The management of the bowels in health and disease, physiologically and homœopathically considered / by G. Calvert Holland.

  • Holland, G. C. (George Calvert), 1801-1865.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The management of the bowels in health and disease, physiologically and homœopathically considered / by G. Calvert Holland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    the intestines are loaded with their contents, or that the forced removal of these will he followed hy that relief or feeling of health which is anticipated. The great object in the majority of these cases, should he to coax nature to the performance of her duties hy the mildest and simplest of means, rather than compel hej to act hy vigorous measures. She becomes obstinate in the ratio of the repetition of the demands made upon her, and in fact in the same proportion becomes unequal to respond to them. If it he supposed that purgatives act only on the bowels or affect these organs alone, it is an error which cannot be too soon corrected. Purgatives have no such limited influence. Analyzed in a just physiological spirit, their operation will be found to have a direct relation to all parts of the animal economy. The vital conditions of every fibre of the body is modified by them according to the severity of their action and the delicacy of the constitution. In order to render this intelligible, and tobring itwithin the comprehension of the non- professional reader, we will attempt to explain the nature of the vital changes which take place in the bowels when unaided they effect the expulsion of their contents. It is necessary to understand that all parts of the body are, structurally and hy sympathies, united into one comprehensive whole. No organ is independent of others, nor can one act without influencing, though not always in an appreciable degree, the vital conditions of the rest. They constitute a vast circle, having obvious connexions with particular centres, as the brain and the spinal cord, and every movement or change induced in any portion of this circle modifies to some extent the vital relations of the entire circumference. There is probably no principle in the wide range of physio- logical science so fruitful as this in its striking and multifarious applications to the well being of life. The thorough appre- hension of it opens out a boundless field of enquiry. It throws light on the origin of disease, whatever be its character.