ON POSTURE AND ITS INDICATIONS. 



29 



ing his hands over them. The tubes, which were previously dark, 

 owe their luminosity only to the approximation of his hand, yet 

 he himself does not feel that any special power has gone out of 

 him. The contact of the hand with the temples seems as if it 

 could hardly by any possibility modify the circulation in the 

 brain or the feelings of the individual, and yet it appears to have 



Fig. 9. 



Fig. 10. 



an actually soothing effect and to be a real physical solace in 

 cases of grief and depression (Fig. 10). At the same time the 

 greater droop of the head possibly provides for a better supply of 

 blood to the sensory parts of the brain in the posterior part of the 

 head, and thus to a certain extent counteracts the general weak- 

 ness of the circulation. In the case of excitement (Fig. 7), the 

 head being more raised, if a straight line were drawn through 

 the axis of the body so as to represent the line of the aorta and 

 carotid arteries, it would come out at the anterior part of the 

 head, and blood driven onward in this line would supply nutri- 

 ment rather to the motor than to the sensory centers. 



In cases where the circulation is exceedingly weak and syn- 

 cope is threatened, a most useful plan is 

 to make the patient put his head down be- 

 tween his knees (Fig. 11), so that an ample 

 supply of blood shall reach the cerebral 

 centers. Long ago, before the introduction 

 of anaesthetics, a common plan of render- 

 ing patients senseless previously to the per- 

 formance of an operation was to lay the 

 patient flat upon his back and then sud- 

 denly hoist him to a standing posture by six strong men who held 

 him by the arms, three on one side, and three on the other. The 

 brain being tlms, as it were, lifted away from the blood, became 

 so anaemic that it ceased to act before the circulation could adapt 

 itself to the new posture. 



An experience of my own once showed me how very depend- 

 ent the brain is upon the supply of blood. I was called upon one 

 night after a long day's work to write an article immediately. I 



Fig. 11. 



