Health and disease, their laws : with plain, practical prescriptions for the people / [Benjamin Ridge].

  • Ridge, Benjamin
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health and disease, their laws : with plain, practical prescriptions for the people / [Benjamin Ridge]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    104/666 (page 74)
    subject than any other to a variety of changes, both of cha- racter and appearance. Thirdly, the small pair of muscles flanking those last men- tioned, and constituting the edges, but which do not extend down to the tip, inasmuch as they terminate about a fourth part of the tongue’s length from it, I have found to indicate health or disease in the brain; the white, clean, furred, or red aspects of these parts of the tongue indicating the different conditions of that most important organ of the human system. I shall hereafter, too, have occasion to show that the brain is less subject to disease than any other part of the body, except- ing the large intestines. Lastly, just at the termination of the muscles forming the edges, and between them and the tip, there is a space on each side about as large as the tip ; and these I have found to indi- cate the state of the kidneys. These parts, when there is disease of the corresponding organs, often present very peculiar appearances. Thus, when the kidneys are very much enlarged and congested, the fur is very distinct upon the pile, and has a bead-like appearance; whereas, when those organs are in inflam- matory action, they usually look red, bare, or chapped. A tabular representation of the above facts, as far as we have gone, will perhaps make them clearer to the reader’s apprehen- sion. As respects the divisions of the tongue, then, The posterior third of the tongue—from) . ,, ^ ., , , „ . , , >■ is -] The Moving Portion. the back or thick part, 3 c The front, or anterior two-thirds of the) . m , r is 4 The Tasting Portion. tongue, ) ( The papillae on the moving portion are cup-and-ball follicles for the secretion of fluid to keep up the necessary moisture at this part of the mouth: while those on the front portion are a cup-and-ball apparatus constituting the faculty of taste,—the cup being neither more nor less than a bed of well-protected nerves, the ball simply the termination of an artery through it. Next, as regards the various subdivisions or sections, and their allocation to the different internal organs of the system: