Words, names and phrases in medicine : an address delivered at the opening of the Course of lectures in Physiology in the University of Manchester / by William Stirling.

  • Stirling, William, 1851-1932.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Words, names and phrases in medicine : an address delivered at the opening of the Course of lectures in Physiology in the University of Manchester / by William Stirling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    several parts, tlie harmony of their working. In health—and they do not chafe in the working—all goes on silently and without noise, while there is complete adaptation to the environ- ment, be it air, water, or earth. The one part of the body can- not say to the other I have no need of thee. Organs, however insignificant they may seem, may prove to be of paramount importance in the economy, as has been proved by the recent discoveries regarding the functions of such little known and apparently unimportant organs as the pituitary body, the pineal, thyroid and thymus glands, not to mention others whose functions and history we are just beginning to discover. The interdependence of organs and smooth working of the units go to make up the organism I can perhaps better illustrate by the well-known passage from Coriolanus : — ROMAN SENATORS AND MUTINOUS CITIZENS. Men. There was a time, when all the body’s members Rebell’d against the belly; thus accused it: That only like a gulf it did remain I’ the midst o’ the body, idle and inactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, And, mutually participate, did minister Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. The belly answered,— First Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? Men. ‘ True is it, my incorporate friends,’ quoth he, ‘ That I receive the general food at first, Which you do live upon; and fit it is, Recause I am the store-house, and the shop Of the whole body: But, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart,—to the seat o’ the brain; And, through the cranks and offices of man, The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live: And though that all at once, You, my good friends’ (this says the belly), mark me— First Cit. Ay, sir; well, well. Coriolanus, i. 1. The body corporate is like the body political—all parts must work in harmony if the organism is to< persist, extend, and prosper to the highest possible extent.