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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    Quitting this digression regarding the surface anatomy of the lungs, I would observe, that if the views which I have advanced in relation to Nature’s expedients to pro- cure mechanical rest he true in their anatomy and sound in their physiology, as applied to the thoracic and abdo* minal viscera, they must also he true of the hrain. This suggests the intention of the interstices between the con- volutions and other sinuosities and spaces on the surface of the cerebrum, and assigns a probable reason for the existence and position of the ventricles of the brain. One of the purposes of the lateral ventricles is to allow room for the accumulation of venous blood in the plexus choroides during a state of general cerebral congestion, as in sustained inspiration. The cerebro-spinal fluid within the ventricle supports the blood-vessels, and so prevents their rupture. Mr. Quekett tells me that any attempt to inject the plexus choroides, except in a liquid medium, isv eure to cause rupture of the blood-vessels. In order to point out the parallelism, in this respect^ between the mechanical appliances made use of in the cerebral circulation, and the like influence in the capsular organs within the chest and abdomen, let us consider the relation of some of the deep, enclosed, and internal parts of the brain. For instance, the corpus striatum and thalamus opticus. after the wreck of its other property, as its guardian in the undivided,, undifferentiated temporo-orbital fossa. “ Thirdly, where matter that would otherwise be wholly refuse, andi to he rejected, can be utilised, there Nature exemplifies this law by her utilisation of waste substances. The transverse colon, with its various, contents, aids and ekes out the elastic recoil of the lungs in expira- tion ; and by its near approximation to the stomach, has, as Duverney long ago pointed out, the shock of the ingestion of fresh food propa- gated directly to it as a warning against sluggishness in the discharge of its own function.” I have appended the above words of my old teacher, that any student after reading them may be enabled to think of numerous instances by which Nature gives rest to or lightens the labour of her structures or organs. Thus the ilio-tibial band which saves so much work to the muscles which maintain the erect position, and the arrangement in the kidney by which the watery part of the urine is formed above, and is thus enabled to scour down the solids so as to save the need of any special apparatus for carrying off the latter, will readily occur as examples of Prof. Rolleston’s second and third divisions.—[Ed.] 0
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