Rest and pain : a course of lectures on the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain / by the late John Hilton ; edited by W.H.A. Jacobson.

  • John Hilton
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Rest and pain : a course of lectures on the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain / by the late John Hilton ; edited by W.H.A. Jacobson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tions in its structures, which post-mortem examinations daily reveal. The liver, unduly stimulated by excessive potations, by an unnecessary amount of food, or by habitual irregularity of diet (its physiological harmony with the other organs of digestion being thus constantly disturbed), glides into disorganization for the same reason. The kidney, too, if its functions be disturbed by the abuse ef alcholic drinks, which entails an unnatural and continued stress either upon its Malpighian or tubular portion, obeys the same tendency to structural decay as a consequence of its loss of due rest.* It is, I believe, an admitted physiological axiom, that each structure or organ, whilst actively employed, is in a state of vascular excitement or turgescence, and therefore enlarged during that time. So it is noticeable that each organ of the body, which is liable to the rapid supervention of activity in its proper function, is so placed in relation to surrounding structures as to permit of temporary enlargement during the persist- ence of that activity. When it returns to its state of rest, or period of self-reparation, it may be said to have resumed its normal or standard dimensions. Secreting organs, in some of which vascular turgescence is extreme and prolonged, are relieved of their excessive congestion by their tubular outlets. The elasticity of the * Dr. Milner Fothergill (The Practitioner’s Handbook, p. 388) has pointed out another fertile source of disturbed rest in the case of the kidney, and how to mitigate it. “ This knowledge [that urea is largely derived from the splitting up of albuminous material in the liver, as well as from disintegrating tissues] has enabled us to relieve impaired kidneys by diminishing the amount of work they have to do. A large amount of the nitrogenized food we take is unnecessary, and is not required for tissue building; a comparatively small amount only of nitrogenized matter daily is sufficient for that purpose. We take it because we like this form of food, and because the siimulating properties of nitrogenized substances render them agreeable. The energy of the meat-fed man as compared with the vegetable eater is distinct and marked, but gout and other troubles are the inseparable alloy. There is a Nemesis behind the force-manifesting animal food. The* presence of large quantities of waste nitrogen in the blood maintains the kidneys in a state of high functional activity, and the hyperjemia of active function leads in time to the production of connective tissue in excess. Such is the origin of many cases of chronic renal disease; such indeed is the natural history of interstitial nephritis, of the contracting, granular, cirrhotic, or gouty kiduey.”—[Ed.]
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