Zoonomia Volume Ii Part 43

ORDO I.

_Increased a.s.sociate Motions._

GENUS IV.

_Catenated with External Influences._

SPECIES.

1. _Vita ovi._ Life of an egg. The eggs of fowls were shewn by Mr. J.

Hunter to resist the freezing process in their living state more powerfully, than when they were killed by having the yolk and white shook together. Philos. Trans. It may be asked, does the heat during the incubation of eggs act as a stimulus exciting the living principle into activity? Or does it act simply as a causa sine qua non, as an influence, which penetrating the ma.s.s, removes the particles of it to a greater distance from each other, so as to allow their movement over each other, in the same manner as heat is conceived to produce the fluidity of water; not by stimulus, but by its penetrating influence? Or may elementary heat in its uncombined state be supposed to act only as an influence necessary to life in its natural quant.i.ty; whence torpor and death follows the eduction of it from the body; but in its increased state above what is natural, or usual, that it acts as a stimulus; which we have a sense to perceive; and which excites many parts of the system into unnatural action? See Cla.s.s IV.

1. 1. C.

2. _Vita hiemi-dormientium._ The torpor of insects, and birds, and quadrupeds, during the cold season, has been called sleep; but I suppose it must differ very much from that state of animal life, since not only all voluntary power is suspended, but sensation and vascular motion has ceased, and can only be restored by the influence of heat. There have been related instances of snails, which have recovered life and motion on being put into water after having experienced many years of torpidity, or apparent death, in the cabinets of the curious. Here the water as well as the heat are required not only as a stimulus, but as a causa sine qua non of fluidity and motion, and consequent life.

3. _Pullulatio arborum._ The annual revivescence of the buds of trees seems not only to be owing to the influence of the returning warmth of the spring, but also to be catenated with solar gravitation; because seeds and roots and buds, which are a.n.a.logous to the eggs of animals, put forth their shoots by a less quant.i.ty of heat in spring, than they had undergone in the latter part of autumn, which may however be ascribed to their previous torpid state, and consequent acc.u.mulation of sensorial power, or irritability; as explained in Botanic Garden, Part II. Cant. I. l. 322.

note. Other circ.u.mstances, which countenance the idea, that vegetation is affected by solar gravitation, as well as by heat, may be observed in the ripening of the seeds of plants both in those countries where the summers are short, and in those where they are long. And by some flowers closing their bells at noon, or soon after; and hence seem to sleep rather at solar diurnal periods, than from the influence of cold, or the deficiency of light.

4. _o.r.g.a.s.matis venerei periodus._ The venereal o.r.g.a.s.m of birds and quadrupeds commences or returns about the vernal or autumnal equinoxes, and thence seems in respect to their great periods to be governed by solar influence. But if this o.r.g.a.s.m be disappointed of its object, it is said to recur at about monthly periods, as observed in mares and b.i.t.c.hes in this respect resembling the female catamenia. See Sect. x.x.xVI. 2. 3. and Sect.

XVI. 13.

5. _Brachii concussio electrica._ The movement of the arm, even of a paralytic patient, when an electric shock is pa.s.sed through it, is owing to the stimulus of the excess of electricity. When a piece of zinc and silver, each about the size of a crown-piece, are placed one under the upper lip, and the other on the tongue, so as the outer edges may be brought into contact, there is an appearance of light in the eyes, as often as the outer edges of these metals are brought into contact or separated; which is another instance of the stimulus of the pa.s.sage of electric shocks through the fibres of the organs of sense, as well as through the muscular fibres.

See Sect. XII. 1. 1. and first addit. note to Vol. I. of this work. But in its natural state electricity seems only to act as an influence on animal and vegetable bodies; of the salutary or injurious effects of which we have yet no precise knowledge.

Yet if regular journals were kept of the variations of atmospheric electricity, it is probable some discoveries of its influence on our system might in time be discovered. For this purpose a machine on the principle of Mr. Bennet's electric doubler might be applied to the pendulum of a clock, so as to manifest, and even to record the daily or hourly variations of aerial electricity. Which has already been executed, and applied to the pendulum of a Dutch wooden clock, by Mr. Bennet, curate of Wirksworth in Derbys.h.i.+re.

Besides the variations of the degree or kind of atmospheric electricity, some animals, and some men, seem to possess a greater power of acc.u.mulating this fluid in themselves than others. Of which a famous history of a Russian prince was lately published; who, during the clear and severe frosts of that country, could not move himself in bed without luminous corruscations. Such may have been the case of those people, who have been related to have taken fire spontaneously, and to have been reduced to ashes. The electric concussion from the gymnotus electricus, and torpedo, are other instances of the power of the animal system to acc.u.mulate electricity, as in these it is used as a weapon of defence, or for the purpose of taking their prey.

Some have believed that the acc.u.mulation or pa.s.sage of the magnetic fluid might affect the animal system, and have a.s.serted that the application of a large magnet to an aching tooth has quickly effected a cure. If this experiment is again tried in odontalgia, or hemicrania, the painful membrane of the tooth or head should be included between the south and north poles of a horse-shoe magnet, or between the contrary poles of two different magnets, that the magnetism may be acc.u.mulated on the torpid part.

6. _Oxygenatio sanguinis._ The variation of the quant.i.ty of oxygen gas existing in the atmosphere must affect all breathing animals; in its excess this too must be esteemed a stimulus; but in its natural quant.i.ty would seem to act as an influence, or cause, without which, animal life cannot exist even a minute. It is hoped that Dr. Beddoes's plan for a pneumatic infirmary, for the purpose of putting this and various other airs to the test of experiment, will meet with public encouragement, and render consumption, asthma, cancer, and many diseases conquerable, which at present prey with unremitted devastation on all orders and ages of mankind.

7. _Humectatio corporis._ Water, and probably the vapour of water dissolved or diffused in the atmosphere, unites by mechanical attraction with the unorganized cuticle, and softens and enlarges it; as may be seen in the loose and wrinkled skin of the hands of washerwomen; the same probably occurs to the mucous membrane of the lungs in moist weather; and by thickening it increases the difficulty of respiration of some people, who are said to be asthmatical. So far water may be said to act as an influx or influence, but when it is taken up by the mouths of the absorbent system, it must excite those mouths into action, and then acts as a stimulus.

There appears from hence to be four methods by which animal bodies are penetrated by external things. 1. By their stimulus, which induces the absorbent vessels to imbibe them. 2. By mechanical attraction, as when water softens the cuticle. 3. By chemical attraction, as when oxygen pa.s.ses through the membranes of the air-vessels of the lungs, and combines with the blood. And lastly, by influx without mechanical attraction, chemical combination, or animal absorption, as the universal fluids of heat, gravitation, electricity, magnetism, and perhaps of other ethereal fluids yet unknown.

ORDO II.

_Decreased a.s.sociate Motions._

GENUS I.

_Catenated with Irritative Motions._

As irritative muscular motions are attended with pain, when they are exerted too weakly, as well as when they are exerted too strongly; so irritative ideas become attended with sensation, when they are exerted too weakly, as well as when they are exerted too strongly. Which accounts for these ideas being attended with sensation in the various kinds of vertigo described below.

There is great difficulty in tracing the immediate cause of the deficiences of action of some links of the a.s.sociations of irritative motions; first, because the trains and tribes of motions, which compose these links, are so widely extended as to embrace almost the whole animal system; and secondly, because when the first link of an a.s.sociated train of actions is exerted with too great energy, the second link by reverse sympathy may be affected with torpor. And then this second link may transmit, as it were, this torpor to a third link, and at the same time regain its own energy of action; and it is possible this third link may in like manner transmit its torpor to a fourth, and thus regain its own natural quant.i.ty of motion.

I shall endeavour to explain this by an example taken from sensitive a.s.sociated motions, as the origin of their disturbed actions is more easily detected. This morning I saw an elderly person, who had gradually lost all the teeth in his upper jaw, and all of the under except three of the molares; the last of these was now loose, and occasionally painful; the fangs of which were almost naked, the gums being much wasted both within and without the jaw. He is a man of attentive observation, and a.s.sured me, that he had again and again noticed, that, when a pain commenced in the membranes of the alveolar process of the upper jaw opposite to the loose tooth in the under one (which had frequently occurred for several days past), the pain of the loose tooth ceased. And that, when the pain afterwards extended to the ear and temple on that side, the pain in the membranes of the upper jaw ceased. In this case the membranes of the alveolar process of the upper jaw became torpid, and consequently painful, by their reverse sympathy with the too violent actions of the inflamed membranes of the loose tooth; and then by a secondary sympathy the membranes about the ear and temple became torpid, and painful; and those of the alveolar process of the upper jaw regained their natural quant.i.ty of action, and ceased to be painful. A great many more nice and attentive observations are wanted to elucidate these curious circ.u.mstances of a.s.sociation, which will be found to be of the greatest importance in the cure of many diseases, and lead us to the knowledge of fever.

SPECIES.

1. _Cutis frigida pransorum._ Chillness after dinner frequently attends weak people, or those who have been exhausted by exercise; it arises from the great expenditure of the sensorial power on the organs of digestion, which are stimulated into violent action by the aliment; and the vessels of the skin, which are a.s.sociated with them, become in some measure torpid by reverse sympathy; and a consequent chillness succeeds with less absorption of atmospheric moisture. See the subsequent article.

2. _Pallor urinae pransorum._ The paleness of urine after a full meal is an instance of reverse a.s.sociation; where the secondary part of a train of a.s.sociate motions acts with less energy in consequence of the greater exertions of the primary part. After dinner the absorbent vessels of the stomach and intestines are stimulated into greater action, and drink up the newly taken aliment; while those, which are spread in great number on the neck of the bladder, absorb less of the aqueous part of the urine than usual, which is therefore discharged in a more dilute state; and has been termed crude by some medical writers, but it only indicates, that so great a proportion of the sensorial power is expended on digestion and absorption of the aliment, that other parts of the system act for a time with less energy. See Cla.s.s IV. I. 1. 6.

3. _Pallor urinae a frigore cutaneo._ There is a temporary discharge of pale water, and a diarrhoea, induced by exposing the skin to the cold air; as is experienced by boys, who strip themselves before bathing. In this case the mouths of the cutaneous lymphatics become torpid by the subduction of their accustomed degree of heat, and those of the bladder and intestines become torpid by direct sympathy; whence less of the thinner part of the urinary secretion, and of the mucus of the intestines, is reabsorbed. See Sect.

XXIX. 4. 6. This effect of suddenly cooling the skin by the aspersion of cold water has been used with success in costiveness, and has produced evacuations, when other means have failed. When young infants are afflicted with griping joined with costiveness, I have sometimes directed them to be taken out of a warm bed, and carried about for a few minutes in a cool room, with almost instant relief.

4. _Pallor ex aegritudine._ When sickness of stomach first occurs, a paleness of the skin attends it; which is owing to the a.s.sociation or catenation between the capillaries of the stomach and the cutaneous ones; which at first act by direct sympathy. But in a short time there commences an acc.u.mulation of the sensorial power of a.s.sociation in the cutaneous capillaries during their state of inactivity, and then the skin begins to glow, and sweats break out, from the increased action of the cutaneous glands or capillaries, which is now in reverse sympathy with those of the stomach. So in continued fevers, when the stomach is totally torpid, which is known by the total aversion to solid food, the cutaneous capillaries are by reverse sympathy in a perpetual state of increased activity, as appears from the heat of the skin.

5. _Dyspnoea a balneo frigido._ The difficulty of breathing on going up to the middle in cold water is owing to the irritative a.s.sociation or catenation of the action of the extreme vessels of the lungs with those of the skin. So that when the latter are rendered torpid or inactive by the application of sudden cold, the former become inactive at the same time, and r.e.t.a.r.d the circulation of the blood through the lungs, for this difficulty of breathing cannot be owing to the pressure of the water impeding the circulation downwards, as it happens equally by a cold shower-bath, and is soon conquered by habitual immersions. The capillaries of the skin are rendered torpid by the subduction of the stimulus of heat, and by the consequent diminution of the sensorial power of irritation. The capillaries of the lungs are rendered torpid by the diminution of the sensorial power of a.s.sociation, which is now excited in less quant.i.ty by the lessened actions of the capillaries of the skin, with which they are catenated. So that at this time both the cutaneous and pulmonary capillaries are princ.i.p.ally actuated, as far as they have any action, by the stimulus of the blood. But in a short time the sensorial powers of irritation, and of a.s.sociation, become acc.u.mulated, and very energetic action of both these membranes succeed. Which thus resemble the cold and hot fit of an intermittent fever.

6. _Dyspepsia a pedibus frigidis._ When the feet are long cold, as in riding in cold and wet weather, some people are very liable to indigestion and consequent heart-burn. The irritative motions of the stomach become torpid, and do their office of digestion imperfectly, in consequence of their a.s.sociation with the torpid motions of the vessels of the extremities. Fear, as it produces paleness and torpidity of the skin, frequently occasions temporary indigestion in consequence of this a.s.sociation of the vessels of the skin with those of the stomach; as riding in very bad roads will give flatulency and indigestion to timorous people.

A short exposure to cold air increases digestion, which is then owing to the reverse sympathy between the capillary vessels of the skin, and of the stomach. Hence when the body is exposed to cold air, within certain limits of time and quant.i.ty of cold, a reverse sympathy of the stomach and the skin first occurs, and afterwards a direct sympathy. In the former case the expenditure of sensorial power by the skin being lessened, but not its production in the brain; the second link of the a.s.sociation, viz. the stomach, acquires a greater share of it. In the latter case, by the continuation of the deficient stimulus of heat, the torpor becomes extended to the brain itself, or to the trunks of the nerves; and universal inactivity follows.

7. _Tussis a pedibus frigidis._ On standing with the feet in thawing snow, many people are liable to incessant coughing. From the torpidity of the absorbent vessels of the lungs, in consequence of their irritative a.s.sociations with those of the skin, they cease to absorb the saline part of the secreted mucus; and a cough is thus induced by the irritation of this saline secretion; which is similar to that from the nostrils in frosty weather, but differs in respect to its immediate cause; the former being from a.s.sociation with a distant part, and the latter from defect of the stimulus of heat on the nostrils themselves. See Catarrhus frigidus, Cla.s.s I. 2. 3. 3.

8. _Tussis hepatica._ The cough of inebriates, which attends the enlargement of the liver, or a chronical inflammation of its upper membrane, is supposed to be produced by the inconvenience the diaphragm suffers from the compression or heat of the liver. It differs however essentially from that attending hepat.i.tis, from its not being accompanied with fever. And is perhaps rather owing to irritative a.s.sociation, or reverse sympathy, between the lungs and the liver. As occurs in sheep, which are liable to a perpetual dry cough, when the fleuk-worm is preying on the substance of their livers. See Cla.s.s II. 1. 1. 5.

M. M. From half a grain to a grain of opium twice a day. A drachm of mercurial ointment rubbed on the region of the liver every night for eight or ten times.

9. _Tussis arthritica._ Gout-cough. I have seen a cough, which twice recurred at a few years distance in the same person, during his fits of the gout, with such pertinacity and violence as to resist venesection, opiates, bark, blisters, mucilages, and all the usual methods employed in coughs. It was for a time supposed to be the hooping-cough, from the violence of the action of coughing; it continued two or three weeks, the patient never being able to sleep more than a few minutes at once during the whole time, and being propped up in bed with pillows night and day.

As no fever attended this violent cough, and but little expectoration, and that of a thin and frothy kind, I suspected the membrane of the lungs to be rather torpid than inflamed, and that the saline part of the mucus not being absorbed stimulated them into perpetual exertion. And lastly, that though the lungs are not sensible to cold and heat, and probably therefore less mobile; yet, as they are nevertheless liable to consent with the torpor of cold feet, as described in Species 6 of this Genus, I suspected this torpor of the lungs to succeed the gout in the feet, or to act a vicarious part for them.

10. _Vertigo rotatoria._ In the vertigo from circ.u.mgyration the irritative motions of vision are increased; which is evinced from the pleasure that children receive on being rocked in a cradle, or by swinging on a rope. For whenever sensation arises from the production of irritative motion with less energy than natural, it is of the disagreeable kind, as from cold or hunger; but when it arises from their production with greater energy than natural, if it be confined within certain limits, it is of the pleasurable kind, as by warmth or wine. With these increased irritative motions of vision, I suppose those of the stomach are performed with greater energy by direct sympathy; but when the rotatory motions, which produce this agreeable vertigo, are continued too long, or are too violent, sickness of the stomach follows; which is owing to the decreased action of that organ from its reverse sympathy with the increased actions of the organ of vision. For the expenditure of sensorial power by the organ of vision is always very great, as appears by the size of the optic nerves; and is now so much increased as to deprive the next link of a.s.sociation of its due share. As mentioned in Article 6 of this Genus.

In the same manner the undulations of water, or the motions of a s.h.i.+p, at first give pleasure by increasing the irritative motions belonging to the sense of vision; but produce sickness at length by expending on one part of the a.s.sociated train of irritative actions too much of that sensorial power, which usually served the whole of it; whence some other parts of the train acquire too little of it, and perform their actions in consequence too feebly, and thence become attended with disagreeable sensation.

It must also be observed, that when the irritative motions are stimulated into unusual action, as in inebriation, they become succeeded by sensation, either of the pleasurable or painful kind; and thus a new link is introduced between the irritative motions thus excited, and those which used to succeed them; whence the a.s.sociation is either dissevered or much weakened, and thus the vomiting in sea-sickness occurs from the defect of the power of a.s.sociation, rather than from the general deficiency of sensorial power.

When a blind man turns round, or when one, who is not blind, revolves in the dark, a vertigo is produced belonging to the sense of touch. A blind man balances himself by the sense of touch, which being a less perfect means of determining small quant.i.ties of deviation from the perpendicular, occasions him to walk more carefully upright than those, who balance themselves by vision. When he revolves, the irritative a.s.sociations of the muscular motions, which were used to preserve his perpendicularity, become disordered by their new modes of successive exertion; and he begins to fall. For his feet now touch the floor in manners or directions different from those they have been accustomed to; and in consequence he judges less perfectly of the situation of the parts of the floor in respect to that of his own body, and thus loses his perpendicular att.i.tude. This may be ill.u.s.trated by the curious experiment of crossing one finger over the next to it, and feeling of a nut or bullet with the ends of them. When, if the eyes be closed, the nut or bullet appears to be two, from the deception of the sense of touch.

In this vertigo from gyration, both of the sense of sight, and of the sense of touch, the primary link of the a.s.sociated irritative motions is increased in energy, and the secondary ones are increased at first by direct sympathy; but after a time they become decreased by reverse sympathy with the primary link, owing to the exhaustion of sensorial power in general, or to the power of a.s.sociation in particular; because in the last case, either pleasurable or painful sensation has been introduced between the links of a train of irritative motions, and has dissevered, or much enfeebled them.

Dr. Smyth, in his Essay on Swinging in Pulmonary Consumption, has observed, that swinging makes the pulse slower. Dr. Ewart of Bath confirmed this observation both on himself and on Col. Cathcart, who was then hectic, and that even on s.h.i.+pboard, where some degree of vertigo might be supposed previously to exist. Dr. Currie of Liverpool not only confirmed this observation frequently on himself, when he was also phthisical, but found that equitation had a similar effect on him, uniformly r.e.t.a.r.ding his pulse.

This curious circ.u.mstance cannot arise from the general effect of exercise, or fatigue, as in those cases the pulse becomes weaker and quicker; it must therefore be ascribed to a degree of vertigo, which attends all those modes of motion, which we are not perpetually accustomed to.

Dr. Currie has further observed, that "in cases of great debility the voluntary muscular exertion requisite in a swing produces weariness, that is, increases debility; and that in such instances he had frequently noticed, that the diminution of the frequency of the pulse did not take place, but the contrary." These circ.u.mstances may thus be accounted for.

The links of a.s.sociation, which are effected in the vertigo occasioned by unusual motion, are the irritative motions of the sense of vision, those of the stomach, and those of the heart and arteries. When the irritative ideas of vision are exerted with greater energy at the beginning of vertigo, a degree of sensation is excited, which is of the pleasurable kind, as above mentioned; whence the a.s.sociated trains of irritative motions of the stomach, and heart, and arteries, act at first with greater energy, both by direct sympathy; and by the additional sensorial power of sensation. Whence the pulse of a consumptive patient becomes stronger and consequently slower.

But if this vertigo becomes much greater in degree or duration, the first link of this train of a.s.sociated irritative motions expends too much of the sensorial power, which was usually employed on the whole train; and the motions of the stomach become in consequence exerted with less energy. This appears, because in this degree of vertigo sickness supervenes, as in sea-sickness, which has been shewn to be owing to less energetic action of the stomach. And the motions of the heart and arteries then become weaker, and in consequence more frequent, by their direct sympathy with the lessened actions of the stomach. See Supplement, I. 12. and Cla.s.s II. 1. 6.

7. The general weakness from fatigue is owing to a similar cause, that is, to the too great expenditure of sensorial power in the increased actions of one part of the system, and the consequent deficiency of it in other parts, or in the whole.