On the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain : a course of lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862 / by John Hilton.

Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain : a course of lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862 / by John Hilton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    tions in its structures, which necroscopic examinations daily reveal. The liver, unduly stimulated by excessive potations, by an unnecessary amount of food, or by habitual irregularity of diet (its physiological harmony with the other organs of digestion being thus constantly disturbed), glides into disorganization for the same reason. The kidney, too, if its function be disturbed by the abuse or too frequent use of alcoholic and other fermented drinks, which entails an unnatural and continued stress either upon its Malpighian or tubular portions, obeys the same tendency to structural deterioration, as a consequence of its loss of due rest. How different is the effect of rest upon any machinery invented or constructed by man ! How utterly abandoned is the expectation or hope of man’s ever contriving any machinery that shall have the power to repair its own waste of structure, or to renovate, by its own inherent capability, any defect in its combination. However ex- quisite and perfect it may appear to be, its “wear and tear ” is simultaneous with its mechanical activity. Rest even exaggerates its imperfections, and induces decay. Its necessary renewal is the substitution, by other hands, of a new and like material. It is, I believe, an admitted physiological axiom, that each structure or organ, whilst actively employed, is in a state of vascular excitement or turgescence, and therefore enlarged during that time. So it is noticeable, that each organ of the body, which is liable to the rapid supervention of activity in its proper function, is so placed in relation to surrounding structures as to permit of temporary enlargement during the persis- tence of its exalted function. When it returns to its state of rest, or period of self-reparation, it may be said to have resumed its normal or standard dimensions. Secreting organs, in which vascular turgescence is ex- treme and enduring, are relieved of their excessive conges- tion by their tubular outlets. The elasticity of the enclosing- capsule exerts its beneficial effect towards the same end by inducing centripetal pressure, and this tends to diminish the size of the organ as soon as its higher endowment, its engendered function of physiological excitement or orgasm,