Nerves

“ To sum it all up—if you want to learn to help yourself out of "nerves" learn to rest when you rest and to work without strain when you work; learn to loosen out of the muscular contractions which the nerves cause; learn to drop the mental resistances which cause the "nerves," and which take the form of anger, resentment, worry, anxiety, impatience, annoyance, or self-pity; eat only nourishing food, eat it slowly, and chew it well; breathe the freshest air you can, and breathe it deeply, gently, and rhythmically; take what healthy, vigorous exercise you find possible ”

“ Nervous Attacks.—What we call, for want of a better name, "nerve force," or "nerve action," is at any one time a definite quantity. In health it is distributed to all the sets of nerves equally, so that all work in harmony. ”

“ If the sensibility of these nerves is heightened, or possibly if the sensitiveness of the central terminations of the nerves is raised, then we may have sensations to which we give the name of pain. In like manner the skin is endowed with afferent nerves, distinct from those ministering to touch and to temperature, along which nervous impulses are constantly flowing. ”

“ There is nothing so plentifully, and nothing more curiously interwoven with every other substance, as the nerves; and so amazingly quick is their sensation, that the very instant a single nerve, even the smallest and remotest in the system, is affected, the soul, or the common sensorium, is sensible of the identical part so affected. ”

“ If, then, minute specific nerves of pain exist throughout the body and are gathered up into various nerve trunks, the fact that most sensory nerves do give some pain can no longer seem remarkable, or be counted as evidence that pain is an inseparable or general attribute of the other senses. ”

“ Nerves, Troubled.—Often a state of the nerves exists, without any apparent unhealthiness, which makes the whole system so sensitive, that ordinary sights, sounds, and smells become unbearable, and the patient feels the ordinary round of experience, which would never be noticed otherwise, an intolerable burden. ”

“ By the action of the organs and nerves of special sense we get all our knowledge of the external world, and, probably, if we had no organs of sense, we would have no consciousness of our existence.
Pain is due to abnormal action of sensory nerves, caused by disease, injury, or pressure, and the irritation made, being carried to the brain makes us conscious of the peculiar sensation we call pain. So the want of food or water makes an impression upon nerves, which being carried to the brain causes a peculiar sensation, and we say we feel hungry or thirsty. ”

“ Their nerves are so rudely distributed in loose knots all over the body, instead of being closely bound together into a single central system as with ourselves, that they can scarcely possess a consciousness of pain at all analogous to our own. ”

“ In this state and the consequent excitement of the nerves, she had almost wholly lost organic force, and received it only by transmission from those of stronger condition, principally from their eyes and the ends of the fingers. The atmosphere and nerve communications of others, said she, bring me the life which I need; they do not feel it; these effusions on which I live, would flow from them and be lost, if my nerves did not attract them; only in this way can I live. ”

“ For it is to be observed that, while the sensations conveyed by the healthy nerve are correct in the indications which they afford to the percipient brain, the indications given by pain are vague and untrustworthy, and often seriously misleading. Not to speak of the nerves of special sense, or of the fibres which convey the sensations of muscular movement, even the nerves of common sensation do carry to the internal perception, in health, a distinct impression of the well-being of the organs to which they are distributed. ”

“ In order to render these opinions understood by those who have never read any of the ancient writers of medicine, from a mistaken idea of their not being worth the reading, I must premise, that they considered the nerves to be the conductors of a certain subtile fluid, by means of which the muscles are made to contract, and all the animal functions are performed; this they denominated the animal spirits, and were of opinion that it was secreted from the blood by the brain. ”

“ Now, the nerves, like all other parts of the body, gain and lose strength according as they are exercised. If they have too much or too little exercise, they lose strength; if they are exercised to a proper degree, they gain strength. When the mind is continuously excited, by business, study, or the imagination, the nerves of emotion and sensation are kept in constant action, while the nerves of motion are unemployed. If this is continued for a long time, the nerves of sensation lose their strength from overaction, and the nerves of motion lose their power from inactivity. ”

“ The nerves are the organs and channels of Sensibility. By means of them we receive our sensations, whether of mere pleasure and pain, or of qualities which we ascribe to external objects, as a bitter taste, a sweet odour, a shrill sound, a red colour, a hard or a hot feeling of touch. Some of these sensations are but obscurely the objects of our consciousness; as for example the feeling which our feet have of the ground, or the sight which our eyes have of neighbouring objects, when we walk in a reverie. ”

“ Thus, a sensation which embraces within its range the whole spiritual being agitates in the same measure the whole framework of the organic body,—heart, veins and blood, muscles and nerves, all, from those mighty nerves that give to the heart its living impulse of motion down to the tiny and unimportant nerves by which hairs are attached to the skin, share equally its influence. ”

“ Microscopic researches are constantly revealing nerve-fibres, in ever-increasing profusion, which penetrate to parts seemingly the least vitalized in the organism. But, in any case, the nerves are certainly the ultimate channel of communication between the suffering part and the sentient centre. ”

“ Weak nerves are the constant companions of inactivity. Nothing but exercise and open air can brace and strengthen the nerves, or prevent the endless train of diseases which proceed from a relaxed state of these organs. ”

“ The nerves are the subtile springs of the sensation, by which the whole becomes sensible of irritation, and agitated to its functions. Their ramifications are extended ad infinitum, and so curiously distributed, that though there is not a part in the whole system exempt from their spreading, yet they 16are distributed with such regularity, that they don’t interfere with each other. ”

“ Paradoxical as it may sound, there is nothing the matter with a nervous person's nerves. The faithful messengers have borne the blame for so long that their name has gotten itself woven into the very language as symbolic of disease. When we speak of nervous prostration, neurasthenia, neuroses, nervousness, and "nerves" we mean that body and mind are behaving badly because of functional disorder. ”

“ At the surface of the body and limbs, the external termini of the nerves are exposed to disturbance by contact with an external object. Along the highly sensitive and minute conductor, the nerve which has by contact with an external object at its outer extremity received a slight shock, there passes through the fluid or semi-fluid substance of the nerve a wave of disturbance, or a succession of such waves. This disturbance reaches the brain, the great nerve-center, where it becomes a feeling. ”

“ Just as the touch and pain nerves enmesh closely our body, warning us against hurtful stimulations, so we may say that fear, through our distant receptors of sight, hearing and smell, surrounds us, warning us against enemies, or inimical, suspicious objects, and forces. ”

“ The afferent nerves, when excited by some physical irritant, be this as gross in its mode of operation as a chopping axe or as subtle as the waves of light, conveys the excitement to the nervous centres. ”

“ So you see the nerves are very much like telegraph or telephone wires. By means of them the brain finds out all about what is happening in the body, and sends out its orders to the various organs, which may be called its servants. ”

“ This same double arrangement of nerves is found in many of our most important smooth muscle organs. We said a moment ago that every emotional display is accompanied by an outflow of nervous disturbances to the smooth muscle or gland structures. We now see that what happens in the body is determined by which of the possible pathways is followed by the nervous disturbance. ”

“ It makes it appear that nerves are of minor importance. Nerves are less understood than anything in the human anatomy and they are harder to understand.
Experience has proved that nerves cannot be restored by dope, patent medicines, tonics or prescriptions. ”

“ We are not now speaking of the nerves which endow us with the sense of feeling, because they are regarded as separate and distinct from those nerves that produce in us consciousness of muscular response. ”

“ The nerves of sympathy, or the system of sympathetic nerves, are those which are distributed to the internal organs, and which are independent of the will. They regulate the motions of the heart, the lungs, the stomach, &c., and stimulate the organs of secretion, so that those organs work in harmony with each other. ”

“ Neither nerves nor nervousness are words to be found in the Bible or Shakespeare. The latter uses the word nerve at least seven times in the sense of sinewy. Nervy, which is obsolete, he employs as full of nerves, sinewy, strong. ”

“ The second, the sympathetic nerve system, consists of all the nerves of the unconscious or functional life; it therefore includes all nerves running between the brain and sympathetic or involuntary nerve centers on the one hand and the involuntary muscles on the other. ”

“ This simile may serve to illustrate the way in which we may obtain a similar result by irritation of various efferent nerves, the stimulation being conveyed to the nerve-center and reflected down the same efferent nerve in each case. For example, a small grain of sand in the eye will cause a person to wink violently and involuntarily. ”

“ PEOPLE form habits which cause nervous strain. When these habits have fixed themselves for long enough upon their victims, the nerves give way and severe depression or some other form of nervous prostration is the result. ”

“ The following is extracted from a lecture on Moral Philosophy, by the learned and Reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith, D. D., late President of the College of New Jersey.
‘The nerves are easily excited into movement by an infinite variety of external impulses, or internal agitations. By whatever impulse any motion, vibration, or affection, in the nervous system is produced, a correspondent sensation, or train of sensations, or ideas in the mind, will naturally follow. ”

“ How, then, do we explain those morbid phenomena which have their origin in misplaced affection, in disappointed ambition, in hatred, or in anger, and which culminate either in serious chronic maladies, or in death or suicide? They all seem to start from an impairment of the cerebro-spinal centres. The continual excitation of these by everpresent emotions determines a paralysis of the central nerve-substance, and thus affects its connections with the nerves extending out to the various organs. These nerves next degenerate by degrees, and soon the great functions are compromised. ”

“ How does fear operate upon the body [Pg 18] to produce sickness? By paralysing the nerve centres, especially those of the vasomotor nerves, thus producing not only muscular relaxation, but capillary congestions of all kinds. ”

“ We couldn't get along very well without nerves because it is through them that we know what is going on around us. Nerves are just as necessary to make things go right inside of us. It is by means of the nerves of the eye that we see, the nerves of the ear that we hear, the nerves of the tongue that we taste. ”

“ And the power that extends through these exhibits a sort of independent impulse, working with the spirit of its will by a sort of natural management, in each particular part; but the root of all, and the principle of the motions of the nerves, is found in the nervous tissue that surrounds the brain. ”

“ The brain and muscles must develop simultaneously. Iron nerves with an intelligent brain—and the whole world is at your feet. ”

“ The nerves do not feel the object, but only change the place where it is felt, and their changes and those of the brain are only objects of sensation, not instruments thereof, nor in fact sensation itself. ”

“ The mind must, above all, be treated and diversion of attention secured. Psycho-neuroses may occur in connection with sensory or motor nerves. The patient may either complain of intense pain in some part of the body for which there is but a very slight basis, or may be unable to move certain muscles, or there may be a combination of sensory and motor symptoms with complaint of pain on movement. ”

“ Many other nerves are the seat and starting-points of pains which after long continuance give rise to an exaggerated sensitiveness of the whole nervous system, to increased acuteness in all the nervous regions, by which sound thought and feeling are deeply disturbed. ”

“ The reason for this special location of the affection is that in people who stand and walk much, this constituting their main form of exercise, these nerves are much used. They are probably in such people (that is, if the intensity of impulses that pass through them be taken into account) the most used nerves in the body. ”

“ We learn from the phenomena of the senses that the nerves are very much under the influence of mechanical impulses of all kinds, and particularly minute and inappreciable impulses of this description. Another fact which gives additional credibility to such an idea is, that those Neurotic substances which are chemically alike are in general alike also in their influence on nerve. ”

“ There are, no doubt, such factors as a certain innate sensitiveness, a natural suggestibility, an intensity of emotion, a little tendency to nervous instability, which predispose a person to nerves, but unless the inborn tendency is reinforced by the reactions and training of early childhood, it is likely to die a natural death. ”