An obstetric diary of William Hunter, 1762-1765 / edited, with notes, by J. Nigel Stark.
- William Hunter
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: An obstetric diary of William Hunter, 1762-1765 / edited, with notes, by J. Nigel Stark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![Latin, muscus. In mediaeval Latin, nutmeg was nux muscata, literally a scented or “ musked ” nut. Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales spells the word as notemuge, and in Mandeville’s Travels we read, “ Wytethe wel that the Note- muge berethe the Maces.” When or why the corruption began I do not precisely know, but in Shakspeare’s day nutmeg was the form used in England. In Henry V, Orleans says, of the Dauphin’s horse, “He’s of the colour of the nutmeg.” But in 1762 William Hunter writes of nut mug, and proclaims himself at once either a Scot or a North of England man. “A pain round the Hypochondria.” Such an expression would not be found in a modern medical report. The word hypochondria is the plural of hypochondrium, and refers either to the parts lying under the ribs on each side of the epigastric region, or to the viscera situated in the hypo- chondria. Smellie, in his Midwifery, says, “There was no hardness or inflammation about the hypochondria.” “ On Sunday morning [the Queen] had a little hurry from a kind of palpitation,” and “avoid . . . any thing that could in the least tire or hurry her.” In the former of these sentences the word hurry figures as a noun, as referring to mental agitation, excitement, or perturbation, and in the latter as the corresponding verb. Although in this sense now quite obsolete, it was at one time universally employed. For example, Richardson, in his Sir Charles Grandison, says, “ They thought it advisable that I should not be admitted into her presence till the hurries she was in had subsided,” and in Fanny Burney’s Diary we have, “ He found nothing now remaining of the disorder, but too much hurry of spirits.” Addison, in sonorous periods, warns us that “ambition raises a tumult in the soul, it inflames the mind, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought.” Dickens frequently employed the word in its older sense. As an example, we may take a sentence from that marvellous chapter of David Copperjield, in which the storm is described, “ Yet in all the hurry of my thoughts, wild running with the thundering sea, the storm](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24930957_0059.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
