Functional and sympathetic affections of the heart : a paper read before the Society of Statistical Medicine / by John W. Corson ; from the New-York journal of medicine for January, 1854.

  • Corson, John W.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Functional and sympathetic affections of the heart : a paper read before the Society of Statistical Medicine / by John W. Corson ; from the New-York journal of medicine for January, 1854. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    feels, by the increased ease and comfort with which he executes his allot- ted task that he is really stronger. And then it relieves congestion by gradually distributing the blood to the chilly feet and hands; it gives tone to the stomach, and sometimes a voracious appetite; it is nature's laxative; it restores, by its grateful glow, the functions of the skin ; it increases muscular energy; and it calms the irritable nervous system by its agreeable invigoration and the quiet sleep it begets at night; and lastly, by its gentle stimulus, it actually strengthens a weak heart. Providence has mercifully made our most necessary blessings easily accessible. Man was originally a field animal. Walking was the primitive exercise of our first parents in the bowers of Eden, and it is still healthier, in the main, than any other. We had occasion recently to make it a condition of attendance on a rich, fine lady, that she should, for a time, abandon her carriage for nature's locomotion, and in a few weeks we were gratefully obeyed. Of great importance to the functions of the stomach, liver, nervous system, and, through them, to the disordered heart, is attention to tha*, extensive surface, the skin. By telling delicate patients, if necessary, to retain the garments on the upper limbs, while the lower extremities are cleansed and vice versa; or, in cold damp weather, by adding a little alcohol or cheap spirit; and especially by free frictions, with a coarse towel or flannels, the most sensitive may sponge the body, on rising in the morning, with cold water at the coldest season of the year. Of the medicinal means employed, we have only space to notice a class whose direct tonic influence upon the heart, and nervous system, we believe to be greater than any other. We refer to preparations of nux vomica, and its alkaloid, strychnia. Especially in dyspeptic com- plications and in excessive debility of the heart, they are invaluable. For safety and convenience, we prefer either the strong tincture of the vomica nut or an equal quantity of the more uniform solution of the ordinary strychnia of the shops, the strength of a grain to the ounce, rendered soluble by the addition of one part of acetic acid to three of water—either preparation to be given in doses of five drops three times a day, in water, increasing cautiously, if necessary, to fifteen drops,— resting, if the tingling and twitching of strychnism occur, and commencing in smaller doses when they subside. In explanation of their therapeutic effects, we may mention the beautiful recent experiment of Dr. Marshall Hall, in rousing the nerv- ous system of the frog, stunned by division of the spinal marrow, by means of a solution of the acetate of strychnia, and the still more con- clusive test of Prof. E. Weber, mentioned by Romberg, of producing