Organ grinder

“ The elements of the muscular fibre are replaced by fatty cells; or, if not so replaced, are themselves transferred into a modified muscular texture in which the power of contraction is greatly reduced.
"Those who suffer from these organic deteriorations of the central and governing organ of the circulation of the blood learn the fact so insidiously, it hardly breaks upon them until the mischief is far advanced. They are, for years, conscious of a central failure of power from slight causes, such as overexertion, trouble, broken rest, or too long abstinence from food. ”

“ In the same way the kidneys can also be kept in good condition if too much meat be not taken. These eliminate the end-products of meat food, and the more of such products that pass through the kidneys, the more of them are taken from the blood and excreted by means of the fine epithelia of the kidney tubules, and thus the more is the work done by these organs; and we have mentioned that any overwork of an organ may be followed by its exhaustion. ”

“ Visiting all parts of the body, rebuilding and refreshing every spot it touches, the blood current also carries away from each organ the waste matters of which that organ has no longer any use. Just as each part or organ has different properties and different work, so also is the waste of each not exactly the same, though all are alike inasmuch as they are all the results of oxidation. The waste of the muscle is not exactly the same as the waste of the brain or of the liver. ”

“ Thus an excavation is sometimes found in the liver or spleen; or the diaphragm is pierced through and through. The margins of the latter holes are without any sign of vascular action, but are generally besmeared with a dark pulpy mass, the remains of the softened tissue. The pulp never smells of gangrene; with which, indeed, this species of softening is wholly unconnected. The edge of the hole in the stomach never adheres to the adjoining organ; yet, even when the hole is very large, the contents of the stomach have not always made their escape. ”

“ The general character of tertiary manifestations may be stated as follows: They attack by preference the tissues derived from the mesoblastic layer of the embryo—the cellular tissue, bones, muscles, and viscera. They are often localised to one particular tissue or organ, such, for example, as the subcutaneous cellular tissue, the bones, or the liver, and they are rarely symmetrical. They are usually aggressive and persistent, with little tendency to natural cure, and they may be dangerous to life, because of the destructive changes produced in such organs as the brain or the larynx. ”

“ This newly-developed connective tissue gradually contracts, and in so doing crushes the cells and obstructs the blood-vessels, making the organ much smaller than natural, and causing the surface to be covered with little projecting knobs, consisting of portions of liver-tissue that have been less compressed than the part that separates them. ”

“ The resulting impairment of nutrition becomes enhanced from the condition of the blood, which is impoverished from the simultaneous infiltration of the blood-making organs. The nutrition of the individual thus suffers as well as that of the immediately diseased organ. Fatty degeneration and atrophy of the parenchymatous cells of organs like the liver and kidneys is the constant result of long-continued and extensive infiltration of these glands. ”

“ In consequence of its not making the tissues shrink, it does not squeeze the blood out of the vessels and where the organ has been congested before death, we may, by using Müller’s fluid, preserve a natural injection of the capillaries.
3. There is comparatively little danger of over-hardening the tissue and rendering it brittle.
4. Sections of organs hardened in Müller’s fluid are usually firm and easy to manipulate. They do not tend to curl up or adhere to one another as much as those hardened in spirit. ”

“ The removal of these glands in animals produces a condition resembling acute poisoning accompanied by spasmodic contraction of the muscles. A small glandular organ at the base of the brain, the pituitary body, produces a secretion, one of the most marked properties of which is a control of growth, particularly that of the bones. Most cases of giantism, combined as they are with imperfect mentality, are due to disease of this gland. There are glands near the kidney which regulate the pressure of the blood in the arteries by causing contraction of their muscular walls. ”

“ Valuable service is rendered to research as a whole, if every case, which gives an unexpected result in respect of its reaction, is thoroughly investigated. In the first place the dialysation tubes should be changed, or else another organ should be used. If the result always recurs, we still have to exclude the possibility that, in the organ used, substances are inherent which are also contained in other organs. In saying this we are thinking of such a case as the following. It may be that an individual has some diseased connective tissue in some part of his body. ”

“ Strong support for this view of a specific cell structure is supplied by the numerous experiments on transplantation. The surgeon nowadays tries, as much as possible, to retain the full strength of the functions of every organ, and, if some of the tissues are missing, he seeks aid in substitutes. It is found that only those tissues graft which are taken from the same species, while still better results are obtained by the use of parts of the same individual. Heteroplasty, i.e., the attempt to graft foreign tissues, has never succeeded. A body requires cells in harmony with itself. ”

“ The organ must be absolutely freed from blood, a condition that can be attained in the case of different organs with varying facility. Placenta and lungs, for instance, can be easily washed so as to free them from blood, or the blood may be rinsed out through the large blood-vessels; whilst the liver, kidneys, and particularly the uvea, are freed from blood with great difficulty. With the latter there is scarcely any other means of proving its suitability, than by experimenting comparatively with serum from individuals with healthy and diseased uvea respectively. ”

“ There is an ever-present tendency to destroy the higher form of cells—those that are directly concerned with the vital processes—and to replace them with useless or harmful connective tissue. "Whether this scar tissue formation goes on in the heart, in the kidneys, in the liver, in the blood-vessels, or in the nerves," says Woodhead, "the process is essentially the same, and it must be associated with the accumulation of poisonous or waste products in the lymph spaces through which the nutrient fluids pass to the tissues. ”

“ The cells that form it are constantly dying, are cast off, and fresh material is supplied. The waste eliminated is poison ; and, without muscular rest, this dead and harmful refuse cannot be replaced with sufficient rapidity by new products. This applies not only to muscles in active use, but to all of the bodily fabric. Rapid exercise of any part of the human machine can be continued but for a short time, for, because of vigorous muscular action, voluntary or involuntary, poisonous substances are thrown into the blood and are carried to tissue, nerves, and brain. ”

“ The dialysation process and the optical method would, in this case, give the apparently astounding result, that defensive ferments are present in the blood serum which are directed against the components of organ B, whilst those which correspond to the components of organ A would, against all expectation, be entirely absent. Organ A only appears to refuse to work because, as the result of a primary dys-function of organ B, the secretions are unable to achieve their aim in the proper place. They are caught up too soon. ”

“ As an organ it is not easily injured by over work, but readily lends its function in an emergency in any effort to relieve other tired or diseased organs of the body. By vicarious action the skin is capable of performing much extra labor without injury to itself and can be harnessed temporarily for the relief of some vital part which has become crippled until its function can be restored.
A diseased kidney depends particularly upon the skin for succor more than any other organ. ”

“ Numerous experiments have shown, as has already been mentioned, that definite cells depend upon definite secretions having their origin in other organs. If we remove certain organs, for instance the thyroid gland, the accessory thyroids, the sexual glands, the suprarenal bodies, and so on, we get definite degenerative phenomena appearing. In many instances, indeed, the absence of these organs is incompatible with life itself. The same phenomenon manifests itself when the organ is left in its proper place, but through some cause or other gradually discontinues its proper functions. ”

“ To satisfy this greed, it will absorb moisture from the tissues with which it comes in contact, as well as from their lubricating juices. The enlargement of the blood vessels and their permanent congestion must interfere with the filtering action of the membrane. In time, all the membranes become dry, thickened, and hardened; they then shrink upon the sensitive nerve, or stiffen the joint, or enfeeble the muscle. The function of these membranes being deranged, they will not furnish the organs with perfected material, and the clogged pores will no longer filter their natural fluids. ”

“ In the kidney, for example, the destruction of single cells is quickly made good by new cell formation, but the loss of an area of tissue is never restored. In the liver, on the other hand, which is of much simpler construction, large areas of tissue can be newly formed. For the formation of new cells in a part there must be a sufficient amount of formative material; then the circulation of the blood becomes more active, more blood being brought to the part by dilatation of the vessels supplying it.
Repair after a loss can be perfect or imperfect. ”

“ All of them injected into the blood in large doses act as muscle and nerve poisons, and during their excretion by the kidney usually irritate it severely, but only a few are absorbed in sufficient amount to produce similar effects when given by the mouth. When iron is injected directly into a vein it depresses the heart's action, the blood pressure and the nervous system, and during its excretion greatly irritates the bowel and the kidneys. ”

“ In other words, the producing material has served its purpose as living cell growth. In cases treated medically its presence is regarded with dread, and at times when it appears, as it does, in anaesthetized subjects under the surgeon's knife, operations have been abandoned because of the fear of death while the paralysis of the anaesthetic endures. Its presence in a patient undergoing the fast indicates functional derangement of more than ordinary gravity. In health there is no production of acetone, since discarded cell tissue is eliminated before fermentation can occur. ”

“ If the extraction presents any difficulties, one can often attain one's object by covering the tissue in the fresh state with a very thick layer of common salt. The mixture is allowed to stand for two to six hours in an ice-chest; the salt is then dissolved, and the washing carried on in the usual manner. One must never preserve an organ from which the blood has been incompletely abstracted, in any particular manner, with the intention of completing the process later on. All preservation media produce coagulation and alteration of the blood. ”

“ Kidney grafting has been successful as yet only on cats and dogs but opotherapy or the administration of glandular extracts of animals when our own fail is in its infancy, although it does seem to give promise of deferring death and increasing the vigor of human life. Indeed, he thinks that the renewal of worn-out glandular mechanisms by grafting may even become a commonplace. The vital fluid supplied by these organs “restores energy in all cells and spreads happiness and a feeling of well-being and the plenitude of life throughout our organism.” ”

“ They are often exposed to accidents, which render them unfit for performing their various functions; and even when no such accidents happen, it seems necessary for the health of the system that they should be perpetually renewed. Materials must therefore be provided for repairing, increasing, or renewing all the various organs of the body. The bones require phosphate of lime, and gelatine, the muscles fibrine, and the cartilages and membranes albumen; and accordingly we find all these substances contained in the blood, from whence they are drawn, as from a storehouse, whenever they are wanted. ”

“ The transformed matters of the organs are obviously unfit for the further nourishment of the body—that is, for the increase or reproduction of the mass. They pass through the absorbent and lymphatic vessels into the veins, and their accumulation in these would soon put a stop to the nutritive process were it not that the blood has to pass through a filtering apparatus, as it were, before reaching the heart. The venous blood, before returning to the heart, is made to pass through the liver and the kidneys, which separate from it all substances incapable of contributing to nutrition. ”

“ While all the bodily tissues are more or less impaired, the brain, kidneys, and digestive system suffer most. There may be connective tissue changes, fatty degeneration, sclerosed kidneys, liver or arteries, and a more or less dilatation of the stomach.
Treatment.—In acute alcoholism, the blood should be drained from a large vein, while fluid is being injected into a large artery. After draining a sufficient amount of blood from the body, the vein tube should be shut off [355] and the arterial injection should continue until the capillaries have been filled to their utmost capacity. ”