Pathological inquiries ; or an attempt to explain the phenomena of disease and philosophically to direct the methods of cure / [Sir George Smith Gibbes].
- George Smith Gibbes
- Date:
- [1820?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Pathological inquiries ; or an attempt to explain the phenomena of disease and philosophically to direct the methods of cure / [Sir George Smith Gibbes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![etly balance each other ; and the phenomena they exhibit* during our waking and sleeping hours, shew the impor- tance of their connection towards the well-being of the human constitution. All the affections-of the mind, as well as the several changes of action in the stomach, are in a mutual correspondence for the general welfare of the whole frame. When any great nervous assistance is re- quired to forward any important animal function, blood flows towards the head in increased rapidity and quantity,, to give efficacy to the required increase of nervous poweF. Thus, in our ordinary health, this increased nervous ex- citement takes place after our meals, gives us the feelings of satisfaction after we have taken the necesssary supply of food, and, by the support it affords to the nervous power, enables the constitution to complete a digestloa,] which is suitable to the wants of the frame, and for the restoration and reparation of its several organs. If this supply go beyond its required limits, and too much exw citement be called forth, by an over supply of liquors, this excess becomes remedial, and corrects injuries which might otherwise accrue from too repletion. In the one case, the feelings of the mi&d^L# o| ^satisfactory character, in the other, they are painfully excited by sickness and indigestion. r nj R0q ..iM AH the animal functions are inthestrietest eegmec- tipp with the operations of the nerves ; they have ids# a mutual co-operation with each other, and admirably balance eaeh other when they are concerned in producing the phenomena of health. The intellectual functions are also dependant on this balance ; but they betray the most decided state of disturbance, whenever the animal powers are called upon to make any excessive exertion. Old age and accumulated infirmities, were gradually bringing a respected patient towards the close of life! i# whose ease the influence of the bodily functions on those of the intellectual faculties, and those of the minds the functions of the body, was clearly and decidedly de- monstrated. It was evident, that the vital power wa» unequal to the task of keeping up the necessary powers of the animal and intellectual functions. At one time, the symptoms of intellectual failure were exhibited in mut- tering delirium and intellectual delinquency; at another time, large portions of the body were in a state of mortification and decay. The circumstance particularly applicable to the present part of the subject, was the .grass'](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29291689_0112.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
