Zoonomia Volume I Part 7

For, in the locomotive muscles, in the retina of the eye, and other organs of senses, no pain occurs from the absence of stimulus, nor any great acc.u.mulation of sensorial power beyond their natural quant.i.ty, since these organs have not been used to a perpetual supply of it. There is indeed a greater acc.u.mulation occurs in the organ of vision after its quiescence, because it is subject to more constant stimulus.

4. A certain quant.i.ty of stimulus less than natural induces the moving organ into feebler and more frequent contractions, as mentioned in No. I.

4. of this Section. For each contraction moving through a less s.p.a.ce, or with less force, that is, with less expenditure of the spirit of animation, is sooner relaxed, and the spirit of animation derived at each interval into the acting fibres being less, these intervals likewise become shorter.

Hence the tremours of the hands of people accustomed to vinous spirit, till they take their usual stimulus; hence the quick pulse in fevers attended with debility, which is greater than in fevers attended with strength; in the latter the pulse seldom beats above 120 times in a minute, in the former it frequently exceeds 140.

It must be observed, that in this and the two following articles the decreased action of the system is probably more frequently occasioned by deficiency in the quant.i.ty of sensorial power, than in the quant.i.ty of stimulus. Thus those feeble const.i.tutions which have large pupils of their eyes, and all who labour under nervous fevers, seem to owe their want of natural quant.i.ty of activity in the system to the deficiency of sensorial power; since, as far as can be seen, they frequently possess the natural quant.i.ty of stimulus.

5. A certain quant.i.ty of stimulus, less than that above mentioned, inverts the order of successive fibrous contractions; as in vomiting the vermicular motions of the stomach and duodenum are inverted, and their contents ejected, which is probably owing to the exhaustion of the spirit of animation in the acting muscles by a previous excessive stimulus, as by the root of ipecacuanha, and the consequent defect of sensorial power. The same retrograde motions affect the whole intestinal ca.n.a.l in ileus; and the oesophagus in globus hystericus. See this further explained in Sect. XXIX.

No. 11. on Retrograde Motions.

I must observe, also, that something similar happens in the production of our ideas, or sensual motions, when they are too weakly excited; when any one is thinking intensely about one thing, and carelessly conversing about another, he is liable to use the word of a contrary meaning to that which he designed, as cold weather for hot weather, summer for winter.

6. A certain quant.i.ty of stimulus, less than that above mentioned, is succeeded by paralysis, first of the voluntary and sensitive motions, and afterwards of those of irritation, and of a.s.sociation, which const.i.tutes death.

VI. _Cure of increased Exertion._

1. The cure, which nature has provided for the increased exertion of any part of the system, consists in the consequent expenditure of the sensorial power. But as a greater torpor follows this exhaustion of sensorial power, as explained in the next paragraph, and a greater exertion succeeds this torpor, the const.i.tution frequently sinks under these increasing librations between exertion and quiescence; till at length complete quiescence, that is, death, closes the scene.

For, during the great exertion of the system in the hot fit of fever, an increase of stimulus is produced from the greater momentum of the blood, the greater distention of the heart and arteries, and the increased production of heat, by the violent actions of the system occasioned by this augmentation of stimulus, the sensorial power becomes diminished in a few hours much beneath its natural quant.i.ty, the vessels at length cease to obey even these great degrees of stimulus, as shewn in Sect. XL. 9. 1. and a torpor of the whole or of a part of the system ensues.

Now as this second cold fit commences with a greater deficiency of sensorial power, it is also attended with a greater deficiency of stimulus than in the preceding cold fit, that is, with less momentum of blood, less distention of the heart. On this account the second cold fit becomes more violent and of longer duration than the first; and as a greater acc.u.mulation of sensorial power must be produced before the system of vessels will again obey the diminished stimulus, it follows, that the second hot fit of fever will be more violent than the former one. And that unless some other causes counteract either the violent exertions in the hot fit, or the great torpor in the cold fit, life will at length be extinguished by the expenditure of the whole of the sensorial power. And from hence it appears, that the true means of curing fevers must be such as decrease the action of the system in the hot fit, and increase it in the cold fit; that is, such as prevent the too great diminution of sensorial power in the hot fit, and the too great acc.u.mulation of it in the cold one.

2. Where the exertion of the sensorial powers is much increased, as in the hot fits of fever or inflammation, the following are the usual means of relieving it. Decrease the irritations by blood-letting, and other evacuations; by cold water taken into the stomach, or injected as an enema, or used externally; by cold air breathed into the lungs, and diffused over the skin; with food of less stimulus than the patient has been accustomed to.

3. As a cold fit, or paroxysm of inactivity of some parts of the system, generally precedes the hot fit, or paroxysm of exertion, by which the sensorial power becomes acc.u.mulated, this cold paroxysm should be prevented by stimulant medicines and diet, as wine, opium, bark, warmth, cheerfulness, anger, surprise.

4. Excite into greater action some other part of the system, by which means the spirit of animation may be in part expended, and thence the inordinate actions of the diseased part may be lessened. Hence when a part of the skin acts violently, as of the face in the eruption of the small-pox, if the feet be cold they should be covered. Hence the use of a blister applied near a topical inflammation. Hence opium and warm bath relieve pains both from excess and defect of stimulus.

5. First increase the general stimulation above its natural quant.i.ty, which may in some degree exhaust the spirit of animation, and then decrease the stimulation beneath its natural quant.i.ty. Hence after sudorific medicines and warm air, the application of refrigerants may have greater effect, if they could be administered without danger of producing too great torpor of some part of the system; as frequently happens to people in health from coming out of a warm room into the cold air, by which a topical inflammation in consequence of torpor of the mucous membrane of the nostril is produced, and is termed a cold in the head.

VII. _Cure of decreased Exertion._

1. Where the exertion of the sensorial powers is much decreased, as in the cold fits of fever, a gradual acc.u.mulation of the spirit of animation takes place; as occurs in all cases where inactivity or torpor of a part of the system exists; this acc.u.mulation of sensorial power increases, till stimuli less than natural are sufficient to throw it into action, then the cold fit ceases; and from the action of the natural stimuli a hot one succeeds with increased activity of the whole system.

So in fainting fits, or syncope, there is a temporary deficiency of sensorial exertion, and a consequent quiescence of a great part of the system. This quiescence continues, till the sensorial power becomes again acc.u.mulated in the torpid organs; and then the usual diurnal stimuli excite the revivescent parts again into action; but as this kind of quiescence continues but a short time compared to the cold paroxysm of an ague, and less affects the circulatory system, a less superabundancy of exertion succeeds in the organs previously torpid, and a less excess of arterial activity. See Sect. x.x.xIV. 1. 6.

2. In the diseases occasioned by a defect of sensorial exertion, as in cold fits of ague, hysteric complaint, and nervous fever, the following means are those commonly used. 1. Increase the stimulation above its natural quant.i.ty for some weeks, till a new habit of more energetic contraction of the fibres is established. This is to be done by wine, opium, bark, steel, given at exact periods, and in appropriate quant.i.ties; for if these medicines be given in such quant.i.ty, as to induce the least degree of intoxication, a debility succeeds from the useless exhaustion of spirit of animation in consequence of too great exertion of the muscles or organs of sense. To these irritative stimuli should be added the sensitive ones of cheerful ideas, hope, affection.

3. Change the kinds of stimulus. The habits acquired by the const.i.tution depend on such nice circ.u.mstances, that when one kind of stimulus ceases to excite the sensorial power into the quant.i.ty of exertion necessary to health, it is often sufficient to change the stimulus for another apparently similar in quant.i.ty and quality. Thus when wine ceases to stimulate the const.i.tution, opium in appropriate doses supplies the defect; and the contrary. This is also observed in the effects of cathartic medicines, when one loses its power, another, apparently less efficacious, will succeed. Hence a change of diet, drink, and stimulating medicines, is often advantageous in diseases of debility.

4. Stimulate the organs, whose motions are a.s.sociated with the torpid parts of the system. The actions of the minute vessels of the various parts of the external skin are not only a.s.sociated with each other, but are strongly a.s.sociated with those of some of the internal membranes, and particularly of the stomach. Hence when the exertion of the stomach is less than natural, and indigestion and heartburn succeed, nothing so certainly removes these symptoms as the stimulus of a blister on the back. The coldness of the extremities, as of the nose, ears, or fingers, are hence the best indication for the successful application of blisters.

5. Decrease the stimulus for a time. By lessening the quant.i.ty of heat for a minute or two by going into the cold bath, a great acc.u.mulation of sensorial power is produced; for not only the minute vessels of the whole external skin for a time become inactive, as appears by their paleness; but the minute vessels of the lungs lose much of their activity also by concert with those of the skin, as appears from the difficulty of breathing at first going into cold water. On emerging from the bath the sensorial power is thrown into great exertion by the stimulus of the common degree of the warmth of the atmosphere, and a great production of animal heat is the consequence. The longer a person continues in the cold bath the greater must be the present inertion of a great part of the system, and in consequence a greater acc.u.mulation of sensorial power. Whence M. Pome recommends some melancholy patients to be kept from two to six hours in spring-water, and in baths still colder.

6. Decrease the stimulus for a time below the natural, and then increase it above natural. The effect of this process, improperly used, is seen in giving much food, or applying much warmth, to those who have been previously exposed to great hunger, or to great cold. The acc.u.mulated sensorial power is thrown into so violent exertion, that inflammations and mortifications supervene, and death closes the catastrophe. In many diseases this method is the most successful; hence the bark in agues produces more certain effect after the previous exhibition of emetics. In diseases attended with violent pain, opium has double the effect, if venesection and a cathartic have been previously used. On this seems to have been founded the successful practice of Sydenham, who used venesection and a cathartic in chlorosis before the exhibition of the bark, steel, and opiates.

7. Prevent any unnecessary expenditure of sensorial power. Hence in fevers with debility, a dec.u.mbent posture is preferred, with silence, little light, and such a quant.i.ty of heat as may prevent any chill sensation, or any coldness of the extremities. The pulse of patients in fevers with debility increases in frequency above ten pulsations in a minute on their rising out of bed. For the expenditure of sensorial power to preserve an erect posture of the body adds to the general deficiency of it, and thus affects the circulation.

8. The longer in time and the greater in degree the quiescence or inertion of an organ has been, so that it still retains life or excitability, the less stimulus should at first be applied to it. The quant.i.ty of stimulation is a matter of great nicety to determine, where the torpor or quiescence of the fibres has been experienced in a great degree, or for a considerable time, as in cold fits of the ague, in continued fevers with great debility, or in people famished at sea, or perishing with cold. In the two last cases, very minute quant.i.ties of food should be first supplied, and very few additional degrees of heat. In the two former cases, but little stimulus of wine or medicine, above what they had been lately accustomed to, should be exhibited, and this at frequent and stated intervals, so that the effect of one quant.i.ty may be observed before the exhibition of another.

If these circ.u.mstances are not attended to, as the sensorial power becomes acc.u.mulated in the quiescent fibres, an inordinate exertion takes place by the increase of stimulus acting on the acc.u.mulated quant.i.ty of sensorial power, and either the paralysis, or death of the contractile fibres ensues, from the total expenditure of the sensorial power in the affected organ, owing to this increase of exertion, like the debility after intoxication.

Or, secondly, the violent exertions above mentioned produce painful sensation, which becomes a new stimulus, and by thus producing inflammation, and increasing the activity of the fibres already too great, sooner exhausts the whole of the sensorial power in the acting organ, and mortification, that is, the death of the part, supervenes.

Hence there have been many instances of people, whose limbs have been long benumbed by exposure to cold, who have lost them by mortification on their being too hastily brought to the fire; and of others, who were nearly famished at sea, who have died soon after having taken not more than an usual meal of food. I have heard of two well-attested instances of patients in the cold fit of ague, who have died from the exhibition of gin and vinegar, by the inflammation which ensued. And in many fevers attended with debility, the unlimited use of wine, and the wanton application of blisters, I believe, has destroyed numbers by the debility consequent to too great stimulation, that is, by the exhaustion of the sensorial power by its inordinate exertion.

Wherever the least degree of intoxication exists, a proportional debility is the consequence; but there is a golden rule by which the necessary and useful quant.i.ty of stimulus in fevers with debility may be ascertained.

When wine or beer are exhibited either alone or diluted with water, if the pulse becomes slower the stimulus is of a proper quant.i.ty; and should be repeated every two or three hours, or when the pulse again becomes quicker.

In the chronical debility brought on by drinking spirituous or fermented liquors, there is another golden rule by which I have successfully directed the quant.i.ty of spirit which they may safely lessen, for there is no other means by which they can recover their health. It should be premised, that where the power of digestion in these patients is totally destroyed, there is not much reason to expect a return to healthful vigour.

I have directed several of these patients to omit one fourth part of the quant.i.ty of vinous spirit they have been lately accustomed to, and if in a fortnight their appet.i.te increases, they are advised to omit another fourth part; but if they perceive that their digestion becomes impaired from the want of this quant.i.ty of spirituous potation, they are advised to continue as they are, and rather bear the ills they have, than risk the encounter of greater. At the same time flesh-meat with or without spice is recommended, with Peruvian bark and steel in small quant.i.ties between their meals, and half a grain of opium or a grain, with five or eight grains of rhubarb at night.

SECT. XIII.

OF VEGETABLE ANIMATION.

I. 1. _Vegetables are irritable; mimosa, dionaea muscipula. Vegetable secretions._ 2. _Vegetable buds are inferior animals, are liable to greater or less irritability._ II. _Stamens and pistils of plants shew marks of sensibility._ III. _Vegetables possess some degree of volition._ IV. _Motions of plants are a.s.sociated like those of animals._ V. 1. _Vegetable structure like that of animals, their anthers and stigmas are living creatures. Male-flowers of Vallisneria._ 2. _Whether vegetables, possess ideas? They have organs of sense as of touch and smell, and ideas of external things?_

I. 1. The fibres of the vegetable world, as well as those of the animal, are excitable into a variety of motion by irritations of external objects.

This appears particularly in the mimosa or sensitive plant, whose leaves contract on the slightest injury; the dionaea muscipula, which was lately brought over from the marshes of America, presents us with another curious instance of vegetable irritability; its leaves are armed with spines on their upper edge, and are spread on the ground around the stem; when an insect creeps on any of them in its pa.s.sage to the flower or seed, the leaf shuts up like a steel rat-trap, and destroys its enemy. See Botanic Garden, Part II. note on Silene.

The various secretions of vegetables, as of odour, fruit, gum, resin, wax, honey, seem brought about in the same manner as in the glands of animals; the tasteless moisture of the earth is converted by the hop-plant into a bitter juice; as by the caterpillar in the nut-sh.e.l.l the sweet kernel is converted into a bitter powder. While the power of absorption in the roots and barks of vegetables is excited into action by the fluids applied to their mouths like the lacteals and lymphatics of animals.

2. The individuals of the vegetable world may be considered as inferior or less perfect animals; a tree is a congeries of many living buds, and in this respect resembles the branches of coralline, which are a congeries of a mult.i.tude of animals. Each of these buds of a tree has its proper leaves or petals for lungs, produces its viviparous or its oviparous offspring in buds or seeds; has its own roots, which extending down the stem of the tree are interwoven with the roots of the other buds, and form the bark, which is the only living part of the stem, is annually renewed, and is superinduced upon the former bark, which then dies, and with its stagnated juices gradually hardening into wood forms the concentric circles, which we see in blocks of timber.

The following circ.u.mstances evince the individuality of the buds of trees.

First, there are many trees, whose whole internal wood is perished, and yet the branches are vegete and healthy. Secondly, the fibres of the barks of trees are chiefly longitudinal, resembling roots, as is beautifully seen in those prepared barks, that were lately brought from Otaheita. Thirdly, in horizontal wounds of the bark of trees, the fibres of the upper lip are always elongated downwards like roots, but those of the lower lip do not approach to meet them. Fourthly, if you wrap wet moss round any joint of a vine, or cover it with moist earth, roots will shoot out from it. Fifthly, by the inoculation or engrafting of trees many fruits are produced from one stem. Sixthly, a new tree is produced from a branch plucked from an old one, and set in the ground. Whence it appears that the buds of deciduous trees are so many annual plants, that the bark is a contexture of the roots of each individual bud; and that the internal wood is of no other use but to support them in the air, and that thus they resemble the animal world in their individuality.

The irritability of plants, like that of animals, appears liable to be increased or decreased by habit; for those trees or shrubs, which are brought from a colder climate to a warmer, put out their leaves and blossoms a fortnight sooner than the indigenous ones.

Professor Kalm, in his Travels in New York, observes that the apple-trees brought from England blossom a fortnight sooner than the native ones. In our country the shrubs, that are brought a degree or two from the north, are observed to flourish better than those, which come from the south. The Siberian barley and cabbage are said to grow larger in this climate than the similar more southern vegetables. And our h.o.a.rds of roots, as of potatoes and onions, germinate with less heat in spring, after they have been accustomed to the winter's cold, than in autumn after the summer's heat.

II. The stamens and pistils of flowers shew evident marks of sensibility, not only from many of the stamens and some pistils approaching towards each other at the season of impregnation, but from many of them closing their petals and calyxes during the cold parts of the day. For this cannot be ascribed to irritation, because cold means a defect of the stimulus of heat; but as the want of accustomed stimuli produces pain, as in coldness, hunger, and thirst of animals, these motions of vegetables in closing up their flowers must be ascribed to the disgreeable sensation, and not to the irritation of cold. Others close up their leaves during darkness, which, like the former, cannot be owing to irritation, as the irritating material is withdrawn.

The approach of the anthers in many flowers to the stigmas, and of the pistils of some flowers to the anthers, must be ascribed to the pa.s.sion of love, and hence belongs to sensation, not to irritation.

III. That the vegetable world possesses some degree of voluntary powers, appears from their necessity to sleep, which we have shewn in Sect. XVIII.

to consist in the temporary abolition of voluntary power. This voluntary power seems to be exerted in the circular movement of the tendrils of vines, and other climbing vegetables; or in the efforts to turn the upper surface of their leaves, or their flowers to the light.

IV. The a.s.sociations of fibrous motions are observable in the vegetable world, as well as in the animal. The divisions of the leaves of the sensitive plant have been accustomed to contract at the same time from the absence of light; hence if by any other circ.u.mstance, as a slight stroke or injury, one division is irritated into contraction, the neighbouring ones contract also, from their motions being a.s.sociated with those of the irritated part. So the various stamina of the cla.s.s of syngenesia have been accustomed to contract together in the evening, and thence if you stimulate one of them with a pin, according to the experiment of M. Colvolo, they all contract from their acquired a.s.sociations.

To evince that the collapsing of the sensitive plant is not owing to any mechanical vibrations propagated along the whole branch, when a single leaf is struck with the finger, a leaf of it was slit with sharp scissors, and some seconds of time pa.s.sed before the plant seemed sensible of the injury; and then the whole branch collapsed as far as the princ.i.p.al stem: this experiment was repeated several times with the least possible impulse to the plant.

V. 1. For the numerous circ.u.mstances in which vegetable buds are a.n.a.logous to animals, the reader is referred to the additional notes at the end of the Botanic Garden, Part I. It is there shewn, that the roots of vegetables resemble the lacteal system of animals; the sap-vessels in the early spring, before their leaves expand, are a.n.a.logous to the placental vessels of the foetus; that the leaves of land-plants resemble lungs, and those of aquatic plants the gills of fish; that there are other systems of vessels resembling the vena portarum of quadrupeds, or the aorta of fish; that the digestive power of vegetables is similar to that of animals converting the fluids, which they absorb, into sugar; that their seeds resemble the eggs of animals, and their buds and bulbs their viviparous offspring. And, lastly, that the anthers and stigmas are real animals, attached indeed to their parent tree like polypi or coral insects, but capable of spontaneous motion; that they are affected with the pa.s.sion of love, and furnished with powers of reproducing their species, and are fed with honey like the moths and b.u.t.terflies, which plunder their nectaries. See Botanic Garden, Part I.

add. note x.x.xIX.

The male flowers of vallisneria approach still nearer to apparent animality, as they detach themselves from the parent plant, and float on the surface of the water to the female ones. Botanic Garden, Part II. Art.