A letter addressed to Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, bart. : containing observations and strictures upon certain parts of his Lecture on spinal complaints / by Edward Harrison.

Date:
1835
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter addressed to Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, bart. : containing observations and strictures upon certain parts of his Lecture on spinal complaints / by Edward Harrison. 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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    directed. This apparatus, which performs such multifarious oflices in the human body, may, for our purpose, be distributed into two great classes—those of organic, and those of animal life : the former are in constant action. The heart always beats, respiration goes on from birth to the termination of existence, whether we he awake or asleep. The digestive and assimilative processes admit of no intermission. The secretory and excretory vessels are always employed. The organs of animal life, unlike the former, are incapable of con- tinuous action ; they require intervals of repose. No effort of the will can keep voluntary muscles in a state of uninterrupted contraction beyond a given time. Relaxation must alternate with contraction. The senses and voluntary muscles are periodically quiescent. Fatigue and unusual exertion claim a cessation of labour to overcome their exhaustion. A protracted walk, or long continued employment of the arms, debilitates the voluntary muscles, to be again restored to vigour by a season of inaction. For the same reason, the muscles of the trunk cannot be always in action. They, like the other muscles of animal life, are refreshed by sleep, and by repose after labour. May we not, then, conclude, that provision has been made, that organs which regularly cease from their exertions during sleep, and also at other times, do not suffer from mere inaction. We cannot doubt that the Author of our being carefully provided that no injury should arise from submitting to his own laws. But if so much care has been taken to preserve the body from harm, when it only conforms to the primeval regulations of our nature, can we believe that a similar state, proceeding from other causes, will be detrimental to the same organs ? Such a supposition is in direct opposition to our general experience in other respects, and is therefore inadmissible. 2ndly. On a supposition that the distortion arises from want of muscular action only, how is it possible to explain the fact, that the curvature is so uniform in its direction ? It appears to me, that the muscles being double, and lying equally on both sides of the spine, the bend would have been as often to the left as the right. Nor can I understand, according to your admissions, why the head, acting from its weight alone, does not occasion the spine to protuberate forward rather than to one side. 3rdly. I need not, I know, use many words to satisfy you, that whenever there is a bend to the right, between the shoulders, we always find an opposite one in the loins. This is a constant accom- paniment of the former ; though you pass it over unnoticed. Were I to agree with you about the distortion between the shoulders, T could