One, who was soon to be married to a lady of superior condition to his own, expressed fear of not succeeding on the wedding night; he was advised to take a grain of opium before he went to bed, and to accustom himself to sleep with a woman previously, but not to enjoy her, to take off his bashfulness; which succeeded to his wish.
M. M. Chalybeates. Opium. Bark. Tincture of cantharides.
4. _Sterilitas._ Barrenness. One of the ancient medical writers asserts, that the female sex become pregnant with most certainty at or near the time of menstruation. This is not improbable, since these monthly periods seem to referable the monthly venereal orgasm of some female quadrupeds, which become pregnant at those times only; and hence the computation of pregnancy is not often erroneous, though taken from the last menstruation. See Section XXXVI. 2. 3.
M. M. Opium a grain every night. Chalybeates in very small doses. Bark. Sea-bathing.
5. _Insensibilitas artuum._ As in some paralytic limbs. A great insensibility sometimes accompanies the torpor of the skin in cold fits of agues. Some parts have retained the sense of heat, but not the sense of touch. See Sect. XVI. 6.
M. M. Friction with flannel. A blister. Warmth.
6. _Dysuria insensitiva._ Insensibility of the bladder. A difficulty or total inability to make water attends some fevers with great debility, owing to the insensibility or inirritability of the bladder. This is a dangerous but not always a fatal symptom.
M. M. Draw off the water with a catheter. Assist the patient in the exclusion of it by compressing the lower parts of the abdomen with the hands. Wine two ounces, Peruvian bark one dram in decoction, every three hours alternately. Balsam of copaiva. Oil of almonds, with as much camphor as can be dissolved in it, applied as a liniment rubbed on the region of the bladder and perinæum, and repeated every four hours, was used in this disease with success by Mr. Latham. Med. Comment. 1791, p. 213.
7. _Accumulatio alvina._ An accumulation of feces in the rectum, occasioned by the torpor, or insensibility, of that bowel. But as liquids pass by these accumulations, it differs from the constipatio alvi, which is owing to too great absorption of the alimentary canal.