Materials for an alphabet to the science of medicine : embracing an inquiry into the nature of the mind and passions ; addressed to the Medical Society of Philadelphia / by James Pendleton.

  • Pendleton, James.
Date:
1805
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materials for an alphabet to the science of medicine : embracing an inquiry into the nature of the mind and passions ; addressed to the Medical Society of Philadelphia / by James Pendleton. 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.)

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    the pulse may be quickly raised by a stimulus, that would effect no alteration in health. And I may here ask; if indirect debility was attended with a diminution of nervous power, (which is the estab- lished opinion) how can Ave account for this ex- citable state of the system in fever; and how can we explain the truth, that old persons are less liable to fever than the youthful J if we grant that direct debility produces an accumulation of animal or sensorial power? When fever reaches irregular action or ends in disorder, it is the consequence of a prostrated tone, and a morbid increase of animal or nervous influence.... We find that the oppressed pulse which follows a morbid increase of action, cannot be raised by stimuli only for a short time; but if we take the oppression from the vessels by the lancet, the excitement is immediately restored, and the stimu- lus that could produce no change in the pulse, now increases it much. This must not be ascribed (as it universally is) to an increase of the sensorial power, but of the mechanical power or spring. The vessels previous to the abstraction of blood, were as sensible of the operation of stimuli as after- wards, but the pulse could not be raised until the tone was restored by depletion. An increase of sensorial power invariably fol- lows the application of stimuli, and the continua-