If colonel Townshend had not compos’d himself on the Back, could he have produc’d that surprising effect? If he had been turn’d on his Side, would he not have sooner recover’d? Were not the Doctors very blameable for offering to go away without using some means to recover him?
It is observable, that when People are far exhausted by Diseases, and are on the brink of dissolution, they generally lie on their Backs, because they have not muscular force sufficient to support the Body on either Side.
From what has been said concerning the supine portion of the Body, it appears, that it helps considerably to close this scene of life, by stopping the Blood in the Lungs. Hence the immortal Boerhaave observ’d, “[18]Proximam mortis causam, et ultimum ferme omnium Lethalium morborum effectum esse Peripneumoniam.”
If then the supine position has such a remarkable effect in stopping the Motion of the Blood, and consequently in putting an end to this Life, would it not be prudent to turn People on their Sides, and keep them so, who are so far spent in acute Diseases, that, they are unable to poize themselves in that salutary position? Would it not be often a means of prolonging the fatal, and of promoting an happy crisis?
When the force of an acute Disorder, and the strength of Nature are nearly equal, would not the weight of the Heart cast the ballance?
CHAP. V.
Of the concurring Causes of the Night-mare.
ALthough I have assign’d the supine position of the Body, and the pressure of the Heart upon the Pulmonary Veins and the left Auricle, as the immediate Causes of this Disorder; yet it is necessary to consider several pre-disposing circumstances, which may render some persons more subject to it than others, who may perhaps sleep sometimes on their Backs, and escape it.
The general primary Causes of this Disease are a Plethora, or a too great quantity of Blood, a viscidity or tenacity of the Fluids, and a weakness or inertia of the Solids. Hence, young persons of gross full habits, the robust, the luxurious, the drunken, and they who sup late, are most subject to the Night-mare[19]. Also Women who are obstructed; Girls of full, lax habits, before the eruption of the Menses; of which I have collected the following Cases,