Pratt, Jermyn (d. 1791)

The Zgubbs

w. c. 1759-1791

"And this in some measure accounts why there are some heads so strange and whimsical, without any fixed Ideas at all, some exceedingly heavy and confusd; some working and whirling along with amazing rapidity, depending in a great measure upon the different movements of the machine as it works and mills the imagination; and from thence we may probably account for the strange mistakes of our medical people concerning the various Disorders of the Head; for whatever has been said or wrote of the Cephalagia, the Cephalea; the Hemicranier, the Clavis Hystericus and so forth; yet after all; most of the Disorders the head may proceed and be occasion'd by the over friction of the Gig, or its strange inequalities in the working."

There are according to a certain medico physical society, certain natural excavations in the head of man, wherein everyone may be supposed to have a sort of twisting mill, or Gig of his own; to work and bring forward his Ideas; and whatever happens either to obstruct or impel the working of this machine gives such wonderful alterations to the brain; that a man feels himself better milld at some seasons of the year than he does at another. and this in some measure accounts why there are some heads so strange and whimsical, without any fixed Ideas at all, some exceedingly heavy and confusd; some working and whirling along with amazing rapidity, depending in a great measure upon the different movements of the machine as it works and mills the imagination; and from thence we may probably account for the strange mistakes of our medical people concerning the various Disorders of the Head; for whatever has been said or wrote of the Cephalagia, the Cephalea; the Hemicranier, the Clavis Hystericus and so forth; yet after all; most of the Disorders the head may proceed and be occasion'd by the over friction of the Gig, or its strange inequalities in the working; should it be granted me then that there is or may be such a machine or Gig in every mans head; that thus works and mills his Ideas, yet it may be questiond perhaps after all, what it is that can give it its first motion; Give me leave to observe in this place; that all our motions and sensations are executed by the help of the nervous fluid now the first movement of this machine or Gig in the head may be accounted for two ways; either by the influx of this nervous fluid into the brain (very near to Descartes pineal Gland) were the nerves are said all to terminate; or by the outward air taken up and received a the mouth, the ear, or nostril; Now the cortical part of the Brain being allowd to be exceding vascular; a quantity of this nervous fluid may be taken up and conveyd to the brain, by the coroted and vertebral arteries, and so set the machine a working; or it is possible to be, that the air received by the mouth, the ear, the Nostril, or the very common operations of Breathing, Sneezing, coughing, ventilating and so forth, or the very motion of the limbs and body, may serve to cooperate with the Gig in its different motions--I do not take upon me to say, that it is thus absolutely performd; I will be the Director of no mans opinion but he who is anatomically acquainted with the processus Zygomaticus, the processus Hyloides, or the processius mammillaris; will easily grant me all this may be performd by the air that is received by the ear, or mouth only; so that it is reasonable to conclude that everyone has a Gig or mill of his own, to bring forward and work his Ideas and the irregularity of its motion at different times, may occasion (observe that I say occasion) the very different productions we meet with in the world [...]

Motion::Working and Whirling Machine::Mill Motion::Friction Machine::Gig

Contributed by James Wood

Manuscript essay by the Rev. Jermyn Pratt. Original in the Norfolk Record Office. Transcription by James Wood.

07/08/2015