Inaugural dissertation on the respiratory system of nerves, considered as the vehicle of general sympathy / [John Rutherford Russell].

  • Russell, John Rutherford, -1868.
Date:
1838
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inaugural dissertation on the respiratory system of nerves, considered as the vehicle of general sympathy / [John Rutherford Russell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be unnecessary to enter into any arguments to refute Dr Elliotson’s other objections, as it would be merely recapitulating what we have already stated, for they have all been incidentally refer¬ red to, and his opinion that the ganglionic sys¬ tem is for sympathy more fully considered, so we shall proceed to consider the objections urged by Dr Alison, and contained in the 2d volume of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. It is there observed, that we may see how much respiration is dependent on sensation by watching the effect of an exciting piece of oratory, the breath- less silence with which we listen, as if “ we forgot to breatheexcept at the intervals of its delivery. In reply we would remark, in the first place, that the emotion we feel is suspense, a depressing, not an exciting one. Now, as we know that an exciting emotion will call into action muscles in a state of paralysis,* by throwing a new stimulus into them, may we not fairly presume that a de¬ pressing emotion, by withdrawing a stimulus, may so derange the function of the lungs, that the changes usually effected there, and neces¬ sary for the excitement of this sympathetic mo¬ tion, may not so readily take place, while the want of such changes in the air and blood may * Bell on the Nerves, Appendix.