Erasmus Darwin

“ The masticated food stimulates the palate, which is an organ of sense, into so much action, as to produce agreeable sensation; and the muscles subservient to deglutition are brought into action by the sensation thus produced. ”

“ The patients in the paroxysms both of humoral and convulsive asthma find relief from cold air, as they generally rise out of bed, and open the window, and put out their heads; for the lungs are not sensible to cold, and the sense of suffocation is somewhat relieved by there being more oxygen contained in a given quantity of cold fresh air, than in the warm confined air of a close bed-chamber. ”

“ The thirst is occasioned by the previous dissipation of the aqueous parts of the blood by sensible or insensible perspiration; which was produced by the increased action of the cutaneous and pulmonary capillaries during the stimulus of the wine. In consequence of this an increased absorption commences to replace this moisture, and the skin and mouth become dry, and the pulmonary mucus becomes inspissated; which stimulates the bronchia, and is raised into froth by the successive currents of air in evacuating it. ”

“ As parturition is a natural, not a morbid process, no medicine should be given, where there is no appearance of disease. The absurd custom of giving a powerful opiate without indication to all women, as soon as they are delivered, is, I make no doubt, frequently attended with injurious, and sometimes with fatal consequences. ”

“ Where these motions are observed in limbs otherwise paralytic, it is an indication that electric shocks may be employed with advantage, as the excitability of the limb by irritation is not extinct, though it be disobedient both to volition and sensation.
10. Tenesmus consists in violent and frequent ineffectual efforts to discharge the contents of the rectum, owing to pain of the sphincter. The pain is produced by indurated feces, or by some acrid material, as the acidity of indigested aliment; and the efforts are attended with mucus from the pained membrane. ”

“ Hence the circulation is instantly quickened to a great degree, and the difficulty of breathing is the consequence of a more rapid circulation through the lungs. The increased secretion of the perspirable matter is another consequence of this rapid circulation; fat people, when at rest, are believed to perspire less than others, which may be gathered from their generally having more liquid stools, more and paler urine, and to their frequently taking less food than many thin people ”

“ There are however other causes, which render parturition more dangerous to the ladies of high life; such as their greater general debility from neglect of energetic exercise, their inexperience of the variations of cold and heat, and their seclusion from fresh air. ”

“ The ejectio feminis is another process in some respects similar to strangury, as belonging to the same sensible canal of the urethra, and by exciting into action the accelerator muscles; but in the strangury these muscles are excited into action by painful sensation, and in the ejection of the semen by pleasureable sensation.
12. Parturitio. Parturition is not a disease, it is a natural process, but is more frequently unfortunate in high life than amongst the middle class of females ”

“ Winking of the eyes is performed every minute, without our attention, for the purpose of diffusing the tears over them, which are poured into the eye a little above the external corner of it, and which are afterwards absorbed by the lacrymal points above and below the internal corner of it. ”

“ To which must be added, that great source of the destruction of female grace and beauty, as well as of female health, the tight stays, and other bandages, with which they are generally tortured in their early years by the active folly of their friends, which by displacing many of the viscera impedes their actions, and by compressing them together produces adhesions of one part to another, and affects even the form and aperture of the bones of the pelvis, through which the nascent child must be protruded. ”

“ Another thing very injurious to the child, is the tying and cutting the navel-string too soon; which should always be left till the child has not only repeatedly breathed, but till all pulsation in the cord ceases. As otherwise the child is much weaker than it ought to be ”

“ A little common plaster spread on thin linen, about a quarter of an inch long, must be rolled up so as to be about the size of a crow-quill, this must be applied immediately below the eyelash on the outside of the eye ”