Vital function

“ Those things which now most engage the attention of men, as politics and the daily routine, are, it is true, vital functions of human society, but should be unconsciously performed, like the corresponding functions of the physical body. They are infra-human, a kind of vegetation. I sometimes awake to a half-consciousness of them going on about me, as a man may become conscious of some of the processes of digestion in a morbid state, and so have the dyspepsia, as it is called. ”

“ The human body is a wonderfully complex piece of mechanism, and if left to itself or rather to natural guidance, its manifold functions are performed with unfailing regularity; and regularity in function means health— irregularity, disease. ”

“ In us also the same will is in many ways only blindly active: in all the functions of our body which are not guided by knowledge, in all its vital and vegetative processes, digestion, circulation, secretion, growth, reproduction. ”

“ Physiology teaches the nature of man, the laws that govern his being, the functions of the vital organs, and the conditions upon which alone health and life depend. Phrenology treats of the laws of mind, the different portions of the brain, the temperaments, the organs, how to develop some and repress others to produce a well balanced and healthy condition. ”

“ With the ideas of unimpaired and unimpeded function as pleasurable, and of the new as demanding readjustment, we arrive at the consideration of health and disease. The free performance of any particular function is the first condition of the health of the organ of which it is the function, the regular performance of all physical functions according to the mutual adjustment [Pg 372] of the organs of the body the condition of the health of the organism as a whole. And thus again we come round to the conception of pleasure as connected with the action that accords with the health of the organism. ”

“ All physicians know, and their schools teach, that if a man is in good physical condition, his Vital Force will cause him to recover from almost any condition excepting when the vital organs are destroyed. ”

“ But medical science, as taught in the regular schools, is still dominated by the old, crude, mechanical conception of vital force and this, as we shall see, accounts for some of its gravest errors of theory and of practice.
The vital conception of life, on the other hand, regards it as the primary force of all forces, coming from the great central source of all power. ”

“ We may therefore say that life is dependent upon voluntary as well as involuntary motion for its existence, and above all it may be affirmed, that a healthy and sound body is never seen, unless there has been proper daily exercise. For, as every function that we have named must be maintained in order that there may be a state of perfect health, so also the whole congeries of organs must be exercised together, in order that there may be nothing superfluous, and nothing wanting, in the entire fabric. ”

“ But, some Parts of a Human Creature, Man names Vital; because, the least disturbance of any of those Parts, endangers the Human Life: and if any of those Vital Parts are diminished, I doubt whether they can be restored; but if some of those Parts can be restored, I doubt all cannot. The Vital Parts are, the Heart, Liver, Lungs, Stomack, Kidneys, Bladder, Gaul, Guts, Brains, Radical Humours, or Vital Spirits; and others which I know not of. But this is to be noted, That Man is composed of Rare and Solid Parts, of which there are more and less Solid, more and less Rare ”

“ The living being, as they maintained, is composed of soul and body. The intellect has its seat in the heart, the liver serving as the central organ for the blood, which they considered to be the true life principle. ”

“ We have much to say of Life, or vital activity, in the course of our study of Physiology; but the most that we know of it is seen in its results. What Life is, or where its precise position is, we are not able to determine. We discover one thing, however, that all the parts of the body are united together with wonderful sympathy, so that one part cannot be injured and other parts not suffer damage. It is further evident that all organs are not equally important in carrying on the work of Life ”

“ So that beyond the aid, more slowly shown, which the organs yield to one another through the physiological division of labor, there is the aid, more quickly shown, which mutual excitation gives. While there is a benefit to be presently felt by the whole organism from the due performance of each function, there is an immediate benefit from the exaltation of its functions at large caused by the accompanying pleasure; and from pains, whether of excess or defect, there also come these double effects, immediate and remote. ”

“ Life then, or those functions which we call living, are the effects of certain exciting powers, acting on the excitability, or property distinguishing living from dead matter. When those effects, namely, the functions, flow easily, pleasantly, and completely, from the action of the exciting powers, they indicate that state which we call Health. ”

“ This force is influenced and modified in its action, when exercised in the regulation of nutrition, growth, and reproduction of tissues, by the passions and emotions of the mind. All the secretions and functions of the body are more or less susceptible of being accelerated, retarded or modified by the psychical relations of mind and matter. ”

“ Believing I had made a most important discovery in physiology, one that would revolutionize the dietetic treatment of the sick, if not ultimately abolish it, my visits to the sick became of unsurpassed interest, I watched every possible change as an unfolding of new life, seeing the physical changes only as I would see the swelling buds evolve into the leaves or flowers, reading the soul- and mind-changes in the more radiant lines of expression. ”

“ We have already seen to what degree the Will operates upon the organism, or how "the soul imparts special energy to single organs, so that they perform their functions with more than usual efficiency," and thus resist the solicitations of morbific agents. ”

“ We know that courage, assurance, and conscious power are necessary for the fulfillment of purpose, because intention precedes action. Will-power is an indication of HEALTH, and the constant exercise of these mental faculties exerts a steady, regular, and strengthening influence over the bodily functions. We translate mental energies into physiological industry. These faculties impart tone to the system, sustain the processes of nutrition, circulation, assimilation, secretion and excretion, and their distinguishing characteristics are vigor, tension, and elasticity. ”

“ We hope this period will settle the question, Which is the master of health, happiness, and being, — mind or body? Not a blade of grass springs up, or a spray buddeth within the vale, or a leaf unfolds its fair outlines, or a flower starts from its cloistered cell, only as the result of mind. ”

“ Whilst then, in the spirit of profound humiliation and adoration, we magnify that inconceivable goodness and wisdom, which devised and constructed the bodily organs of bodily digestion, absorption, and secretion, for the purpose of promoting bodily health and strength, may we ever be wise to recollect, that these organs and their operations are but figures of those more astonishing powers of the mind, by which it is enabled to exercise mental digestion, absorption, and secretion, in regard to that BREAD OF LIFE which is given in the WORD OF GOD for its daily sustenance! ”

“ Applied physiology comprehends them all. Function is the arrangement by means of which the independent life of the sentient being is carried on and maintained. Developed function or use includes the growth and improvement of the individual in relation to his fellows, and to existence outside his own personality.
No physiological truth is more firmly established [Pg 5] than the fact that we can modify the action of our physical organs towards the special objects related to them, by the way in which we use our organs. ”

“ We must understand the healthy structure and functions of the various organs and parts of the body, or we can never understand the nature of their diseases, nor the rational mode of effecting their cure. ”

“ If we ask how we must live to secure the best health and longest life, the answer must be drawn from physiological knowledge; but if we ask how long the best mode of living will preserve life, the reply is, Physiology cannot teach you that. ”

“ Every person should be acquainted with the organization, structure, and functions of his own body—the house in which he lives: he should know the conditions of health, and the causes of the numerous diseases that flesh is heir to, in order to avoid them, prolong his life, and multiply his means of usefulness. ”

“ New secrets of physiology may be revealed, deeply affecting human nature in its innermost recesses. The standard of health may be raised and the lives of men prolonged by sanitary and medical knowledge. ”

“ Do you know, Lucius, that sometimes diseases of the mind or body give to those afflicted by them a strength which healthy men do not possess? For, as a matter of fact, there is no such thing as good health or bad health. There are only different conditions of the organs. Having studied what are called maladies, I have come to consider them as necessary forms of life. ”

“ Without in the least degree failing to perceive the dependence of the higher faculties upon a spiritual nature, we must also perceive their dependence, during this life, upon the qualities of their material organs, the nervous centres; and the dependence of these qualities upon the laws which regulate nutrition and cell-growth. ”

“ Health fortified by such conditions as the organism depends upon for its fabrication and maintenance opposes itself to all exciting causes of disease by the relative integrity, strength and vigor of all the organs and functions of the body. ”

“ The medical philosopher, in his study of human nature, must have observed, that sympathetic correspondence of action between the mind and body, which is uniformly present in health and disease, though varying with circumstances. ”

“ "But what avail the largest Gifts of Heaven,
"When sickening Health and Spirits go amiss?
"How tasteless then Whatever can be given?
"Health is the vital Principle of Bliss,
"And Exercise of Health. ”

“ There is no doubt whatever that the condition of our health is to a great extent controlled by the mind. The claim is made also that every condition of the body is governed by the mind; that every form of human ailment may be prevented or cast off at the direction of the mind. ”

“ And in the healthy condition of the human system, how active is every organ and every minutest part of it! Although their modes of action and the uses they severally perform are infinitely various, yet they are mutually adapted to each other, and work together in admirable harmony. ”

“ The innumerable changes, corporeal and mental, we reduce, by generalizing, to a few classes; and we speak, in reference to the mind, of its faculties or functions of perception, memory, reason, as we speak, in reference to the body, of its functions of respiration, circulation, nutrition. ”

“ Through proper living and thinking the body and mind are built up, not only enough to meet ordinary demands upon them, but extraordinary ones. In other words, it is within our power to have a large margin, balance or reserve of physical and mental force. ”

“ What I would insist upon is, that we should endeavour to make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with the nature and variations of healthy human physiology before we are perplexed with the changes of pathology. ”

“ In this work new theories, some revolutionary in the extreme, are advanced as to the nature of disease, the action of drugs and stimulants, the germ theory, the quantity of food necessary to sustain life, of cancer, insanity, pain, fatigue, sleep, death, the causation and maintenance of bodily heat and of human vitality. ”

“ Even in its present state these capacities are so interlaced that one cannot act strongly without inducing some action in the others; just as in the physical frame the brain, the heart, and the lungs can no one of them act unless all act in some degree; while in perfect health all act in the fulness of perfect harmony, no one organ rendering itself prominent by being more full of vitality and activity than another. ”

“ There is one Principle of Health in man, which has control over all the involuntary functions of his life; and the thought of perfect health, impressed upon this Principle, will reach each part and organ. Man's liver is not controlled by a liver-principle, his stomach by a digestive principle, and so on; the Principle of Health is One.
The less you go into the detailed study of physiology, the better for you. Our knowledge of this science is very imperfect, and leads to imperfect thought. [Pg 39] Imperfect thought causes imperfect functioning, which is disease. ”

“ Now, all who are acquainted with physiology, know perfectly well that the mind cannot be properly unfolded unless the organism through which it is mani­fested be in a healthy condition, so as to be enabled to register the impressions made upon it by external circumstances. ”

“ It is first to be noted, that man's constitution is composed of two distinct systems or organisms, namely, a material organism or body, and a spiritual organism or mind. Each of these systems has its own laws. Now we know very well, that to know and to observe the laws of the material or physical system, is the way to attain and preserve health of body, and consequently a comfortable physical state. In like manner, the way to attain and preserve a state of mental health and consequent peace and happiness, is to learn and observe the laws of the spiritual or mental system. ”

“ It is sound physiology, as well as good morals and manners, to cease from the usual routine of six days of mental or physical work, and rest both the mind and the body on the seventh. Those who have succeeded best in what they have undertaken, and who have enjoyed sound health during a long and useful life, have studiously lived up to the mandates of this great physiological law. ”