Human physiology, with which is incorporated much of the elementary part of the Institutiones physiologicae of J.F. Blumenbach.

  • Elliotson, John, 1791-1868.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Human physiology, with which is incorporated much of the elementary part of the Institutiones physiologicae of J.F. Blumenbach. 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.

    93/1220 (page 87)
    The stomach has been called the grand centre of sympathy. Its sympathies are great, but there is no reason for considering it the centre of sympathy. Blows upon the head or testicle, and diseases of the kidney and uterus, nay, the mere pregnant state of the latter, severe pain in any part, or a disgusting sight, will often cause vomiting. Any depressing passion deranges the stomach, but anxiety is a common source of stomach complaints, although the stomach generally bears the whole blame, and is in vain drugged and dieted, or want of exercise or great mental occupation is regarded as the cause, while the anxiety is overlooked. Pleasurable mental exertion, constant occupation without care, must be very excessive to injure the stomach. The stomach itself, except as far as its inner surface is very extensive and sen- sible and therefore highly adapted for the influence of ingesta, appears, on the whole, to affect other organs, by mere sympathy, far less than it is influenced by them. The immediate debility and breathlessness occasioned by a blow on the stomach is, however, well known. I saw a person gradually sink, and die at the end of a few days from this cause, and nothing was detected after death. The removal of a piece of the par vagum, or the destruction of that part of the brain with which it is connected, or of a considerable part of the spinal marrow, puts a stop, not to the muscular action of the stomach, or to its circulation, but to the secretion of gastric juice and to digestion, according to Le Gallois, Sur le Principe de la Vie, and many former writers; and Dr. Philip, who is confirmed by several others, declares that the removal of a portion of the nerve impairs digestion much more than mere division, and that the application of galvanism to the stomach restores digestion ; and MM. Leuret and Lassaigne declare, that after the division of the par vagum, and even the removal of six inches of each nerve, digestion proceeds as before, the only effect being the paralysis of the sphincter of the cardia. I should remark, that Mr. Brodie and Dr. Magendie found even digestion uninfluenced, if the division was made, not in the neck, but close to the stomach. Phil, Trans. 1814. Precis Element aire, t. ii. p. 103.