Cramp, (from krimpen, to contract; Germ.) It is a sudden and violently painful rigidity or spasm of a muscle. This complaint is often very troublesome, but not usually dangerous; though instances have occurred in which, passing from the limbs to the bowels, the patient hath with difficulty recovered: it principally affects the limbs or neck.

In the Medical Museum, vol. iii. is an instance of a cure effected by drinking a glass of tar water every night and morning. For present relief a roll of brimstone is recommended to be held firmly in the hand, which quickly breaks, and thus the patient is eased: it breaks, however, from the heat only; yet a violent exertion of some other muscles contributes to relieve it. This disease is either idiopathic or symptomatic. When of the former class, it affects the legs, thighs, or other parts suddenly, whilst swimming in cold water, or whilst the tibiae are exposed to the cold night air; or when the muscles are uneasily situated: the digastric muscles are subject to this complaint; whilst the neck is exposed naked to the cold air the pain is intolerable, but in a minute or two abates spontaneously, particularly if warmth with friction is applied to the parts, if the contraction of the muscle is counteracted by external pressure, or the part affected be placed in a situation where extension may be produced.

The sympathetic cramp is that which affects the lower extremities, particularly in the cholera morbus, with strong distention and excruciating pain of the calves of the legs: all the flexor muscles of the legs and thighs occasionally suffer from this cause. After a vomit has been premised, thirty or forty drops of liquid laudanum should be administered. If the breast should be affected with this spasm, a fugitive pleurodyne arises, which is temporary, but violent, with danger of suffocation; if the throat, a spasmodic angina. Cranei'a. See Cornus.