The Medical Times and Gazette, Vol. 1: A Journal of Medical Science, Literature, Criticism, and News; For 1861 (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Medical Times and Gazette, Vol. 1: A Journal of Medical Science, Literature, Criticism, and News; For 1861 The properties of the spinal cord have been selected in preference to other subjects, as an introduction to our future studies; for as the order adopted in reviewing the various functions of the economy is entirely a matter of choice, we have thought proper to assign the first place to the pheno mena of nervous action, which play so prominent a part in health and disease. \vithout further prelude, therefore, we will now pass to this subject, laying down as we proceed the rules for performing the principal experiments which lead to the knowledge of the normal powers, and morbid influence of the nervous system; the question will, in this manner, be viewed at once in its physiological and pathological aspect. A thorough acquaintance with all these points can alone enable the Physician to trace back the successive steps by which any given morbid series progressively arrives at its complete evolution for as long as the prime motor remains concealed, the true relation between the symptoms observed, and the causes which produce them, will, in almost every instance, escape us. The predominating influence of the nervous system over the remaining parts of the economy is directly proportionate, in the case of each animal, to its degree of elevation in the scale of life; so that in man and the higher mammalia, the nervous element becomes in reality the primitive source of all vital phenomena. But this great apparatus is itself sub divided into various secondary systems and, in this respect, one of the most important acquisitions of modern physiology is due to the labours of Bell and Magendie we allude to the division of nerves into sensitive and motor branches. But this initial discovery, however valuable, does not fully meet the actual demands of science; for both physiology and pathology, but more especially the latter, imperatively require a farther extension of our knowledge on this point. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.