Part 28 (2/2)

_Ill.u.s.tration._ A few years since, a poor inebriate was carried to a London hospital in a state of intoxication. He lived but a few hours.

On examining his brain, nearly half a gill of fluid, strongly impregnated with gin, was found in the cavities of this organ. This was secreted from the vessels of the brain.

HYGIENE OF THE SECRETORY ORGANS.

432. _Unless the secretions are regularly maintained, disease will be the ultimate result._ Let the secretions from the skin be suppressed, and fever or some internal inflammation will follow. If the bile is impeded, digestion will be impaired. If any other secretion is suppressed, it will cause a derangement of the various internal organs.

_Observation._ Ardent spirits derange the secretions, and change the structure of the brain. This is one reason why inebriates do not generally live to advanced age.

433. _The quant.i.ty of blood influences the character of the secretions._ If it is lessened to any great extent, the secretions will be lessened as well as changed in character.

_Ill.u.s.tration._ When a person has lost a considerable quant.i.ty of blood, there is a sensation of thirst in the fauces, attended with a cold, pale, dry skin. When reaction comes on, the perspiration is cold, attended with nausea, and sometimes vomiting.

431. What becomes of those substances imbibed by the lymphatics that do not give nourishment to the body. 432-437. _Give the hygiene of the secretory organs._ 432. What effect on the system when the secretions are not regularly maintained? 433. Does the quant.i.ty of blood influence the secretions? Give an ill.u.s.tration.

434. _The secretory organs require the stimulus of pure blood._ If this fluid is vitiated, the action of the secretory organs will be more or less modified. Either the quant.i.ty will be affected or the quality will be altered.

_Observation._ The impurity of the blood arising from the inhalation of the vitiated air of sleeping rooms, diminishes and changes the character of the secretions of the mouth and stomach. This accounts for the thirst, coated tongue, and disagreeable taste of the mouth when impure air is breathed during sleep. The disease it induces, is indigestion or dyspepsia.

435. _The amount of action modifies the condition of the secretory organs._ When a secretory organ is excessively stimulated, its vigor and energy are reduced. The subsequent debility may be so great as to suppress or destroy its functional power.

_Ill.u.s.trations._ 1st. In those sections of the country where flax is spun on a ”foot-wheel,” it is not unfrequent that the spinners moisten the thread with the secretions of the mouth. This seems to operate economically for a time, but debility of the salivary organs soon follows, which incapacitates them from supplying saliva sufficient to moisten the food, producing in a short time disease of the digestive organs.

2d. The habit of continual spitting, which attends the chewing of tobacco and gums, and other substances, between meals, induces debility, not only of the salivary glands, but of the system generally.

436. _One secretory organ may do the office of another._ This increased action of a secretory organ may be sustained for a limited time without permanent injury, but, if long continued, a diseased action of the organ will follow. Of morbid secretions we have examples in the ossification of the valves of the heart, cancerous and other tumors.

434. What is the effect of impure blood on the secretory organs? 435.

What results from stimulating excessively a secretory organ? How is this ill.u.s.trated? 436. What is the effect when one secretory organ performs the office of another?

_Observation._ In the evenings of the warm season, a chill upon the impressible skin, that suppresses the perspiration, is frequently followed by a diarrhoea, dysentery, or cholera morbus. These can be prevented by avoiding the chill. An efficient means of relief, is immediately to restore the skin to its proper action.

437. _The secretions are much influenced by the mind._ How this is effected, it is difficult to explain; but many facts corroborate it.

Every one has felt an increased action of the tear-glands from distressing feelings. Cheerfulness of disposition and serenity of the pa.s.sions are peculiarly favorable to the proper performance of the secretory function. From this we may learn how important it is to avoid such things as distract, agitate, or hara.s.s us.

_Observation._ In fevers and other diseases, when the skin, mouth, and throat are dry from a suppression of the secretions, let the mind of the patient be changed from despondency to hope, and the skin and the membrane that lines the mouth and throat will exhibit a more moist condition, together with a general improvement of the vital organs of the system. Consequently, all just encouragement of the restoration to health should be given to a sick person.

Give examples of morbid secretions. What is one cause of dysentery and cholera morbus? How can these affections he relieved? 437. Show the influence of the mind on the secretions. Mention instances of its influence.

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