Venality

“ Or the dead blood drawn from her veins be in your veins blood?
Will ye gather up water again that was drawn and shed?
In the blood is the life of the veins, and her veins are dead.
For the lives that are over are over, and past things past ”

“ Orifices of the Body. The mouth, nose, ears, anus, urethra and vagina are to be examined with special regard to their condition and contents (open, closed, gaping, torn, bleeding, discharge of pus, blood, mucus, féces, stomach contents, semen, urine, foreign substances, parasites, ear-wax, etc.) . In cases of suspected rape an especial examination of the orifice of the vagina or anus is indicated.
35. Percussion and Palpation. The external examination may be closed by the percussion of the heart, lung, spleen, liver and stomach boundaries, and by the palpation of the abdomen. ”

“ If the sexual organs are handled, it brings too much blood to these parts, and this produces a diseased condition; it also causes disease in other organs of the body, because they are left with a less amount of blood than they ought to have. The sexual organs, too, are very closely connected with the spine and the brain by means of the nerves, and if they are handled, or if you keep thinking about them, these nerves get excited and become exhausted, and this makes the back ache, the brain heavy and the whole body weak. ”

“ The almost stagnant blood beginning to circulate again through nearly collapsed veins and arteries, inflicts tortures upon every nerve—tortures unheard of in the cruelest inquisition. Red-hot needles seem to be piercing every nerve of the body and pore of the skin. It is an agony that even the torpor of the brain does not overcome. ”

“ Second.—That while the arteries thus distribute everywhere the fresh pure blood, the veins with which they communicate bring back that same blood, no longer pure, to the right side of the heart, whence it is once more transmitted to the lungs, thence carried again revivified to the left ventricle, and then once more distributed throughout the body, its changes not being those of an ebbing and a flowing tide, but the ceaseless current of an onward rushing river. ”

“ His Chapter Seven is devoted to showing how the blood passes through the substance of the lungs from the right ventricle and then on into the pulmonary vein and left ventricle. He alludes to the multitude of doubters as belonging, as the poet had said, to that race of men who, when they will, assent full readily, and when they will not, by no matter of means; who, when their assent is wanted, fear, and when it is not, fear not to give it. ”

“ And then no one denies that the blood as such, even the portion of it which flows in the veins, is imbued with spirits. But if that portion which is contained in the arteries be richer in spirits, it is still to be believed that these spirits are inseparable from the blood, like those13 in the veins: that the blood and spirits constitute one body (like whey and butter in milk, or heat [and water] in hot water) , with which the arteries are charged, and for the distribution of which from the heart they are provided, and that this body is nothing else than blood. ”

“ Farther, the reason why the lungs have such ample vessels, both arteries and veins, (for the capacity of the pulmonary veins exceeds that of both the crural and jugular vessels,) and why they contain so large a quantity of blood, as by experience and ocular inspection we know they do, admonished of the fact indeed by Aristotle, and not led into error by the appearances found in animals which have been bled to death,—is, because the blood has its fountain, and storehouse, and the workshop of its last perfection in the heart and lungs. ”

“ Further, whether the left ventricle, which in man is of greater length, and is also surrounded with thicker and more fleshy walls, and is regarded as the source of the spirits, be hotter, more spirituous, excitable, and excellent, than the right, which contains a larger quantity of blood, and is the last to become unstrung by death; in which the blood of the dying accumulates, congeals, and is deprived of life and spirit; to which, moreover, as to a fountain head, the first umbilical veins bring their blood, and from which they themselves derive their origin. ”

“ There is in man a vein which feedeth all the other veins. Now water is collected from the three hundred and sixty veins and, in the form of red blood, entereth the left testicle, where it is decocted, by the heat of temperament inherent in the son of Adam, into a thick, white liquid, whose odour is as that of the palm-spathe. ”

“ And now the discussion is brought to this point, that they who inquire into the ways by which the blood reaches the left ventricle of the heart and pulmonary veins from the vena cava, will pursue the wisest course if they seek by dissection to discover the causes why in the larger and more perfect animals of mature age, nature has rather chosen to make the blood percolate the parenchyma of the lungs, than as in other instances chosen a direct and obvious course—for I assume that no other path or mode of transit can be entertained. ”

“ Blood-letting in this locality purifies liver, spleen, breast. 34. Same as 32. 36. Affections of the spleen, meningeal inflammation; hemorrhoids; stitches in the left side; renal affections; dysmenorrhea. 37. Affections of the spleen and of the bladder. 38. Dropsy; disturbances of digestion; ulcers of long standing. 39. Melancholia; venesection in this locality strengthens the kidneys. [177] 40. Hemorrhoids; strangury; disturbances of digestion; affections of the bladder and of the sexual organs. 41. Venesection here acts upon the proper condition of the body in general. ”

“ Every medical man who will study to investigate as far as possible, in every case, the original channel through which disease or constitutional disorder first found its entry into the system, will be astonished at the mass of human suffering which may be traced up to a venereal origin, although its primary symptoms may have been for years apparently eradicated from the frame. ”

“ For the present I will only say and set forth without demonstration—by good leave of the learned and with due respect to the ancients—that the heart, as the beginning, author, source, and origin of everything in the body and the first cause of life, should [67] be held to include the veins and all the arteries and also the contained blood; just as the brain, including all its nerves and sensory organs and spinal marrow, is the one adequate organ of sensation, as the phrase is. ”

“ Thus arranged we see how blood is driven to any part of the system, by the power that is sent over the nerves from the brain to the spinal cord, and from there to all nerves of each and all divisions of the body. Then your blood that has done its work in constructing parts or all of the system, entering veins to be returned to the heart for renewal. Each vein, great and small, has nerves [Pg 187] with them as servants of power, to force blood back to heart through the different sets of tubes known as veins, and made to suit the duties they have to perform in the process of life. ”

“ Besides provoking senility at an early period, castration or a degenerated condition of the sexual glands, especially in women, is able to produce alterations in organs, which are of great importance to the vitality of individuals, and to a long life, such as the heart, stomach, intestines, and liver. ”

“ The right side of the heart, which has nothing but soiled blood in it all the time, sends it to the lungs in a hurry, and it fills the thousands of hair-like veins which are in every part of the lungs. The walls of the veins are so thin that the oxygen in the lungs soaks through into the blood, and the poison in the blood goes through into the air, and is breathed out of the body. ”

“ And now the cause is manifest, why in our dissections we usually find so large a quantity of blood in the veins, so little in the arteries; why there is much in the right ventricle, little in the left, which probably led the ancients to believe that the arteries (as their name implies) contained nothing but spirits during the life of an animal. ”

“ But your Author may say, When a part of the body is corrupted, it is no longer an animal Part. I grant it: but yet, as I said, that transformed part may remain in the body some time without destruction of the whole body; and so likewise, when some of the blood, is transchanged from being blood, so as not to be capable to be reduced again, it may nevertheless remain in the veins without definition of the veins, or of the whole body: Neither do I conceive any reason, why corrupt blood should Gangrene in the veins, and infect the adjoyning parts more then corrupted lungs do. ”

“ Inability to perform the sexual act while suffering from any mental derangement, or misunderstanding one’s own mental elaborations, is not impotence; but there must be impairment of the integrity of the nerve-substance that evolves the force that sustains the sexual organ in its erect attitude, and also supplies the so-called physiological irritation. If we attempt to name this peculiar disease from other stand-points, we shall become confused; as it would only demonstrate a function-disease, which is an impossibility and leads to confusion. ”

“ The blood coming from all parts of the body, partly robbed of its oxygen and containing much carbon dioxide and other katastases, enters the right auricle of the heart through three great veins, the median vena cava inferior from the posterior parts of the body, and the paired venae cavae superiores from the anterior. ”

“ As to the Exenteration or Embowelling the Body, we are not to imagine they drew out only the Brain and Guts, but likewise the Lungs, Stomach, Liver, Spleen, and other Viscera, except the Heart and Kidnies, which being carnous and fleshy might very likely be left, as being easier to be preserv’d than the moist parts. ”

“ The check to the return of the blood through the veins, which are much larger in calibre than the arteries, and which would otherwise empty themselves much faster than the arteries could possibly supply blood, is maintained by the action of the bulbo-cavernosi, the ischiocavernosi and the adductor prostate, upon the deep and superficial veins of the penis. That such a physiological process takes place and is the most probable explanation of the power of erection, has been satisfactorily confirmed by experiments upon the dog and derived from observations made upon man in disease. ”

“ Now if we consider that the abuses of the genital organs arise most generally, because the sensibility of these organs has been excited too soon, or too vividly, we can imagine that a very great degree of susceptibility may predispose to these abuses, and, that consequently, to prevent and repress them, we must attend to every thing which favors the development of the genital organs. The power of sensation, like that of thought and action, is in many respects just what it is formed. ”

“ In ordinary sexual commerce, particular phenomena ensue, the circulation is powerfully roused, the heart thumps violently, the blood is driven to the brain, and great mental exaltation is induced, and instances have been known of death suddenly crushing the transport. The too frequent repetition of such excitement can not fail to wear out, and disease the overwrought organs, the heart and brain particularly, upon the healthy condition of which the health of the entire frame rests ”

“ And if not yet convinced he shall still insist, that when an artery is divided, a preternatural route is, as it were, opened, and that so the blood escapes in torrents, but that the same thing does not happen in the healthy and uninjured body when no outlet is made ... it may be answered, that ... in serpents and several fish by tying the veins some way below the heart, you will perceive a space between the ligature and the heart speedily to become empty, so that unless you would deny the evidence of your senses, you must needs admit the return of the blood to the heart.... ”

“ The blood is poured into the cells of the corpora cavernosa much faster than it can be reabsorbed by the vena penis, owing in this case to the pleasurable sensation of love increasing the arterial action. ”

“ Teach him they are called sexual organs; that they are not impure, but of special importance, and made by God for a definite purpose. Teach him that there are impurities taken from the system in fluid form called urine, and that it passes through the sexual organs, but that nature takes care of that. Teach him that these organs are given as a sacred trust, that in maturer years he may be the means of giving life to those who shall live forever. ”

“ In fact, it is clear that if the different organs have in the ordinary state different degrees of power, they must, when they do injury, exercise it in different degrees. Let us then attempt to estimate the influence possessed by the genital organs. If it be demonstrated that when these organs are in a state of rest, of excitement, or in use, their influence on the other functions is considerable, some opinion may be formed as to what may be their influence when abused. ”

“ In order more plentifully to drain off these salts, which must necessarily be convey'd into the blood, more or less, in all our meat, and drink, Nature has well provided us with two great glandular bodies, the kidneys, plac'd at the extremities of two large blood-vessels, the emulgent vein and artery, derived from the great vein and artery, very soon after their parting at the heart, the fountain of circulation. ”