CAUSES OF NERVOUS IMPAIRMENT H)7 



ordinary anesthesia suspends all the many central activi- 

 ties. In fact, we know that it does not, for it would be fatal 

 if it did. The presumption is that certain synapses are 

 much more easily affected than others, whence it follows 

 that we can subdue cortical currents to a considerable 

 extent without paralyzing the respiratory center. Now, 

 it is the belief of Crile that when an operation is con- 

 ducted under ether or chloroform, streams of impulses 

 ascend to the brain from the seat of the cutting and 

 cauterizing. These would produce terrible pain in the 

 conscious subject and reflex struggling of the most desper- 

 ate intensity. In the actual case the pain is avoided and 

 the reflexes are greatly reduced. But are we to suppose 

 that the afferent impulses are wholly without effect upon 

 the brain? Crile contends that they continue to work 

 injury to the central gray matter even in the absence of 

 consciousness and reflexes. 



Experimental evidence has been secured by making 

 microscopic studies of the brain tissue in animals which 

 have undergone severe operations under the common 

 anesthetics. Cellular changes are described which are 

 of the same nature as those long held to denote profound 

 fatigue. Such alterations are not seen in the brains of 

 animals which have merely been etherized for a long time 

 without operation. Hence, Crile refers them to the inflow 

 of impulses from the parts that have been so powerfully 

 stimulated. 



All this may seem to be a technical digression, but we 

 shall find that it opens certain considerations of the most 

 practical kind. It will be noted that the central fact in 

 Crile's thesis is this: Sensation does not constitute a 

 reliable measure of the damage done to the nervous sys- 

 tem by afferent currents. To disregard a source of such 

 impulses is not to nullify their influence. It is always 

 better to remove the cause than to seek to suppress the 

 cerebral echo. Using a text like this, we may indict 

 the principles of psychotherapy under any of its various 

 names when it seeks to treat organic disease. It under- 



