Apoplexy is a term that is much used, and is a condition of coma, caused by pressure on the brain. This organ is in a tight, rigid box, the skull. If the fluid of the brain is much increased, or blood-vessels ruptured, pressure is the result, and the soft tissues yield, rather than the bony covering. This pressure may destroy or injure the cells and fibres, and so interfere with the function of the part. Another way that apoplexy occurs is by plugging of an artery of the brain, so that it cannot deliver blood to the part to which it goes, and consequently the part loses its ability to perform its function. The plugging is most frequently due to a small clot floating in the blood, and which is usually formed in the heart. Paralysis and apoplexy are often, through ignorance, used synonymously, but they really mean very different conditions. Paralysis is a loss of power of contracting a muscle, due to disease or injury of the nervous system; it frequently follows or is associated with apoplexy. In the case of apoplexy, and most conditions of coma, there is generally little for the attendant to do. The patient should be put to bed, with light coverings, and the head raised on pillows. Do not annoy the patient by trying to rouse him, and do not give stimulants. _Care of Sunstroke._--A sunstroke is a very serious condition, and when it occurs, requires immediate efforts to save the life of the one suffering from it. It generally comes on suddenly, the patient first complaining of the head; he soon becomes unconscious, the skin hot and dry, and the pulse full and bounding. The treatment consists of taking the patient to a cool, shaded place, removing all unnecessary clothing, applying ice or cold water to the head, and bathing or sponging the body in cold water. If the patient recovers, the temperature will fall under this treatment. If the heart begins to fail, or the pulse becomes weak or fluttering, small doses of whiskey and water may be given and repeated. Patients should not be taken out in the fields nor exposed places on very hot days, except as ordered by the physicians; they should wear light clothing and a straw hat; if permitted to go out, they should not overwork, and should be allowed frequently to rest in the shade. Patients are easily injured by working in the sun; headache caused, recovery retarded, and bad symptoms brought back, without having the alarming conditions of sunstroke. _Unconsciousness from Poisoning._--Opium and its preparations, including morphine, chloral, and the two extracts of hyoscyamus, now so much employed in asylums, namely, hyoscine and hyoscyamine, are medicines frequently given, that poison in over-doses and produce coma. These medicines and their effects will be described in the next chapter, and at the same time the symptoms of poisoning by them, and the treatment.