442 OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION. 



established. It is not essential, however, that the impression should be prima- 

 rily made upon the Cerebro-Spinal system. The well-known fact of sudden 

 death not unfrequently resulting from a blow on the stomach, especially after 

 a full meal, without any perceptible lesion of the viscera, clearly indicates that 

 an impression upon the widely-spread coeliac plexus of Sympathetic nerves 

 (which will be much more extensively communicated to them, when the sto- 

 mach is full, than when it is empty), may cause the immediate cessation of 

 the Heart's action, in the same manner as a violent injury of the Braia or 

 Spinal Cord. Now it is interesting to remark that, in all these cases, the 

 whole vitality of the system appears to be destroyed at once ; for the pro- 

 cesses which would otherwise succeed the injury, and which, after other kinds 

 of death, less sudden in their character, produce evident changes in the part 

 of the surface that has immediately received it, are here entirely prevented. 

 An instance is on record, in which a criminal under sentence of death deter- 

 mined to anticipate the law by self-destruction. Having no other means of 

 accomplishing his purpose, he stooped his head and ran violently against the 

 wall of his cell ; he immediately fell dead ; and no mark of contusion showed 

 itself on his forehead. The same absence of the usual results is to be noticed 

 in the case of blows on the stomach. Yet it is well known, that many of the 

 ordinary vital processes will take place in the injured parts, after death of a 

 more lingering nature ; the vitality of the individual organs not being destroyed 

 immediately on the severance of the chain which binds together the different 

 functions. Hence the Irritability of Muscle is not shown, by the foregoing 

 facts, to have any closer dependence upon the Nervous system, than have the 

 peculiar vital properties of any other tissue. 



581. The influence of severe impressions on the Nervous System, in di- 

 minishing, where it does not altogether destroy, Muscular Irritability, is well 

 seen in the effect of severe injuries affecting vital organs, or extending over a 

 large part of the surface, in depressing the Heart's action. This is a well- 

 known result of severe burns, especially in children, whose nervous system 

 is more susceptible of such impressions than that of the adult; also of the 

 rupture of the alimentary canal, of the bladder or uretus; and of the shatter- 

 ing of one of the extremities, by violence affecting a large part of their sub- 

 stance. In all these cases, the sufferer is in the same condition with one who 

 has received a severe blow on the head, that does not quite stun him ; the 

 shock immediately diminishes the muscular contractility of the whole sys- 

 tem ; and its influence on the heart, which of course manifests itself most 

 conspicuously, produces a degree of depression which is frequently never re- 

 covered from, and which, at any rate, renders necessary the employment of 

 stimulants, for the purpose of counteracting this very dangerous effect.* Ex- 

 cessive mental emotion, of a kind not in itself depressing, may occasion the 

 sudden cessation of the Heart's action, and a general loss of muscular Irrita- 

 bility; and it is well known that muscular power is greatly diminished by 

 emotions, which produce no other direct action. 



582. There is no evidence that Muscular Irritability can be increased by 

 any cause operating through the Nervous system. It is quite true that, under 



* The large quantity of stimulus which can be borne even by children, suffering under 

 severe burns, is very extraordinary. There can be no doubt that many lives have been 

 saved by the judicious administration of them, to an amount which would, ti priori, have 

 been judged in itself fatal ; but that many more have been sacriliced to neglect, even on the 

 part of those whose duty it is to watch the indications with the closest attention. The Au- 

 thor's observation leads him to believe, that Hospital-Nurses very commonly make up their 

 minds, that children, who have met with severe burns, must die ; and that, unless closely 

 watched, they neglect the means of which Science and Experience alike dictate the free em- 

 ployment. 



