The treatment of disease by physical methods / by Thomas Stretch Dowse.

  • Dowse, Thomas Stretch
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The treatment of disease by physical methods / by Thomas Stretch Dowse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/436 (page 18)
    is entirely dependent upon a due supply of nutrient material and of oxygen carried to it by the capillary circulation. The circulation, if one may judge of it by the pulse alone, either by digital manipulation or by the sphygmograph, is the most varying and variable of all functions. This can be easily conceived if we look upon the circulation as the servant and not the master; and physiologically it is tissue activity which conditions the blood, and not the blood supply which conditions the tissue changes. The heart being the centre of the circulation, determines its force, strength and regularity, all surroundings being equal, especially the elasticity of the great vessels, and the resiliency and due resistancy of the capillaries, arterioles, and ultimate tissue elements ; but beyond these conditions we have, holding magisterial sway, the influence of the pneumogastric and sympathetic nerves (the sympathetic being the motor nerve keeping the cardiac ganglia in a constant state of activity, and the pneumogastric controlling or inhibiting its action). But I wish to confine my remarks to the circulation, pure and simple, always bearing in mind that I never desire to enter more fully into the realms of physiology than is necessary to show how physiological processes of the highest order are subservient to massage. It would be impossible, however, to consider the physiology of the circulation in reference to massage, if we did not remember the omnipotency of the nervous centres and how the minutest of the minute capillary vessels are e?i rapport with its governing nerves. It is only through nerve agency that we can account for “ circulation vagaries,” and particularly that condition known as the paroxysmal palpitation of the heart, when the pulse rate will vary from 200 to 300 in the minute, without any actual traceable change in the structure of the heart or the vessels. What is this but neurasthenia ? Anyhow, the cardo-inhibitory centre in the medulla oblongata must be involved in these conditions, and for the time being is in a neurasthenic state. Again, the circulation may be exceedingly slow and the pulse infrequent—only 40 to the minute, or, on the other hand, it may give rise to an intermittent and irregular pulse, both conditions being quite compatible with health, and even vigour, up to a fairly average age. There are two states of the circulation to which I must draw attention, and they are high tension and low tension. But before considering these, it is well that this question should be asked and answered, namely : Can we tell from the nature of the pulse whether massage treatment will be beneficial ? I believe we can. Let us consider very practically and briefly these states of tension. Now, high tension in an artery is significant either of a great deal, or, on the other hand, it may be neurosal, or it may be hereditary, or it may be temporary and transitory, and mean very