Outlines of chemico-hygiene and medicine, or the application of chemical results to the preservation of health, and cure of disease / by A. Dallas.

  • Dallas, A. (Angus)
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of chemico-hygiene and medicine, or the application of chemical results to the preservation of health, and cure of disease / by A. Dallas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    75/128
    blood. They arc, therefore, dependent, like all other parts of the body, on the proper regulation of the secretions; and consequently on the equilibrium of waste and supply. The brain and nerves are material organs, that participate, with the cognate organs of the general system, in whatever increases or diminishes their capacity. The assimilation or decomposition of new cerebral and nervous mat- ter, takes place, contemporaneously, with the assimilation or destruc- tion of the muscular tissues. So that whatever strengthens or debilitates the muscular tissues, strengthens or debilitates, at the same time, those organs of thought and sense. Liebig makes use of very significant language, when he says : In regard to the nature and essence of the vital force, we can hardly deceive ourselves, when we reflect, that it behaves, in all its manifestations, exactly like other natural forces; that it is devoid of consciousness or volition^ and is subject to the action of a blister/' * The subordination of the mental functions, to the ordinary chemical laws of the materia} elements, is visible in the correspondence of the results. In sickness generally, and in insanity of the mind, this fact is not to be over, looked. It applies with great force, in what is said, under the head of displacement, in the third chapter of this treatise. In the mean time, it is sufficient to observe, that the object of rest and sleep, is as much to increase the cerebral and nervous matter, as the muscular; and that the mind, and nerves of sense and volition, are influenced directly and in the most immediate way, for good or for evil, by the nature of the sleep and the extent of the noctural oxi- dation. A person, on the contrary, who lies down in a warm room, and rolls and tosses in bed during the night, or, by stimulants or narco- tics, procures a heavy and continuous sleep, cannot experience this refreshing vigor. It is impossible that he can; for, though his body may have been duly supplied with food before retiring to rest, the accompanying circumstance of the warm room, precludes the chemi_ cal changes, on which the formation of new muscle depends. And, consequently, the symptom, next morning, in place of being that of vigor, is one of lassitude; and, getting out of bed, is an act per_ formed with a considerable degree of reluctance. G-oing to bed, then, resting and sleeping, may all take place, and yet the object of doing so may not be attained. And, in this, we observe the impor- tance of undeastanding aright, the chemical relations of the body to * Animal Chemistry.