Various

“ The question arises, in what way does katabolism arise from these toxines? It occurs to me that it must be due to chemical affinity, or as it is sometimes very properly called, chemism.
In a brief but very excellent article on therapeutic action by Dr. Thomas J. Mays, of Philadelphia, in the American Therapist, he commences thus: “Every phenomenon in nature becomes intelligible only when considered in the light of force. Any scientific system of therapeutics must therefore be built on a broader basis than that of the mere drug action on the animal economy.” ”

“ Obviously, we can not admit that all the proteid matter of the food is absorbed in the form of leucocytes, for, as we know, some at least of the proteid food ingested is carried beyond the peptone stage, either through the action of trypsin, or through the action of the organized germs in the intestine, but we can certainly accept the views so admirably worked out by Pohl, in so far as they indicate one way in which proteid matter may pass from the intestine into the blood, after having undergone a preliminary transformation in the alimentary tract into primary albumoses and peptone. ”

“ On the other hand, if we bear in mind the whole mechanism of digestion, it will readily be seen that, in cases of weakness or want of tone on the part of the muscles of the stomach, when every part of the food cannot be properly presented to the action of the digestive juices, the introduction into the stomach of a moderate amount of water may be of no slight benefit. ”

“ At school she learns a great many things, but is not taught that in order to have good health she must exercise the muscles of her body, and especially those of the trunk, daily and systematically. After marriage she settles down to a life of physical inactivity; she takes hardly any exercise, and even this little is not taken systematically; she does not breathe with the diaphragm; her circulation becomes feeble, her hands and feet are always cold, the blood accumulates in her abdominal and pelvic cavities, the functions of the abdominal and pelvic viscera are imperfectly carried on ”

“ The fact is that ill-health is so common in our women that we have grown accustomed to it, and have, quite unconsciously, set up a low standard of feminine health. If a woman is habitually constipated, dyspeptic, so weak that she can hardly walk a mile, has one or two headaches every month, irregular and painful menstruation, backache, napeache, cold hands and feet, leucorrhea, capricious appetite, and a moderate degree of nervousness and insomnia, she is considered to possess average good health. ”

“ DRUG ACTION. Chemistry makes such rapid strides of late that it is impossible for the medical man in ordinary practice to keep pace with it. We have ptomaines and leucomaines, and in the literature of the journals these two terms are used indiscriminately, which is unfortunate, as tending to create confusion. While ptomaines are those alkaloidal products of metabolism belonging to the cadaver, or to any dead organism, whether animal or vegetable, the term is now applied to the same products in living tissues and which really are not ptomaines, but leucomaines. ”

“ Because when a drug, given hypodermatically, purges, it is not proof that the drug acts as a cathartic in the circulation, and that it does not act locally, for it may be inactive till it is excreted by the intestinal mucous membrane, and then act locally.
At present I will speak of peristalsis only. Perhaps as good a way as any to proceed, though unsatisfactory, is, first, to exclude the brain, and then, second, the abdominal ganglia, and then, third, experiment on the excised living intestine. ”

“ Her frail little body is enveloped in corsets, which effectually prevents the full development of the important trunk-muscles. At school she gets, perhaps, a little make-belief of calisthenics. During her life in society she waltzes with great ardor, it is true, and it is said that to go through all the evolutions of a German is equivalent to a walk of fifteen miles; but no one has ever seriously claimed that this form of exercise is conducive to health. After marrying, the American woman reduces physical exertion to the minimum. Any form of physical labor is regarded by her as menial. ”

“ American women attempt to dispense with the last two; they neither take exercise nor do they breathe with the diaphragm. The muscles act precisely like the bulb of a Davidson syringe; when they contract the blood is forced into the veins; when they relax a new supply flows in.
Dubois-Reymond determined by experiment that the minimum amount of exercise, necessary to maintain the circulation, is equivalent to a walk of five miles a day. American women do not average one-fifth of this amount. ”

“ The progressive physician does not believe that medicines cure. It is true he uses the word just as we say the sun rises and sets when we know that it does neither the one or the other, but that the phenomena are due to the revolution of the earth on its axis. The cell function is the building function, you may call it metabolism or anabolism. It is either a building or a repairing process. Now derange the process by means of toxines, and you have what may be called katabolism. The molecules are disorganized, the tissues become disorganized, and the result is impaired function. ”

“ By John Ford Barbour, M. D. That ill-health is more common amongst American women of the middle and higher classes than amongst the women of other nations is proven by a great many considerations. In the first place, we have the testimony of many eminent physicians on this point. Dr. Austin Flint, Sr., is said to have declared that if things went on as they are now going, in fifty years it would be well-nigh impossible to find a healthy woman of American descent. ”

“ The trouble may be in the small intestine, colon, or rectum. We must decide whether it is due to diminished peristalsis, or secretion, or too rapid absorption. If it is due to a relaxed condition of the muscles of descending colon and rectum, aloes is efficient. If it is due to general relaxation of the intestinal muscles, physostigmine or strychnine may be of use. If there is a diminished secretion or increased absorption the ingestion of more water and foods containing water, as fruits and vegetables, will sometimes be of service. ”

“ By-and-by the pelvic organs begin to show signs of disease. When one hears of the daily exploits of the abdominal surgeon, and learns that there is hardly 204one woman out of five who has not some form of pelvic disturbance, the conviction forces itself upon the mind that surely our women must be grossly violating some fundamental law of health. We have traced out the chain of physical causes which lead inevitably to a stasis in the abdominal and pelvic circulation. ”

“ American women take more drugs than other women. The drug-store is ubiquitous with us. They show increased susceptibility to stimulants and narcotics, sensitiveness of the digestion, increase of near-sightedness and weakness of the eyes, early and rapid decay of the teeth, sensitiveness to heat and cold, tendency to nervous exhaustion etc. ”

“ The list of dead theories and abandoned remedies grows longer each year, and the experience of the past is as little heeded in the medical as in the financial world.
Acuteness of intellect and extent of education can, it seems, no more keep a man straight in medicine, than they can in religion or politics. ”

“ There are far too many women who lead lives that can only be characterized as parasitic; who have no independent existence, but merely cling to life like a polyp to a rock. They generate barely enough nervous energy to eat, drink, sleep, dress, take a great deal of medicine, complain constantly, and finally drop out of life without leaving the slightest vacuum. ”

“ It is time that the study of the class of cases under consideration should be placed on a scientific basis, in order that we may have some definite idea of the objects to be attained—and the method of attaining them—expressed in terms which may be comprehended by the merest tyro in therapeutics, and to this end the contributions of Metschnikoff, Pohl, Chittenden and Vaughan must be accepted as valuable preliminary data. ”

“ Men, who for years have been esteemed well balanced authors and practitioners, become “a little crazy” on some one therapeutic measure and enthusiastically advocate its employment in all sorts of unsuitable cases. Good illustrations of this form of mental activity may be found in the literature of hydrotherapy and of electricity.
Thus, it has been stated that every case of typhoid fever may be made to end in recovery by the proper use of cold baths; and yet this writer knew in how many ways the disease may kill the patient—some of them almost accidental in their nature ”

“ The types here, excepting myself, are exclusively feminine. We are thin, my dear Harvard; we are pale, we are sharp. There is something meagre about us; our line is wanting in roundness, our composition in richness. ”

“ Many thoughtful men have lately been turning their eyes from the microscope toward the bedside, and are asking themselves whether after all the condition of the soil is not fully as important as the germs which grow there, and they are consequently spending less time searching after germicides. One eminent physician predicts that the very language now used will be unintelligible jargon to future generations of germ seekers, and that the whole subject will have to be recast. ”

“ The liberty and enlarged scope of thought and action, which American women enjoy, must also be considered as causes of ill-health. How much more nervous energy an active, ambitious, 203American woman must expend than a German matron, with her placid, narrow life. ”

“ It is remarkable what power these two simple remedies exercise over the fugitive neuralgic pains peculiar to influenza, doubtless because they modify the nutrition of the cells composing the fibrous structures, enabling them to throw off waste products and thus maintain a condition approaching that of health. The after-treatment will embrace the administration of the arseniates of iron and strychnine, and in debilitated subjects this should be supplemented by the exhibition of cod-liver oil or petroleum in the form of emulsion. ”

“ Fluids may be taken ad libitum during meals by those whose digestive powers will allow it; but such persons should keep in mind that the strongest stomach may be abused too far, while those whose stomachs are already unequal to a severe strain should be especially careful as to the quantity of fluid imbibed with the food.
The saliva is the best lubricator for the food while it is in the mouth, both because of its starch-digesting powers, and because its alkalinity serves to stimulate a copious flow of the acid secretion of the stomach. ”

“ The American temperament is represented by two young girls. These young girls are rather curious types. They are cold, slim, sexless; the physique is not generous, not abundant; it is only the drapery that is abundant. ”

“ Considering that we now have ample evidence that a sick person may be his own worst enemy, by reason of an unhealthy condition of the alimentary canal, it is not too much to assume that in many cases of prolonged illness, the complications arising may frequently be due to auto-infection, and thus, in addition to the disease which is seen, there is another disease engrafted upon the first which is insidious but persistent. ”

“ Of course it is necessary to learn first the lifting power of the peristalsis in the same dog without a cathartic.
(5) By injecting a solution of the cathartic into a ligatured loop of intestine in the living animal. It is better to use a rabbit or dog that has been starved for several days so that the intestine will be empty. After several hours remove the loop and measure the amount of liquid. If it is increased the drug stimulates secretion. It must not be forgotten that the irritation of the ligature stimulates secretion, so it is better to have a similar loop for comparison. ”

“ The success of modern methods of preventing disease and the comparative failure of antiseptic and germicidal remedies in the treatment of well developed disease show that the human body is more than a test-tube, even though numerous theories have been tested therein to the discomfiture of the testers. ”

“ The different types of the disease, the pulmonary, the nervous and the abdominal, have been less distinctly marked, but it has been especially severe in the case of elderly people when appearing as an intercurrent affection. Another noticeable feature is, that the disease has shown a greater disposition to attack children than in former years, although when children have been enjoying usually good health, fatal results have been rare. ”

“ If digestive leucocytosis, as delineated by these authors, be true, and we have no reason to doubt their conclusions, then we have a satisfactory explanation of the value of proper food for the sick, to say nothing of the nutrition of those who ordinarily enjoy good health. The fact being admitted that white blood-corpuscles or leucocytes are more rapidly developed after the ingestion 213of food, it follows that this cellular activity was intended to accomplish or aid in accomplishing certain metabolic changes. ”

“ There is yet much to learn. The beginning has but been made. Enough, however, has been seen to teach that disease has its chemistry, and that the treatment of the future will depend upon a knowledge of this fact and the application of chemic laws. ”

“ Again, if Pohl’s views are correct, we see that the proteid foods are quickly transformed into organized material in the body of the lymph cell prior to their absorption into the blood, a view which is in harmony with the long-known fact that peptone and other products of digestion can not be detected, in any quantity, at least, in the blood of the portal vein, even after the ingestion of a diet rich in proteids. ”