Ourselves, our food, and our physic / by Benjamin Ridge.

  • Ridge, Benjamin.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ourselves, our food, and our physic / by Benjamin Ridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/220 (page 24)
    sation and feeling in connection with this class of nerves, combined with those of motion, make up the grand total of all the phenomena we witness. The retention of sensational action in tho great trunks of nerves from a munber of remote ones, is often beautifully illustrated after the amputation of a foot or hand, by their feeling tho apparent currents from those lost members. As the nerves are obliged to be well nourished, they are surrounded everywhere by their o\vn net- work of blood-vessels. Whether it is from the space in which these move, certain it is that paids of tho body, in dis- turbed conditions of the blood, suffer more than others. Con- gestive, as well as inflammatory conditions of tho serous membranes, appear to suffer a greater Intensity of pain than the mucous membranes. Thus tho ball or globe of the eye will suffer more from either of these states than the white of tho eye. The external covering of the lung, as in pletmisy, wiU produce more pain than in bronchitis, which is inflam- mation of the mucous membrane lining tho limgs. So also with the external covering of tho intestines in comparison with the internal coat; the inner membranes of joints, or those covering tho muscles, in comparison with the external skin. I have often seen the mucous membrane of tho large intestines highly ulcerated, a state that has existed some time, and then terminating tho life of the patient suddenly : yet scarcely any pain has been felt by the patient, or any tender- ness experienced on pressiu’e of the abdomen when alive. If tho serous or cxtcmal membrane of tho bowels be inflamed, even to a limited extent, tho pain is not only intense, but external pressure not to be endured. All this is the result of what is called nerve force, and to be explained by the course and distribution of these wonderful bdegraphic wires, and according to their positive and negative powers and capa- bilities of being acted on. Thus it is seen that any action occumng contrary to the true condition of health is conveyed and reflexed through tho nervous system, or electric telegraph of tho body. Any wound, blow, bruise, or concussion pro- duced extcmally does the same ; and lastly, that as the brain is the seat of thought, instinct, and reason, every effect arising from these, whether generated from within or impressed upon them from wuthout, excites certain actions and sympathies tlu'ough tho whole nervous chords, positively as well as nega-