beyond the control of the will. All causes of excitement, and especially
of fear, should be avoided, and the general health of the patient
invigorated, as this disease is closely connected with a derangement of
the nervous system.

2. _Convulsions_ are an involuntary contraction of the muscles.
Consciousness is wanting, while the limbs may be stiff or in spasmodic
action. (See p. 261.)

3. _Locked-jaw_ is a disease in which there are spasms and a
contraction of the muscles, usually beginning in the lower jaw. It is
serious, often fatal, yet it sometimes follows as trivial an injury as the
stroke of a whip lash, the lodgment of a bone in the throat, a fishhook in
the finger, or a tack in the sole of the foot.

4. _Gout_ is characterized by an acute pain located chiefly in the
small joints of the foot, especially those of the great toe, which become
swollen and extremely sensitive. It is generally accompanied by an excess
of uric acid in the blood, and a deposit of urate of soda about the
affected joint. Gout is often the result of high living, and of too much
animal food. It is frequently inherited.

5. _Rheumatism_ affects mainly the connective, white, fibrous tissue
of the larger joints. While gout is the punishment of the rich who live
luxuriously, rheumatism afflicts alike the poor and the rich. There are
two common forms of rheumatism--the inflammatory or acute, and the
chronic. The latter is of long continuance; the former terminates more
speedily. The acute form is probably a disease of the blood, which carries
with it some poisonous matter that is deposited where the fibrous tissue
is most abundant. The disease flies capriciously from one joint to