Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/110

170 memory. He did not know in what part of the town he was ; nor even the Name of the street when told it; nor where his own house was, nor had he any conception of any place existing beyond the room he was in, yet in the midst of all this was he perfectly conscious of the loss of memory. He was sensible of impressions of all kinds from the senses, and therefore looked out of the window, although rather dark, to see if he could be made sensible of the situation of the house ; at length this loss of memory gradually went off, and in less than half an hour his memory was perfectly recovered. About a fortnight afterwards when visiting a patient, an attack, somewhat of a similar nature, recurred; and during this illness he was attended by Dr Pitcairn and Dr Baillie. Amidst all the diseases and sufferings to which the living body is subjected, the changes which in an especial manner affect the mind, are interesting to all whether professional or non-professional. His mental impressions during this attack were lively, indeed, often disagreeably so. His dreams had so much the strength of reality that they often awakened him; but the remembrance of them remained perfect

"The sensation," says Sir Everard Home, "which he had in his head was not pain, but rather so unnatural as to give him the idea of having no head. The organs of sense (as in the former illness,) were painfully acute. He could not endure the light; and every thing had a yellow cast. Sounds were louder than natural, and every object had lost its true direction, leaning, as nearly as he could guess, to an angle of fifty or sixty degrees. His recovery from this attack was less perfect than from any other ; he never lost the obliquity of vision; and his memory became much impaired. The recurrence too of the spasms became more frequent The slightest exertion induced them. He never went to bed without their being brought on by the act of undressing himself; they came on during the middle of the night; the least excitement in conversation was attended by them ; and even operations in surgery, if requiring any nicety, occasioned them. It is remarked by Sir Everard Home, that as his mind was irritated by trifles, these produced the most violent effects on his disease. "His coachman," says he, "being beyond his time, or a servant not attending to his directions, brought on the spasms, while a real misfortune produced no such effect He thus continued to drag on a painful and precarious existence, with the grave every moment threatening to open beneath his feet. At length the fatal event so long anticipated by his friends occurred; it was sudden; and occasioned, as his former fits had been, by mental excitement The circumstances by which this was occasioned, are thus detailed by Dr Adams, who had a personal knowledge of them. "A law," says he, "concerning the qualifications required for the admission of pupils, had been carried contrary to the wishes of Mr Hunter. At this time he was applied to by a youth ignorant of the new regulation and consequently unprovided with any documents. His former residence was at a great distance, and he was anxious not to lose time during an expensive stay in London, in fitting himself for professional service. Mr Hunter, to relieve himself from the irksomeness of pleading or explaining, requested the case might be drawn up in the form of a letter addressed to himself. This he proposed to bring with him at the meeting of the next board. Notwithstanding this great caution, however, he felt the probability of a contest which he might prove unable to support On the succeeding day the writer of this, (Dr Adams,) had a very long conversation with him, in which we were insensibly led to his complaint ; a subject of all others the most interesting to his friends, and on which he never was backward in conversing. He was willing to hear every argument against the probable existence of an organic infirmity; but it was easy to see that his own opinion remained the same. Nor did he fail