Stroke

“ Another very important reflex upon the heart is that which is effected through the solar plexus and the sympathetic nerve. A stroke upon the belly will through these nerves stop the heart, dilate the vessels, and induce the most serious conditions of shock, killing the patient, or at any rate bringing him down to death's door. ”

“ Draw simply a succession of strokes with any point upon paper, and we find that we are gradually led to repeat a particular kind of stroke, a particular degree of line, partly perhaps because it seems to be produced with more ease, and partly because it appears to have the pleasantest effect. ”

“ For the third, we are to consider first, that upon every great agitation or concussion of the brain, as it happeneth from a stroke, especially if the stroke be upon the eye, whereby the optic nerve suffereth any great violence, there appeareth before the eyes a certain light, which light is nothing without, but an apparition only, all that is real being the concussion or motion of the parts of that nerve. ”

“ If we could go into the causes of false strokes in work or play, we should doubtless find that each has its antecedents, and that the false stroke often has a more or less definite meaning and is the expression of some trend which does not lie on the surface. Such occurrences are readily explicable as failures of adjustment due either to weakening of control or disturbances in the controlled tendencies to movement. ”

“ If we regard the construction of the blood-vessels, and other parts of the circulating system, we find that they are constructed entirely on physical laws. The Heart is the mover which propels the blood, and, after having given the stroke, its fibres become relaxed, to receive a fresh supply. In this case it is important that the fluid should not again regurgitate into its cavities ”

“ It is most probable, however, that every stroke impels something; and that there would be no pulse of the container, without an impulse being communicated to the thing contained, seems certain. Yet some, that they may seize upon a farther means of defence, and escape the necessity of admitting the circulation, do not fear to affirm that the arteries in the living body and in the natural state are already so full of blood, that they are incapable of receiving another drop; and so also of the ventricles of the heart. ”

“ It will insure against unsteadiness and will enable the operator to do his work just as he wants it and where he wants it. It will enable him to give the heaviest part of the stroke at the center of the heart growth, where it ought to be, and to gradually lessen its width toward the sides, where it is not so full nor heavy. ”

“ The stroke is the true electric shock, inflicted by the medium of space suddenly rushing or falling on the stomach, from which the matter of the comatose flow had been as suddenly displaced. Taking all circumstances into consideration, it is manifest that the state of sleep is the result of a natural magnetizing operation. ”

“ For treating a stroke on the head unto the brain, a stroke in the body unto the bowels, and the breaking of one of the four limbs, the wounded person was to receive three pounds from the one who wounded him ”

“ Over and over again, with the eyes of seven of the men on the back of the man in front of him timing the movement, and with the eyes of the stroke on the coxswain, to catch the slightest signal.
Stroke after stroke—movement after movement, one just like the other—twenty-eight to the minute, Jerry having started them off with that minimum. ”

“ Every time that the heart beats, a contraction of the spiral fibres takes place, and the blood is sent through the arteries by the force of the stroke, as water gushes through a syringe; and exactly at the same time an equal proportion is received from the veins. Thus at every pulse about two spoonfuls of blood are sent out from the human heart, through the arteries, and the same quantity is received through the veins. ”

“ When we see a stroke aimed and just ready to fall upon the leg or arm of another person, we naturally shrink and draw back our own leg or our own arm; and when it does fall, we feel it in some measure, and are hurt by it as well as the sufferer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He will go on striking you every minute forever and ever without end. The first stroke will make your body as bad as the body of Job, covered from head to foot with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the body of Job. ”

“ The down and up strokes are compound movements—the termination of the down stroke embracing the beginning of the up stroke, and the termination of the up stroke including the beginning of the down stroke. ”

“ The last deception is to be expected only in those advanced in life. But the greater number of those cut necessarily have been young persons. In them the symptoms of stone are closely simulated by irritations of the alimentary canal, and the crying of the patient prevents the stroke on the stone from being distinctly heard. ”

“ Imagine that a sparrow-hawk had seized a trembling pigeon, and that a royal falcon swooped, and with one lightning-like stroke of body and wing buffeted him away, and there he was on his back, gaping and glaring and grasping at nothing with his claws. ”

“ Unacquainted with grief, I knew not how to appraise my bereavement; I could not rightly estimate the strength of the stroke. ”

“ There's a stroke that's worth notin', and is a kind of edication in itself. Ye might almost think that there wasn't quite enough snap in it; but the boy knows that he's pullin' for his life and the life of another man somewhere below him—not to speak of the pups—and he knows it's good seven miles to the rapids, and he's pullin' every ounce that's in him to pull, and keep his stroke. Now, he's come five miles, ef he's come a rod, and I warrant he hasn't missed a stroke, save when in shootin' the rift he let off his piece. ”

“ We have now learned that there exist many chemical bodies which act in the same manner as alcohol, and that their effect is not to stimulate the heart, but to weaken the contractile force of the extreme and minute vessels which the heart fills with blood at each of its strokes. These bodies produce, in fact, a paralysis of the organic nervous supply of the vessels which constitute the minute vascular structures. ”

“ Tho' he bore this severe stroke with surprizing fortitude and resignation, yet the effect it had on his health and spirits began to alarm us very much, when last spring we were still more terrified by the symptoms of an approaching dropsy; a shortness of breath, swelling of the legs and body and [122] the loss of rest, strength and appetite. The Physician who attended him encreased our apprehensions by confessing his own difficulties, as he was well assured that Mr. ”

“ Some were a bit awkward, but all were careful to at least step into the shell properly.
"Push off," commanded the coxswain-coach, as he took his seat in the stern, with the tiller ropes in his hands. "You will notice that some of you are on what is called the stroke side—that is, with your oars on the same side as Frank Simpson, who faces me. So when I say 'stroke side pull,' it means that only those on that side, or at my right hand, are to row.
"Oppositely, some of you are on what is known as the bow side, or with your oars on the side on which sits Boswell, the bow oar. ”

“ Strokes and stripes os rods most essetually cure those who dislemble diseases. It has osten happened that persons who have shammed an epilepsy have grown well, 'and been cured besore they have been sick by this sharp and wholesome remedy. It has done good, too, as preventive physic, by hindering others srom imposing dislempers upon the world. I have known lazy servants, who have dissembled some strange dislemper, return to their busmess by this discipline. We can the less doubt that strokes contribute to the cure os real bodily dislempers, smce they cure those os the soul. ”

“ No, she never recovered, madam. She had a stroke at the end. Last words she ever said was—very slow, “Look in—the—Look—in—” And then she was gone. ”

“ The ball must be watched very carefully, but every ball that can be punished should be punished manfully. I do not think that batsmen run out enough at slow bowling or at lobs. For some undiscovered reason, there is a floating idea that running out and rashness are synonymous. As a matter of fact, to run out is often the safest thing one can do. It makes a difficult ball into an easy one, and often enables the batsman to make a forcing-stroke along the ground instead of a risky high-drive. The man who plays cautiously is invariably regarded with reverence and favour by those who know. ”

“ If we press upon the carotid arteries which pass up through the neck to form the arterial circle of Willis, at the base of the brain, within the skull—of which I have already spoken, and which supplies the brain with blood—we quickly, as every one knows, produce insensibility. Thought is abolished, consciousness lost. And if we continue the pressure, all those automatic actions of the body, such as the beating of the heart, the breathing motions of the lungs, which maintain life and are controlled by the lower brain centers of ganglia, are quickly stopped and death ensues. ”

“ A blood-vessel of the brain, from causes which will presently be mentioned, has lost some of its elastic strength; food is abundant, digestion is good; blood is made in abundance, but little is worked off by exercise; the tension on every artery and vein is at a maximum rate; the even, circuitous flow is temporarily impeded at some point, throwing a dangerous pressure on another; the vessel which has lost its elastic strength gives way, blood is poured out, a clot is formed, which, by its pressure on the brain, produces complete unconsciousness. ”

“ The blood flows more abundantly to the inflamed part, the elasticity of the tissues diminishes, the skin becomes more unyielding, an increased pressure on the nerves ensues, and these, rendered more sensitive through the injury, communicate a painful sensation to the brain which pricks unceasingly, keeping time with the rhythm of the heart.
In no organ is the supply of blood so abundant as in the brain; it is sufficient to state that one-fifth of the blood in our body goes to the head. ”

“ There are no vessels carrying blood to and from the various organs of the body which so frequently rupture as those in the brain. The causes that produce this result are the fatty degeneracy of the middle arterial coat of the cerebral vessels, whereby their elastic strength is much impaired, the great irregularity of blood distribution to the contents of the cranium, and the little support which the pulpy substance of the brain gives to the weakened vessels embedded in it. ”

“ Stroking consists in gentle rubbing directed from the periphery upward, commencing the process above the inflamed part and continuing it over the diseased area; the pressure, at first light but finally firmer, will force the exudates into the tissues above, which have been emptied by the preparatory rubbing. ”

“ A large part of the blood is returned from the head by the external jugular veins, which are very near the surface, and in which the current can be checked by slight pressure. Most of the blood from the brain itself comes back through the internal jugulars, which lie near, but a little outside of, the carotid arteries. ”

“ The nerves of the cerebral arteries spring from the lower ganglion of the great sympathetic nerve in the neck, into which run the fibres ascending from the abdomen; while the carotid arteries derive their vasomotor supply from the middle and upper ganglia. Thus we can see how the emotions sympathize with the organic processes, especially those located in the abdomen, and so can see melancholia in a new light; can comprehend how mental depression may wait upon and depart with abdominal disturbance. The disturbance does not extend to the intellectual processes; the emotions alone are involved. ”

“ When the mind directs thought and volition toward any organ of the body the blood and nervous fluid tend to that organ. Thus, when the brain is used, or the eye, or the hand, the nervous fluid and blood tend to the organ to stimulate its action. If this stimulation is too frequent, or too long continued, or produced by unnatural methods, then debility or disease are the result. The capillaries of the misused organ become engorged, producing temporary or chronic inflammation or congestion. ”

“ The internal dropsy of the brain is a disease confined chiefly to children.
2. In children the brain is larger in proportion to other parts of the body, than it is in adults; and of course a greater proportion of blood is sent to it in childhood, than in the subsequent periods of life. The effects of this determination of blood to the brain appear in the mucous discharge from the nose, and in the sores on the head and behind the ears, which are so common in childhood. ”

“ In acute Diseases, when the motion of the Blood is very rapid through the whole Body, the Brain must suffer greatly, on account of the horizontal position, to which people in such cases are confin’d; because, the Blood rushing violently into the Arteries of the Brain, and its return being retarded by the Jugular Veins, will remarkably contribute to produce delirious symptoms, so frequent in acute Disorders, which might be in some measure prevented, by raising the Head ”

“ In the brain the terminal branches of the arteries do not run into each other, as in some organs, so that each little cone, like the leaf on the tree, is independent of adjacent cones and hangs upon its own arterial twig. Now, it is evident that anything which plugs up the artery is going to cut off the blood, and therefore the nutriment from the little cone of brain, and then the little cone will wither and die. ”