whatever it is, or wherever it resides, and which is capable of being exhausted by fatigue, and accumulated in rest, is now less expended, whilst one half of the body is capable of receiving its usual proportion of it, and is hence derived with greater ease or in greater abundance into the limbs, which remain unaffected.

[II]. [1]. The excess or defect of voluntary exertion produces similar effects upon the sensual motions, or ideas of the mind, as those already mentioned upon the muscular fibres. Thus when any violent pain, arising from the defect of some peculiar stimulus, exists either in the muscular or sensual systems of fibres, and which cannot be removed by acquiring the defective stimulus; as in some constitutions convulsions of the muscles are produced to procure a temporary relief, so in other constitutions vehement voluntary exertions of the ideas of the mind are produced for the same purpose; for during this exertion, like that of the muscles, the pain either vanishes or is diminished: this violent exertion constitutes madness; and in many cases I have seen the madness take place, and the convulsions cease, and reciprocally the madness cease, and the convulsions supervene. See Section [III. 5. 8].

[2]. Madness is distinguishable from delirium, as in the latter the patient knows not the place where he resides, nor the persons of his friends or attendants, nor is conscious of any external objects, except when spoken to with a louder voice, or stimulated with unusual force, and even then he soon relapses into a state of inattention to every thing about him. Whilst in the former he is perfectly sensible to every thing external, but has the voluntary powers of his mind intensely exerted on some particular object of his desire or aversion, he harbours in his thoughts a suspicion of all mankind, lest they should counteract his designs; and while he keeps his intentions, and the motives of his actions profoundly secret; he is perpetually studying the means of acquiring the object of his wish, or of preventing or revenging the injuries he suspects.

[3]. A late French philosopher, Mr. Helvetius, has deduced almost all our actions from this principle of their relieving us from the ennui or tædium vitæ; and true it is, that our desires or aversions are the motives of all our voluntary actions; and human nature seems to excel other animals in the more facil use of this voluntary power, and on that account is more liable to insanity than other animals. But in mania this violent exertion of volition is expended on mistaken objects, and would not be relieved, though we were to gain or escape the objects, that excite it. Thus I have seen two instances of madmen, who conceived that they had the itch, and several have believed they had the venereal infection, without in reality having a symptom of either of them. They have been perpetually thinking upon this subject, and some of them were in vain salivated with design of convincing them to the contrary.

[4]. In the minds of mad people those volitions alone exist, which are unmixed with sensation; immoderate suspicion is generally the first symptom, and want of shame, and want of delicacy about cleanliness. Suspicion is a voluntary exertion of the mind arising from the pain of fear, which it is exerted to relieve: shame is the name of a peculiar disagreeable sensation, see Fable of the Bees, and delicacy about cleanliness arises from another disagreeable sensation. And therefore are not found in the minds of maniacs, which are employed solely in voluntary exertions. Hence the most modest women in this disease walk naked amongst men without any kind of concern, use obscene discourse, and have no delicacy about their natural evacuations.

[5]. Nor are maniacal people more attentive to their natural appetites, or to the irritations which surround them, except as far as may respect their suspicions or designs; for the violent and perpetual exertions of their voluntary powers of mind prevents their perception of almost every other object, either of irritation or of sensation. Hence it is that they bear cold, hunger, and fatigue, with much greater pertinacity than in their sober hours, and are less injured by them in respect to their general health. Thus it is asserted by historians, that Charles the Twelfth of Sweden slept on the snow, wrapped only in his cloak, at the siege of Frederickstad, and bore extremes of cold and hunger, and fatigue, under which numbers of his soldiers perished; because the king was insane with ambition, but the soldier had no such powerful stimulus to preserve his system from debility and death.