Afflatus

“ For poets and philosophers, as to other subjects so also to this, have applied themselves in the way of conjecture, moved, by reason of their affinity with the afflatus from God, each one by his own soul, to try whether he could find out and apprehend the truth; but they have not been found competent fully to apprehend it, because they thought fit to learn, not from God concerning God, but each one from himself; hence they came each to his own conclusion respecting God, and matter, and forms, and the world. ”

“ I am feeling like a man who had just come from under a deadly risk; am very weak and prostrated, with every nerve on the jump. Oh, so very weak! A sinking feeling. A parched thirstiness in my throat and mouth. My tongue is clean; bowels regular; a good deal of flatus, very fetid; pale yellow, greenish urine [Pg 157] (specific gravity 1008) , smelling very fetid; same smell as the flatus; more like the smell of rotting sweet fruit or vegetables. * * *
January 14, 1893. Could not get out of bed at my usual time; very severe pain in head and back of neck, going down my back and right leg ”

“ And oftentimes when the flesh is dissolved in the body, wind, generated within and unable to escape, is the source of quite as much pain as the air coming in from without; but the greatest pain is felt when the wind gets about the sinews and the veins of the shoulders, and swells them up, so twists back the great tendons and the sinews which are connected with them. These disorders are called tetanus and opisthotonus, by reason of the tension which accompanies them. ”

“ The act of swallowing becomes increasingly difficult, and fluids are apt to regurgitate through the nose. Pain is felt along the Eustachian tube towards the ear, and there are tenderness and swelling in the neck about the angle of the jaw on the affected side. The voice acquires a peculiar and very characteristic snuffling tone, and there may be some embarrassment to the breathing. In a few days the inflamed tonsil shows signs of suppurating, and an abscess is seen to be bulging forward into the mouth. ”

“ The patient is seized first with a shivering chilliness, which is soon succeeded with a weak unequal fluttering pulse; the body is seized with a universal pain, together with a great debility; the mouth is hot and dry; 204the respiration depressed; and the mind labours under a heavy anxiety.—The fever continues, though not very high; and the pulse not very full;—a delirium or else a stupor ensues; the urine becomes deep coloured, and has an oily skim at top ”

“ Eleventhly, When a person goes into cold water leisurely, he is apt to sob, and to respire in a convulsive manner, for a short time. For the impression of the cold upon the lower limbs excites such vigorous vibrations in the abdominal and other muscles of expiration, as being nearer to the seat of the impression, than the muscles of inspiration, that a convulsive continued expiration is first produced, then a sob, or deep inspiration: and lastly, strong convulsive expirations and inspirations for some successions. ”

“ When the patient perceives a burning pain in the throat, and the parts all round swell up, respiration becoming difficult, add to this a hoarseness, great difficulty in swallowing, there is no time to lose, for immediate assistance is wanting.
Bleeding is indispensably necessary, particularly if the inflammation is sudden; warm foot-bathing also is highly requisite; to remove the humours downwards; a gargle should also immediately be applied like the foregoing No. XVIII. with the addition of a little camphor spirits. Externally apply the poultice, No. II. and give the following draught. ”

“ Such causes may either proceed from external, or internal injuries; thence we see that a heavy fall, or contusion on the head, may occasion an apoplexy, or at other times, a congestion of blood to the head may produce the same malady.
Sometimes the patient is motionless; and to all appearance dead, and nothing but a faint pulsation remains; at other times there is indeed more signs of life, but more terrible in appearance,—namely a convulsive breathing and foaming at the mouth, without the least signs of sensation or perception ”

“ The premonitory symptoms of apoplexy are giddiness, pain and swimming in the head, loss of memory, faltering in speech or using one word for another, diminished sensibility either of body or mind, or both, drowsiness, noises in the ears, specks floating before the eyes, nightmare, frightful dreams, laborious respiration, heavy yet unrefreshing sleep, an inclination to sigh without any moral cause, cramp in the legs at night when there is no irritation of the bowels to account for them, &c. ”

“ In this case his senses are benumm’d, and by the inspiration apt to 121draw in a quantity of water into his lungs instead of air; thence, both from the blow, and from the total stoppage of respiration, he may have some blood vessels burst, both in the lungs and in the brains, whereby he is instantly irrecoverably dead, beyond all hopes. In this case it may happen, that either way, separately, is enough to kill him.
A man may also, in the very act of drowning, swallow a prodigious quantity of water; not only filling his stomach and intestines ”

“ The flux is to the right rather than to the left because the veins there are more capacious and numerous than on the left side, for on the one side they spring from the liver, and on the other from the spleen. The defluxion and melting down take place most especially in the case of children in whom the head is heated either by the sun or by fire, or if the brain suddenly contract a rigor, and then the phlegm is excreted. ”

“ For when a defluxion of cold phlegm takes place on the lungs and heart, the blood is chilled, and the veins, being violently chilled, palpitate in the lungs and heart, and the heart palpitates, so that from this necessity asthma and orthopnoea supervene. For it does not receive the spirits as much breath as he needs until the defluxion of phlegm be mastered, and being heated is distributed to the veins, then it ceases from its palpitation and difficulty of breathing, and this takes place as soon as it obtains an abundant supply ”

“ The defluxion also takes place in consequence of fear, from any hidden cause, if we are the at any person's calling aloud, or while crying, when one cannot quickly recover one's breath, such as often happens to children. When any of these things occur, the body immediately shivers, the person becoming speechless cannot draw his breath, but the breath (pneuma) stops, the brain is contracted, the blood stands still, and thus the excretion and defluxion of the phlegm take place. In children, these are the causes of the attack at first. But to old persons winter is most inimical. ”

“ True, said I, but methinks there is some small track to the cause of this effect, if you come to the effluvia of bodies. For smell, voice, breath, and the like, are effluvia from animal bodies, and material parts that move the senses, which are wrought upon by their impulse. Now it is very likely that such effluvia must continually part from animals, by reason of their heat and motion; for by that the spirits are agitated, and the body, being struck by those, must continually send forth effluvia. ”

“ It is the last gleam springing from the dying flame; but soon the eyes become fixed and insensible to the action of light, the nose grows pointed and cold, the mouth, wide open, seems to call for the air that fails it, the cavity within it is parched, and the lips, as if withered, cling to the curves of the teeth. The last movements of respiration are spasmodic, and a wheezing, and sometimes a marked gurgling sound, may be heard at some distance, caused by obstruction of the bronchial tubes with a quantity of mucus. The breath is cold, the temperature of the skin lowered. ”

“ The skin is cold, there is great depression, and the pulse is small and weak. The respiration is affected, the breathing being slow and irregular, the breath smelling strongly of the liquid, and the odour often persisting for days. A further stage is that of loss of consciousness, and this comes on with all the suddenness of a fit of apoplexy. [186] The coma is also similar in appearance to apoplectic coma, but there have frequently been seen trismus and convulsions of the extremities. ”

“ In the great majority of cases the spasm affects the muscles of articulation proper, that is, those of the pharynx, tongue, cheeks and lips.
A condition named aphthongia is particularly distressing. It totally prevents speech, and may, at intervals, come on when the person attempts to speak ”

“ Whence we must admit, first, that the blood is sent along with an impulse, and that it is urged with force below the fillet; for it escapes with force, which force it receives from the pulse and power of the heart; for the force and motion of the blood are derived from the heart alone. Second, that the afflux proceeds from the heart, and through the heart by a course from the great veins [into the aorta] ; for it gets into the parts below the ligature through the arteries, not through the veins ”

“ When we shorten the beat between, or when our expiration and inspiration halt the normal pulse beat of our body, we gather debris so dense that after a while we have no space for incoming breath and no strength to empty our already overcharged physical spaces. ”

“ The flaps had kept the wind and dust from the inside of my ears. Now that they were gone my head was stuffed up all the time. The cold weather made me worse, and sometimes I had such trouble to get my breath that it seemed as if I would choke. ”

“ Cold air arrests that development by direct paralysis; i.e., by lethargizing and eventually destroying the vitality of the disease-germs. Towards the end of the year a damp, sultry day—the catarrh-weather par excellence—is sometimes followed by a sudden frost, and at such times I have often found that a six-hours' inhalation of pure, cold night-air will free the obstructed air-passages so effectually that on the following morning hardly a slight huskiness of the voice remains to suggest the narrowness of the escape from a two-weeks' respiratory misery. ”

“ The formation of flatus in the stomach arises from the juices or food being dissolved into vapours by a gentle heat. For cold, as it is not of an attenuating and dissolving nature, does not engender flatulence; whilst a violent heat not only attenuates, but likewise dissipates, and thus prevents the formation of flatulence. But a lesser degree of heat dissolves and changes the food, but not sufficiently, and hence flatus is gendered. Wherefore we must attenuate them by calefacient medicines—boiling in oil the seed of cumin, of parsley, of cow-parsnip, and of carrot. ”

“ Plethoric persons, or those in whom the degenerative processes of old age have weakened the coats of the arteries, may have a stroke of apoplexy, partly from the sudden emotional shock, and partly from the chill of the water, which, by driving the blood from the surface, over-fills the vessels of the internal organs. ”

“ Often it seemed the poor tired animals, with their utmost efforts, would never be able to surmount the prodigious rocks that obstructed their way. Cold, blustering clouds of mists drove in the faces of the forlorn little party as they labored up and up the precipitous steeps, till it seemed to many a despairing heart that the summit of that tremendous mountain would never, never be gained. ”

“ The nature of scalding then, is this: the hot water coming upon the body, separates immediately the scarf skin from the real skin, thereby opens the lymphatic vessels, so that they discharge their lymph under the cuticula, and thence arise blisters. But withal, the heat of the water irritating the nerves, they are excited to contract and constrict the delicate vessels, and hinder the circulation; thence ensues the fiery colour and inflammation, and create acrimonious tendencies. Thence we learn, that a relaxation of the solids is to be relaxed, and the humours to be rectified. ”

“ Heat Apoplexy or Asphyxia.—In this variety the attack, whether preceded or not by the premonitory symptoms already mentioned, is usually sudden, and occurs in the form of an apoplectic seizure, with great vascular engorgement, as seen in the flushed face, congested eyes, quick full pulse and stertorous breathing. There is usually insensibility, and convulsions are not infrequent. Death is often very sudden. This form, however, is also amenable to treatment. ”

“ The breathing is noisy, and when the air is drawn into the chest there is often a crowing or whistling sound produced from obstruction in the throat, due to spasm of the muscles and to dried mucus coating the lining membrane, or to swelling in the larynx. ”

“ The predisposing cause is degeneration, or disease which weakens the blood vessel; the exciting cause is any one which tends to induce cerebral congestion. [Pg 221]
Symptoms.—Apoplexy is characterized by a sudden loss of sensation and motion, profound coma, and stertorous, difficult breathing. The action of the heart is little disturbed at first, but soon becomes slower, then quicker and feebler, and after a little time ceases. If the rupture is one of a small artery and the extravasation limited, sudden paralysis of some part of the body is the result. ”

“ In this form the symptoms are those of exhaustion, with a tendency towards fainting or its actual occurrence. A fully developed attack of this description is usually preceded by sickness, giddiness, some amount of mental excitement followed by drowsiness, and then the passage into the syncopal condition, in which there are pallor and coldness of the skin, a weak, quick, and intermittent pulse, and gasping or sighing respiration. The pupils are often contracted. Death may quickly occur; but if timely treatment is available recovery may take place. ”