[3]. Paresis sensitiva. Weakness of the whole system from insensibility.
ORDO II.
Decreased Sensation.
GENUS [II].
Of Particular Organs.
SPECIES.
[1]. Anorexia. Want of appetite. Some elderly people, and those debilitated by fermented liquors, are liable to lose their appetite for animal food; which is probably in part owing to the deficiency of gastric acid, as well as to the general decay of the system: elderly people will go on years without animal food; but inebriates soon sink, when their digestion becomes so far impaired. Want of appetite is sometimes produced by the putrid matter from many decaying teeth being perpetually mixed with the saliva, and thence affecting the organ of taste, and greatly injuring the digestion.
M. M. Fine charcoal powder diffused in warm water held in the mouth frequently in a day, as in Class [I. 2. 4. 12]. or solution of alum in water. Extract the decayed teeth. An emetic. A blister. Chalybeates. Vitriolic acid. Bile of an ox inspissated, and made into pills; 20 grains to be taken before dinner and supper. Opium half a grain twice a day.
All the strength we possess is ultimately derived from the food, which we are able to digest; whence a total debility of the system frequently follows the want of appetite, and of the power of digestion. Some young ladies I have observed to fall into this general debility, so as but just to be able to walk about; which I have sometimes ascribed to their voluntary fasting, when they believed themselves too plump; and who have thus lost both their health and beauty by too great abstinence, which could never be restored.