Neurasthenia and its treatment by hypodermic transfusions : (according to the method of Doctor Jules Chéron) / by Ralph Browne.

  • Chéron, Jules.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neurasthenia and its treatment by hypodermic transfusions : (according to the method of Doctor Jules Chéron) / by Ralph Browne. 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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    tissues. Nature acts physiologically, we act thera- peutically ; but the therapeutic action is in this case in strict conformity with the physiological action of nature. Charles Richet, in “ La Physiologie générale des Muscles et des Nerfs,” expresses himself as follows : “Tous les muscles de l’organisme, aussi bien les muscles striés que les muscles à fibres lisses, sont constamment dans un état intermédiaire entre le re- lâchement et le tétanos : c’est le tonus musculaire.” It is the State of animated repose, of vital re- pose, so to speak, repose perpetually ready to transform itself into action. Tone is the essential phenomenon of ail our functions. It is the base of the circulatory activity, respiratory activity, digestive activity, glandular activity, as it is the base of activity of striated fibres. What is the nature of this phenomenon ? It is, above ail, and always, a reflex. The classic manual of Kuss and Duval ex- presses itself in these terms : “ L’acte reflexe est le fait fondamental dans le fonctionnement de tout acte nerveux.” This word “reflexe” need not awaken in our minds the idea of any sudden phenomenon, such, for instance, as the tendinous reflex of the knee- cap. “ Pendant la vie,” writes Charles Richet, “ une sérié d’excitations sensitives, faibles, incessantes, remontent vers les cellules nerveuses centrales et les maintiennent constamment dans une demi activité reflexe.” Richet writes again : “ L’apparente spontanéité