Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
Science
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
6. Exercise acts as a stimulus upon the body in various ways. Its first
impression is upon the muscles. These act upon the blood-vessels, and
they upon the nerves and brain. The necessity of exercise to animal life
is indicated, by its being kindly imposed upon man in paradise. The
change which the human body underwent by the fall, rendered the same
salutary stimulus necessary to its life, in the more active form of
labour. But we are not to suppose, that motion is excited in the body by
exercise or labour alone. It is constantly stimulated by the positions
of standing, sitting, and lying upon the sides; all of which act more or
less upon muscular fibres, and by their means, upon every part of the
system.
7. The pleasures we derive from our senses have a powerful and extensive
influence upon human life. The number of these pleasures, and their
proximate cause, will form an agreeable subject for two or three future
lectures.
We proceed next to consider the internal stimuli which produce animal
life. These are
I. FOOD. This acts in the following ways. 1. Upon the tongue. Such are
the sensibility and excitability of this organ, and so intimate is its
connection with every other part of the body, that the whole system is
invigorated by aliment, as soon as it comes in contact with it. 2. By
mastication. This moves a number of muscles and blood-vessels situated
near the brain and heart, and of course imparts impressions to them.
3. By deglutition, which acts upon similar parts, and with the same
effect. 4. By its presence in the stomach, in which it acts by its
quantity and quality. Food, by distending the stomach, stimulates the
contiguous parts of the body. A moderate degree of distention of the
stomach and bowels is essential to a healthy excitement of the system.
Vegetable aliment and drinks, which contain less nourishment than animal
food, serve this purpose in the human body. Hay acts in the same manner
in a horse. Sixteen pounds of this light food in a day are necessary
to keep up such a degree of distension in the stomach and bowels of
this animal, as to impart to him his natural grade of strength and
life. The _quality_ of food, when of a stimulating nature, supplies
the place of its distension from its quantity. A single onion will
support a lounging highlander on the hills of Scotland for four and
twenty hours. A moderate quantity of salted meat, or a few ounces of
sugar, have supplied the place of pounds of less stimulating food. Even
indigestible substances, which remain for days, or perhaps weeks in the
stomach, exert a stimulus there which has an influence upon animal life.
It is in this way the tops of briars, and the twigs of trees, devoid
not only of nourishing matter, but of juices, support the camel in his
journies through the deserts of the eastern countries. Chips of cedar
posts moistened with water have supported horses for two or three weeks,
during a long voyage from Boston to Surinam; and the indigestible cover
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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