A treatise on derangements of the liver, internal organs, and nervous system : pathological and therapeutical.

  • Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on derangements of the liver, internal organs, and nervous system : pathological and therapeutical. 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.

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    Which hardly any but the patient himself can comprehend, and that too, when his attention is excited to the subject, and when he is himself acquainted with the structure of the human frame. For instance, unless the consistence, colour. &c. &c. of the motions are assiduously attended to, (which, of course, is rarely the case) the state of the biliary secre- tion cannot be ascertained. In the third place, the symptoms attending derangements of the biliary system are so easily mistaken for, and so ge- nerally accompanied by, derangements in the other digestive organs, as to mislead the patient himself, and too often his medical adviser. Fourthly, it is only in tropical regions, where hepatic dis- eases force themselves upon the most inert observation, that the sympathetic connection between the functions of the skin and liver would be likely to arrest attention, particularly where the personal sufferings of the observer might be the means of exciting a more than usual degree of accuracy in the in- vestigation. Such was the case, when I traced the sympa- thy in question; and by which I have been enabled to d - lineate the nature, the causes, and the treatment of disea- - in hot climates. I shall here only give a mere outline of the result of my observations on this interesting subject, referring to the various parts of my Essay for a more extended eluc dation. It is admitted, that in summer and autumn, when atmo- spheric heat has attained its maximum, the secretion of bile is more copious than in winter and spring. It is also known to those, who have lived or practised in hot climates, that among the Europeans who migrate thither, the redundant secretion of bile is a prominent feature in the animal eco- nomy, whether in sickness or health, during the first years of residence there, and while the constitution is becoming assimillated to the new climate. The most superficial ob- server will acknowledge, that in summer and autumn here, and during the period alluded to, in hot climates, the per- spiration is greatly increased. Here then are two effects steadily produced by the same cause, viz. perspiration and biliary secretion augmented by a high range of atmosphe- rical temperature. Now it is admitted, by the most accu- rate physiologists, that cotemporari/ action in any two or- gans, will, in time, produce such an association that when the impulse is given to one, the other will act by what i* termed sympathy. Allowing then, that there is no original consent between the functions of the skin and liver, surely this simultaneous state of excitement, produced by the same