Its present appearance is ancient, but not possessing any of those magic features which render the mansions of our majores so grand and magnificently solemn; a hall and chapel of imposing neatness and simplicity are still in good condition, but several of the apartments are dilapidated in part, and during a wet season admit the aqueous fluid through the chinks and fissures of their venerable walls. SAGITTARIUS. * * * * * THE LECTURER. * * * * * MINOR AFFECTIONS OF THE BRAIN. Pain _in the head_ may arise from very different causes, and is variously seated. It has had a number of different appellations bestowed upon it, according to its particular character. I need not observe that headach is a general attendant of all inflammatory states of the brain, whether in the form of _phrenitis, hydrocephalus acutus_, or _idiopathic fever;_ though with some exceptions in regard to all of them, as I before showed you. It is often also said to be a symptom of other diseases, of parts remotely situated; as of the _stomach_, more especially; whence the term _sick headach_, the stomach being supposed to be the part first or principally affected, and the headach symptomatic of this. I am confident, however, that in a majority of instances the reverse is the case, the affection of the head being the cause of the disorder of the stomach. It is no proof to the contrary, that _vomiting_ often relieves the headach, for vomiting is capable of relieving a great number of other diseases, as well as those of the brain, upon the principle of _counter-irritation_. The stomach may be disordered by nauseating medicines, up to the degree of full vomiting, without any headach taking place; but the brain hardly ever suffers, either from injury or disease, without the stomach having its functions impaired, or in a greater or less degree disturbed: thus a blow on the head immediately produces vomiting; and, at the outset of various inflammatory affections of the brain, as _fever_ and _hydrocephalus_, nausea and vomiting are almost never-failing symptoms. It is not denied, that _headach_ may be produced through the medium of the stomach; but seldom, unless there is previously disease in the head, or at least a strong predisposition to it. In persons habitually subject to headach, the arteries of the brain become so irritable, that the slightest cause of disturbance, either _mental_ or _bodily_, will suffice to bring on a paroxysm. The _occasional_ or _exciting causes of headach_, then, are principally these:-- 1. _Emotions of mind_, as fear, terror, and agitation of spirits; yet these will sometimes take off headach when present at the time.