Tulpius[30] and Piso[31] afford us remarkable Instances of Periodical Palseys.
Every one knows how great a share the Moon has in forwarding those Evacuations of the weaker Sex, which have their Name from the constant Regularity they keep in their Returns; and there is no question to be made, but the Correspondency we here observe, would be greater still, and even Universal, did not many Accidents, and the infinite Varieties in particular Constitutions one way or other concur to make a difference. It is very observable that in Countries nearest to the Æquator, where we have proved the Lunar Action to be strongest; these Monthly Secretions are in much greater quantity than in those near the Poles, where this force is weakest. This Hippocrates[32] takes notice of, and gives it as one Reason why the Women in Scythia are not very fruitful.
The Case being thus with Females, it is no wonder if we sometimes meet with Periodical Hæmorrhages answering to the times of the Moon in Males also. For as a greater quantity of Blood in proportion to the bulk in one Sex, is the reason of its discharging it self thro' proper Ducts, at certain Intervals, when the pressure of the external Air being diminish'd, the internal Aura can exert its Elasticity; so in the other, if at any time there happens to be a Superabundancy of the same Fluid, together with a weak Tone of the Fibres; it is plain that the Vessels will be most easily burst, when the Resistance of the Atmosphere is least. And this more especially, if any accidental hurt, or rarefying Force has first given occasion to the other Causes to take effect.
I know a Gentleman of a tender frame of Body, who having once, by over reaching, strained the parts about the Breast; fell thereupon into a spitting of Blood, which for a Year and half constantly return'd every New Moon, and decreasing gradually, continued always 4 or 5 days. The Fits being more or less considerable, according as his management about that time, contributed to a greater or lesser fullness of the Vessels.
We have two notable Instances of the like nature in our Philosophical Transactions; the one[33] of a Person, who from his Infancy to the 24th Year of his Age, had every full Moon an Eruption of Blood on the right side of the Nail of his left Thumb, at first to 3 or 4 Ounces, and after his sixteenth Year, to half a Pound each time; which when by searing the part with a hot Iron, he stopp'd, he fell into a Sputum Sanguinis, and by frequent Bleeding, &c. was very difficultly saved from a Consumption. The other[34] is a Story of an Inn-Keeper in Ireland, who from the 43rd Year of his Life, to the 55th (in which it killed him) suffered a Periodical Evacuation at the point of the Fore-Finger of his Right-hand; and altho the Fits here kept not their returns so certain as in the forementioned Case, (it may be either from the irregular way of living of the Patient, or the mighty change every Effusion made in his habit of Body, the quantity seldom amounting to less than four Pounds at a time) yet there is this remarkable Circumstance in the Relation, that the first beginning of this Hæmorrhage was at Easter, that is, the next Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox, which is one of the two Seasons of the Year, at which we have proved the attraction of the Air, or lessening of its Pressure, to be greater than at any other time whatsoever.
But we are besides this to consider, That the Static Chair, and nice Observation taught Sanctorius,[35] That Men do increase a Pound or two in their weight every Month, which overplus is discharged at the Months end, by a Crisis of copious, or thick turbid Urine.
It is not therefore at all strange that we should once a Month be liable to the returns of such Distempers as depend upon a Fullness of the Vessels, that these should take place at those times especially, when the ambient Air is least able to repress the Turgency; and that tho' New and Full Moon are both of equal Force, yet that sometimes one, and sometimes the other only should Influence the Periods, according as this or that happens to fall in with the inward Repletion.
The Afflux of Humours to Ulcers is sometimes manifestly altered by this Power; [36] Baglivi was acquainted with a Learned Young Man at Rome, who labour'd under a Fistula in the Abdomen, penetrating to the Colon, which discharged so plentifully in the Increase, and so sparingly in the Decrease of the Moon, that he could make a very true judgment of the Periods and Quadratures of the Planet, from the different quantity of the Matter that came from Him.
Nephritic Paroxysms have frequently been observed to obey the Lunar Attraction: Tulpius[37] relates the Case of Mr. Ainsworth, an English Minister at Amsterdam, who had a Fit of the Gravel and suppression of Urine every Full Moon, of which he found no relief till the Moon decreased, unless by Bleeding at the Arm. After his death two large Stones were taken out of his Bladder, and the Pelvis of the left Kidney was enlarged to that degree by the quantity of Urine so often stopt there, as to contain almost as much as the Bladder it self.
I was present, not long since, at the Dissection of a Child about 5 or 6 Year old, who dyed of the frequent returns of Nephritic Fits, attended with Vomitings and a Diarrhæa. The Kidneys and Ureters were quite stuffed with a slimy calculous Matter, and it was very instructive to see the different degrees of Concretion in the several parts of it, from a clear limpid Water, to a hard friable Substance. Dr. Groenvelt, who had tended the Boy in his Illness, observed him to be seized with his Pains at every Full Moon for several Months together, which generally ended with the voiding of a Stone.