Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/531

 therefore do not depend on the brain, still do not occur en- tirely without causing sensation, but proclaim themselves sub- ject to sense, inasmuch as they are aroused, called forth, and changed thereby. When the heart, for example, is affected with palpitation, tremor, lipothymia, syncope, and with great variety in the extent, rapidity, and order or rhythm of its pul- sations, we do not hesitate to ascribe these to morbific causes im- plicating, deranging its sensation. For whatever by its divers movements strives against irritations and troubles must neces- sarily be endowed with sensation.

The stomach and bowels, disturbed by the presence of viti- ated humours, are affected with ructus, flatus, vomiting, and diarrhoea ; and as it lies not in our power either to provoke or to restrain their motions, neither are we aware of any sensation dependent on the brain which should arouse the parts in ques- tion to motions of the kind.

It is truly wonderful to observe the effect of taking a solu- tion of antimony, which we neither distinguish by the taste, nor find any inconvenience from, whether in the swallowing or the rejection. Nevertheless there is a certain discriminating sense in the stomach which distinguishes what is hurtful from what is useful, and by which vomiting is induced.

Nay, the flesh itself readily distinguishes a poisoned wound from one that is not poisoned, and on receipt of the former contracts and condenses itself, whereby phlegmonous tumours are produced, as we find in connexion with the stings of bees, gnats, and spiders.

I have myself, for experiment's sake, occasionally pricked my hand with a clean needle, and then having rubbed the same needle on the teeth of a spider, I have pricked my hand in another place. I could not by my simple sensation per- ceive any difference between the two punctures ; nevertheless there was a capacity in the skin to distinguish the one from the other; for the part pricked with the envenomed needle immediately contracted into a tubercle, and by and by became red, and hot, and inflamed, as if it collected and girded itself up for a contest with the poison for its overthrow.

The sensations which accompany affections of the uterus, such as twisting, decubitus, prolapse, ascent, suffocation, &c., and other inconveniences and irritations, do not depend on