Materials for an alphabet to the science of medicine : embracing an enquiry into the nature of the mind and passions : addressed to the Medical Society of Philadelphia / by James Pendleton Jun.

  • Pendleton, James.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materials for an alphabet to the science of medicine : embracing an enquiry into the nature of the mind and passions : addressed to the Medical Society of Philadelphia / by James Pendleton Jun. 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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    i_ nervous state of fever. Since the animal power is supported by the mechanical, it follows that if the latter was not destroyed by action, man would ne- ver die*. When fever reaches irregular action or ends in disorder, it is the consequence of a prostrated tone, and a morbid increase of animal or nervous influ- ence. We find that the oppressed pulse that fol- lows a morbid increase of action cannot be raised by stimuli, only for a short time ; but if we take the oppression from the vessels by the lancer, the excitement is immediately restored, and the sti- mulus that could produce no change in the pub?, now increases it much. This must not be ascribe I (as it universally is) to an increase of the sensorial power, but of the mechanical power or spring. The vessels previous to the abstraction of blood, were as sensible of the operation of stimuli as af- terwards, but the pulse could not be raised until the tone was restored by depletion. ' ___________________ * A late ingenious writer on the Zoonomia, wishes to know from whence proceeds this sensorial power, since action is necessary for its existence, and this action cannot fake place without it. I reply, that the process of gene- ration furnishes the sensorial power, which is afterwards supported by action. Farther than this we cannot go, nor is it necessary ; for we may behold principles and know how to apply them, without being able to account for their remote cause. We know that matter is supported by motion, and that motion cannot exist without matter ; and here we are abruptly n,et by inexplicable arcana. In short, the above question is nothing lev, than a demand of the hist pause of all creation.