Cases of Organic Diseases of the Heart

The late Governour of this commonwealth was endowed with most vigorous powers of mind and body. At the age of sixteen he was attacked with fits of epilepsy, which first arose from a sudden fright, received on awaking from sleep in a field, and beholding a large snake erecting its head over him. As he advanced in life they became more frequent, and were excited by derangement of the functions of the stomach, often by affections of the mind, by dreams, and even by the sight of the reptile which first produced the convulsions. At the commencement of the American revolution he became deeply engaged in public affairs; and from that time devoted himself to intense application to business, with which the preservation of his health was never allowed to interfere. In the expedition against Rhode Island, an attack of inflammation of the lungs had nearly proved fatal to him. In the beginning of the year 1807, he suffered severely from the epidemic catarrh; and a remarkable irregularity of the pulse was then perceived to be permanent, though there is some reason to believe, that this irregularity had previously existed, during the fits of epilepsy, and for a few days after them. In the summer, while he was.