Opening the text

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

Name: Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Author: Rush, Benjamin

Rush, Benjamin

Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

8. It has been often said, that "We are once men, and twice children."
In speaking of the state of animal life in infancy, I remarked that the
contractility of the animal fibres predominated over their sensibility
in that stage of life. The same thing takes place in old people, and it
is in consequence of the return of this infantile state of the system,
that all the stimuli which have been mentioned act upon them with much
more force than in middle life. This sameness, in the predominance of
excitability over sensibility in children and old people, will account
for the similarity of their habits with respect to eating, sleep,
exercise, and the use of fermented and distilled liquors. It is from
the increase of excitability in old people, that so small a quantity
of strong drink intoxicates them; and it is from an ignorance of this
change in their constitutions, that many of them become drunkards, after
passing the early and middle stages of life with sober characters.

Life is continued in a less imperfect state in old age in women than
in men. The former sew, and knit, and spin, after they lose the use of
their ears and eyes; whereas the latter, after losing the use of those
senses, frequently pass the evening of their lives in a torpid state
in a chimney corner. It is from the influence of moderate and gently
stimulating employments, upon the female constitution, that more women
live to be old than men, and that they rarely survive their usefulness
in domestic life.

Hitherto the principles I am endeavouring to establish have been applied
to explain the cause of life in its more common forms. Let us next
inquire, how far they will enable us to explain its continuance in
certain morbid states of the body, in which there is a diminution of
some, and an apparent abstraction of all the stimuli, which have been
supposed to produce animal life.

I. We observe some people to be blind, or deaf and dumb from their
birth. The same defects of sight, hearing, and speech, are sometimes
brought on by diseases. Here animal life is deprived of all those
numerous stimuli, which arise from light, colours, sounds, and speech.
But the absence of these stimuli is supplied,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

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

8. It has been often said, that "We are once men, and twice children."
In speaking of the state of animal life in infancy, I remarked that the
contractility of the animal fibres predominated over their sensibility
in that stage of life. The same thing takes place in old people, and it
is in consequence of the return of this infantile state of the system,
that all the stimuli which have been mentioned act upon them with much
more force than in middle life. This sameness, in the predominance of
excitability over sensibility in children and old people, will account
for the similarity of their habits with respect to eating, sleep,
exercise, and the use of fermented and distilled liquors. It is from
the increase of excitability in old people, that so small a quantity
of strong drink intoxicates them; and it is from an ignorance of this
change in their constitutions, that many of them become drunkards, after
passing the early and middle stages of life with sober characters.

Life is continued in a less imperfect state in old age in women than
in men. The former sew, and knit, and spin, after they lose the use of
their ears and eyes; whereas the latter, after losing the use of those
senses, frequently pass the evening of their lives in a torpid state
in a chimney corner. It is from the influence of moderate and gently
stimulating employments, upon the female constitution, that more women
live to be old than men, and that they rarely survive their usefulness
in domestic life.

Hitherto the principles I am endeavouring to establish have been applied
to explain the cause of life in its more common forms. Let us next
inquire, how far they will enable us to explain its continuance in
certain morbid states of the body, in which there is a diminution of
some, and an apparent abstraction of all the stimuli, which have been
supposed to produce animal life.

I. We observe some people to be blind, or deaf and dumb from their
birth. The same defects of sight, hearing, and speech, are sometimes
brought on by diseases. Here animal life is deprived of all those
numerous stimuli, which arise from light, colours, sounds, and speech.
But the absence of these stimuli is supplied,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author

Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author

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