Note 285 — VARIOUS QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE FOREGOING SUBJECTS, ELUCIDATED BY PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES.
Reading edition
This is erroneously supposed to be paralytic, they evidently originate, says Dr. Darwin, from the too quick exhaustion of the lessened quantity of the spirit of animation, for they only exist when the affected muscles are excited into action, as in lifting a glass to the mouth, or in writing, or in keeping the body upright, and cease again, when no voluntary exertion is attempted.