Balance (physiology)

“ Suppose, for instance, that a man is accurately balanced in a scale-pan, and that some water enters his ear; of course he will become heavier in consequence, and if the balance be sufficiently delicate, it will exhibit the difference. ”

“ Equilibrium.—There are typical examples of almost as striking increase of muscle sensation, or rather of ability to distinguish minute differences in muscular sensation, noted in those who train this faculty carefully. Acrobats succeed in developing wonderful control over muscles and marvelous response to slight disturbance of equilibrium. The ordinary individual has comparatively small balancing powers, but the slack-rope performer seems almost to defy the laws of gravity, because he has learned so to coordinate all muscular action as to enable him to maintain his balance. ”

“ We see that animals (and men) are continually altering the position of the centre of gravity; for if a man bears a load he will lean forward, and if he takes up a can of water in one hand he will extend the other to preserve his balance or equilibrium.
Fig. 27.—Balancing a weight on a nail and key.
The experiment shown in the accompanying illustration is apparently very difficult, but it will be found easy enough in practice if the hand be steady. ”

“ And, in the second place, physiologists, like Du Bois-Reymond, recognize force as the invariable concomitant, if not the essential attribute of matter, and assume that to every constant primordial mass belongs a constant primordial quantity of force, so that the problem of physics, chemistry, and physiology, resolves itself into the quantitative determination of the mechanical interactions of material constants primarily endowed with forces acting equally in all directions, or, as they express it, constant central forces. ”

“ These rhythmical actions or functions, and the various compound rhythms resulting from their combinations, are so adjusted as to balance the actions to which the organism is subject: there is a constant or periodic genesis of energies which, in their kinds, amounts, and directions, suffice to antagonize the energies the organism has constantly or periodically to bear. If, then, there exists this moving equilibrium among a set of internal actions, exposed to a set of external actions, what must result if any of the external actions are changed? ”

“ And so, summing up our conclusions regarding Force and Energy and Motion in Inorganic Substance—and then in Organic Substance—we arrive at an understanding of the Basic Proposition of the Theory of Dynamic Thought, which is as follows:
Basic Proposition.—That All forms and exhibition of Force, Energy, Motion and Power are manifestations of Vital-Mental Action. And that, consequently, at the last there is no Force but Vital-Mental Force; no Energy but Vital-Mental Energy; no Motion but Vital-Mental Motion; no Power but Vital-Mental Power. ”

“ But temporarily-increased efficiency in these appliances by which blood and nervous force are brought to an organ, will cause extra assimilation in the organ, beyond that required to balance its extra expenditure. Regarding the functions as constituting a moving equilibrium, we may say that divergence of any function in the direction of increase, causes the functions with which it is bound up to diverge in the same direction ”

“ So, in our instance, the laws of macroscopic phenomena are different for mechanical and vital movements, though the laws of microscopic phenomena may be the same.
We may say, speaking somewhat roughly, that a stimulus applied to the nervous system, like a spark to dynamite, is able to take advantage of the stored energy in unstable equilibrium, and thus to produce movements out of proportion to the proximate cause. Movements produced in this way are vital movements, while mechanical movements are those in which the stored energy of a living body is not involved. ”

“ For in every case the balance arrived at is relative, and not absolute—is a cessation of the motion of some particular body in relation to a certain point or points, involving neither the disappearance of the relative motion lost, which is simply transformed into other motions, nor a diminution of the body’s motions with respect to other points. Thus understanding equilibration, it manifestly includes that equilibrium mobile, which at first sight seems of another nature. ”

“ They play an important part in our awareness of balance. They operate on a simple gravity principle. Without gravity they act up for a time, then gradually lose function. Returning to gravity is rather frightening at first. ”

“ The physical structure that you now occupy, your body, is a very intricate piece of mechanism. It is affected by many things. That which you think has a great effect upon the movement of the electrons of this structure. Anger, hate, greed — any of these things tend to disrupt and unbalance the electrons, causing the cells to become out of balance, and many things result. Learn relaxation. Be conscious of what you do, but do not be anxious. Anxiety and tension also bring about weakness in this structure. Hold your head high and declare your rightful place in the universe. ”

“ A somewhat higher level on the inclined plane is illustrated by what are called "tropisms," obligatory movements which the animal makes, adjusting its whole body so that physiological equilibrium results in relation to gravity, pressure, currents, moisture, heat, light, electricity, and surfaces of contact. A moth is flying past a candle; the eye next the light is more illumined than the other; a physiological inequilibrium results, affecting nerve-cells and muscle-cells ”

“ Comparing all the results of this whole series of experiments on the suggestion of movement, we may conclude that movement, whether suggested by a whole line or part of a line, produces in terms of mechanical balance the same effect that the balanced object would produce after the completion of the suggested motion. This tendency to balance, it appears, lies at the basis of our preference; it often gives way, however, before considerations of space-filling, when the figure which on the scheme of mechanical balance is weaker, gains interest and so 'heaviness' by being brought nearer the center. ”

“ In being conscious of expended energy, we discriminate its degrees, within certain limits; we know when we increase or diminish the amount; and our sensibility is measured by the smallness of the difference that makes a change in our consciousness. This discrimination is the basis of our estimate of the property termed Force, Resistance, Momentum, in moving bodies. Our idea of force is a muscular idea, an idea of muscular force of a certain amount. Force may be viewed in other ways, or from other aspects, but its direct and simple estimate is muscular energy in the dead strain. ”

“ I made the balance so sensitive that it oscillated according to the rhythm of respiration.
If one speaks to a person while he is lying on the balance horizontally, in equilibrium and perfectly quiet, it inclines immediately towards the head. The legs become lighter and the head heavier. This phenomenon is constant, whatever pains the subject may take not to move, however he may endeavour not to alter his breathing, to suspend it temporarily, not to speak, to do nothing which may produce a more copious flow of blood to the brain. ”

“ It has been already shown that all equilibration, so far as we can trace it, is relative. The dissipation of a body’s motion by communication of it to surrounding matter, solid, liquid, gaseous, and ethereal, tends to bring the body to a fixed position in relation to the matter that abstracts its motion. ”

“ In physiology, at least, it has now no place. It now never occurs to a physiologist to consider any of the vital phenomena as the result of a mysterious vital force, of an active power working for a definite purpose, standing outside of matter, and, so to speak, taking only the physico-chemical forces into its service. ”

“ Every body about which we know anything is always in a state of stress, that is to say there are always internal forces acting between the parts of the body, and these forces are exerted as surface tractions across geometrical surfaces drawn in the body. The body, and each part of the body, moves under the action of all the forces (body forces and surface tractions) which are exerted upon it; or remains at rest if these forces are in equilibrium. This result is expressed analytically by means of certain equations—the “equations of motion” or “equations of equilibrium” of the body. ”

“ In an address of the retiring President of this Association, delivered but a few years ago, I find this sentence: "Thought can not be a physical force, because thought admits of no measure." In the light of the rapid advances lately made in investigating mental action, we see that in two directions at least, in its rate of action and of its relative energy, we may already measure thought, as we measure any other form of energy, by the effects it produces. ”

“ The balance maintained normally between the two antagonistic systems is one of the most interesting of physiological phenomena. Think, for example, of the rate of the heart beat—how constantly it is maintained at a given level in each individual when the body is at rest; the impulses arriving through the vagal system just balance those arriving through the sympathetic system, so as to maintain a rate of approximately seventy-two beats per minute. ”

“ That the powers by which the nerves are the instruments of sensation, and the muscles of motion, are vital endowments, incapable of being expressed or explained by any comparison with mechanical, chemical, and electrical forces, is the result which we should 224 expect to find, judging from the whole analogy of science; and which thus is confirmed by the history of physiology up to the present time. We naturally, then, turn to inquire whether such peculiar vital powers have been brought into view with any distinctness and clearness. ”

“ And here a physical analogy may fitly be used to give the greatest definiteness to this cardinal truth. A mass of matter, of whatever kind, maintains its state of internal equilibrium, so long as its component particles severally stand toward their neighbors in equi-distant positions. Accepting the conclusions of modern physicists, which imply that each molecule moves rhythmically, then a balanced state implies that each performs its movements within a space bounded by the like spaces required for the movements of those around. ”

“ Again, arguments in favor of a general law of increase may be deduced from three other important points in physiology. Where do we find the highest measure or the most perfect health? It is in this same normal standard of physiology, and the nearest approaches to it. In some respects the human body resembles a complicated machine: the more perfect the structure, and the more nicely adjusted are all the parts of the machinery, the less likely is any one part to get out of order. ”

“ It is from our dynamic Activity also that we derive our conception of Force. Force, though it is studied scientifically in the measurement of the great natural forces which operate constantly, is originally known to us in the stress or pressure to which muscular exertion in contact with a material body gives rise. Such a force if it could be correctly measured, would record the rate at which Energy was undergoing transmutation, and it is from such experience of pressure that our idea of Force is originally derived. ”

“ The conception of such an excitable living tissue as nerve implies that of a molecular state which is in stable equilibrium. This equilibrium can be readily upset by an external agency, the stimulus, but the term “stable” expresses the fact that a change in any direction must be succeeded by one of opposite character, this being the return of the living structure to its previous state. ”

“ The question of the formation of cells, the question of the excitation of a continuous and equable motion, and, finally, the questions of the independence of the nervous system and of the soul—these are the great problems on which the human mind can measure its strength. ”

“ Any hesitation to admit that, between the physical forces and the sensations there exists a correlation like that between the physical forces themselves, must disappear on remembering how the one correlation, like the other, is not qualitative only but quantitative. Masses of matter which, by scales or dynamometer, are shown to differ greatly in weight, differ as greatly in the feelings of pressure they produce on our bodies. In arresting moving objects, the strains we are conscious of are proportionate to the momenta of such objects as otherwise measured. ”

“ Experiments have shown that the supply of Force in a nerve vanishes when the nerve is used, in which case it draws upon the storehouses for an additional supply.
This Fine Force of the Mind is really the source of All Energy, for as we have shown in previous chapters, all Motion arises from Mental Action, and this form of Force or Energy is the primal Force or Energy produced by the Mind. And this Force is in operation in all forms of Life, from the Atom to the Man. And not only may it be used by the Particle, but Man, also, has it at his disposal. ”

“ But how “mechanical happening” comes to have this marvellous inwardness, which we call sensation, feeling, perception, thought and will, which is neither mechanical nor derivable from anything mechanical; and, further, how physical and psychical can condition one another without doing violence to the law of the conservation of the sum of energy, is an absolute riddle. ”