LECTURE VIII. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION AND THE TEACHING OF 

 INSTINCT: EXPERIENCES OF THE PHYSICIAN. 



It would be desirable, in the interests of medicine, that the methods 

 described in these lectures should be employed in experimental investi- 

 gations into the pathology and therapeutics of the digestive canal on the 

 lines laid clown The fact that the beginning of the secretory work in the 

 stomach depends upon a psychic effect harmonises with the experiences 

 of everyday life, namely, that food should be eaten with attention and 

 relish To restore the appetite has from all ages been the endeavour 

 of the physician The indifference of the present-day physician towards 

 appetite Probable causes of this Curative remedies based upon a restora- 

 tion of appetite The therapeutic effects of bitters depend upon the excita- 

 tion of appetite The usages of the mid-clay meal are in agreement with 

 physiological requirements Physiological reasons for certain instinctive 

 customs and empirical regulations Importance of an acid reaction of the 

 food Dietetics of fat and its therapeutic application The peculiar position 

 of milk among food-stuffs is based on physiological reasons Explanation 

 of the curative effects of sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride The 

 causes of individual differences in the work of the digestive glands Parti- 

 cipation of the inhibitory nerves of secretion in the production of patho- 

 logical effects. 



GENTLEMEN, To-day we shall endeavour to bring the previously com- 

 municated results of our laboratory investigations into reconciliation 

 with the customs observed in the ingestion of food, and with the 

 regulations prescribed by the physician in disorders of the digestive 

 apparatus. To bring our knowledge to full fruition, and so secure for it 

 the most useful application, the same methods should be applied from 

 the same standpoint to the experimental investigation of the pathology 

 and therapeutics of the alimentary canal. Nor should we be likely to 

 encounter insuperable difficulties. Thanks to the advances of bacteri- 

 ology, many of the pathological processes can now be experimentally 

 produced in the laboratory. Moreover, we would, in a sense, have to 

 deal with external ailments, since our present methods enable us to obtain 

 access to any desired part of the inner surface of the digestive canal. In 

 such pathological animals the functional diseases of the apparatus could 



