Sleep in its relations to diseases of the skin / by L. Duncan Bulkley.

  • Lucius Duncan Bulkley
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sleep in its relations to diseases of the skin / by L. Duncan Bulkley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    11/24 (page 7)
    3. Means of Removing Disturbances of Sleep in Connection with Diseases of the Skin.—To liglitly understand and apply the correct jirinciplcs and measures of treatment with success, that is, in the generality of cases, it is necessaiy, first, to keep well in mind the nature of physio- logical sleep, and the causes which disturb it, as already al- luded to ; and second, to study the individual case, in refer- ence to the existing conditions antagonistic to sleep. Rou- tine prescribing may occasionally give relief, but far oftener does harm. A vast weight of responsibility rests on those who in times past and ])roscnt have vaunted this or that new soporific, which has too often been employed with but little thought, except to heed the enticing claims put forth by those who manufacture and push it for commercial pui'poses. Sleep is, always has been, and probably alwaj's will be, a great mystery. While we undoubtedly know considerable in regard to the conditions of the brain during sleep, and the experiments and observations of many prove very conclu- sively that the brain is in a condition of ansemia during sleep, it is not known whether that anjemia is a primary condition, or whether it is secondary to changes in the brain cells, in- duced b)'' a periodic exhaustion of intra-ganglionic energy. Fortunately, however, it is not necessary practically to fully understand the exact order of precedence of the causa- tive eleraentB of sleep; for we do know positively that agen- cies can cause insomnia which operate in either of two direc- tions, namely, by furnishing stimulus to the nerve cells, reflex or otherwise, or by causing excitement to the cerebral circulation. A most interesting experiment by Chapin, cited by Long Fox, ^ demonstrates tlie latter perfectly. He applied amyl nitrite, which promotes the circulation of the brain, very carefully to the nostrils of a number of patieuts who were sound asleep, and in every case they awoke promptly; this was rc])eated on several evenings on different patients with a unifonu result. As a counter experiment he applied bisulph- ide of carbon and oil of peppemiint to other patients, not a third of whom were roused; showing that the results were from the action of the amyl nitrite on the circulation, and 1 Long Fox: The Influence of the Sympathetic on Di.sease, p. 217. London, 1885.