ATROPHY. 



PHY. 



m 



\ 



Bleeding relieves the gorged state of 

 the continuance of which the chief <bi 



07 upulaive action ; in some instances, fourteen gnin* ul Urtrito of 

 antimony bar* been given without anj offset. 



Vinegar should not be given so lung aa any of the belladonna remains 

 in too stomach, aa it heightens iU power. Vinegar U useful, howerer, 

 at a later period, in combating the secondary or depressing effects. 



UM vessels of the head, from 

 danger ia to be apprehended; it 

 should therefore aaklom be omitted. 



Atropia. UM most active alkaloid (if /MWom'nw be another) of the 

 Deadly Nightshade, has been introduoed into the Pharmacopoeia*, and 

 fatr. n^r-i (chiefly aurgical) practice, aa a aubetitute for the extract. 

 It possesses the adrantage of more uniform strength, being a definite 

 irniir ^. 1 .w< i and the doae can be more exactly adjusted. JJ oombina- 

 tfrg. are Lo valuable, particularly the hydroehlorate and sulphate. It 

 adiuita also of being formed into a tincture, and an ointment Those 

 require, on account of their potency, even greater care in their employ- 

 ment than belladonna, or the extract. The application of one bella- 

 donna planter immediately after another, atill more before the previous 

 one haa been removed, ia fraught with danger. The mistaking the 

 ripe berriea of the Deadly Nightahade for block chcrriea ia pardonable, 

 but to confound them with mulberriea U a proof of great ignorance or 

 moat culpable carelessness, aa the mulberriea have an irregular, almost 

 warty, surface, while thaw of belladonna are smooth, somewhat resem- 

 bling cherries. 



ATROPHY, from the Greek word irpo^o, signifying ' want of 

 nourishment,' ' wasting;' deficient nutrition, either of a part or of the 

 whole of the body. 



Nutrition, one of the moat characteristic of the vital functions by 

 which the living is distinguished from the inorganic body, consists in 

 the conversion of foreign particles into the proper milwtanee of tin- 

 living being. The exercise of every vital (unction is attended with a 

 certain expenditure of the substance of the organ by which ttu> fun.- 

 tion ia carried on. To supply this waste a stream of new matter is 

 always flowing through every organ, from which each takes up the 

 quantity required to replace the quantity which it expends. There 

 are thus two opposite sets of actions incessantly going on in the living 

 body; processes of waste, and processed of supply. In the state of 

 health there is an exact balance between these opposite actions. In 

 morbid condition of the system, this balance is more or lea* 

 disturbed, in consequence of which the whole body, cr particular parts 

 ol it, become either too little or too much nourished. The first state, 

 from whatever cause it results, ia called atrophy ; the .second, /n/jxr- 

 tro/Jty. 



In considering the phenomena of disease, then, there in one obvious 

 guide as to its seat. If it be attended with decided, steady, uml pro- 

 gressive wasting, it must be seated in some organ of supply. For t h.- 

 wasting itself is not dinenie, but the result and sign of disen-- 

 never the primary event, and seldom even the second in succession ; it is 

 a phenomenon forming part of a train, it* place often being low down 

 in a long aeries; it is the first to become visible, tin- phenomena which 

 precede it, and on which it depends, not being visible, and frequently 

 requiring careful investigation to detect them. 



Wasting may be either general or local that of the whole body, or 

 only a part of it ; and this will depend entirely on the nature of the 

 cause that produces it, according as it is a disturbing influence affect- 

 ing the system, or only some individual organ. 



1. Wasting may of course be produced without disease, by merely 

 wi tli holding the supply of nutritious food. Nutritious food is the 

 only source from which the material can be derived for repairing 

 the waste of the vital functions. If it be inadequate, every function 

 will languish, and every organ waste, in a degree proportionate to the 

 scantiness of the supply. 



2. Among the rtisnasus capable of producing wasting, the most 

 important are those which have their primary seat in the organs of 

 nutrition. The stomach and intestines are the organs which produce 

 the first and the moat essential changes on the aliment, by which it is 

 converted into nutriment, and prepared for assimilation. If any cause 

 render these organs incapable of performing their functions, the ordi- 



nary waste of the body cannot be repaired, and a general atrophy must 

 inevitably follow. Yet it ia remarkable that these organs may perform 

 their functions so Imperfectly as to produce a great degree of disturb- 

 ance in the system, without necessarily occasioning any manifest 

 wasting. People sometimes sutler severely during a long life from 

 dyspepsia, in iU manifold forms, without getting thin. The reason is, 

 that though the food be not easily and healthfully digested, yet, in the 

 midst of the disturbance, enough of it is converted into nutriment to 

 supply the ordinary waste of the body. Organic disease, however, 

 that is, disease attended with a morbid change in the structure of an 

 organ, rapidly tells upon the system, producing a progressive and 

 ultimately an extreme degree of rnnaoistion ; and occasionally a single 

 aMsck of merely functional dyspepsia, lasting only a few days, will 

 render the body manifestly thinner, and cause the loss of many pounds 

 of weight. 



3. Next to the diseases of the primary organs of digestion come the 

 ib'sesses of the organs which co-operate with the stomach and intes- 

 tines in converting the aliment into nutriment ; and more especially 

 diseases of UM pancreas and liver. 



4. But the food, when digested, has a long course to trawl boi 

 isaiilnis the blood. It must be taken up by the lacteal vessels, and 

 carried through the meson terio glands. [DionrrioN, NAT. HIST. Uiv.| 

 It U probable that these organs are not mere channels of eommuui- 

 cation between the stomach and intestines and the lungs, but that they 

 effect some change upon the imperfectly-digested aliment as it passes 

 through them. Curtain it is, that disease of these organs powerfully 

 in,i.tu. the process of nutrition, and produces a great degree of 

 wasting. Examples of this are but too abundant in infanta and clul- 

 ilren, who are cut off in great numbers by diseasf* which, on niamina- 

 tii in of the body after death, are found to have their chief seat in these 

 organs. [MARAIMU*.] 



5. Disease of the organ* of assimilation interrupts nutrition just as 

 effectually as rlisontn in the primary organs of digestion. It 



until the digested aliment reaches the lungs that it is converted int.. 

 blood. The lungs finish what the stomach begins ; and the function 

 of respiration is the completion of that of digestion. Anything that 

 impairs the function of respiration muet therefore necessarily < 

 that of nutrition, and produce a proportionate degree of wasting. The 

 lungs have this peculiarity, that they are capable of what may bo 

 called progressive destruction, the obliteration of one part after another 

 iu successive portions. The parts obliterated of course cease to 

 bute their share to the conversion of the aliment into blood ; but the 

 parts not obliterated continue to do so pretty much as in the state of 

 health. Hence it is possible to breathe with only one lung, or with 

 only half a lung ; and the flame of life may, for a short time, be barely 

 kept alive by a portion of even half a lung. The consequence is that, 

 in certain dueasux of the lin carried to the utmost 



extent which seems to be col ith the maintenance of the 



: life. 



6. But the process of nutrition is not completed even after the 

 aliment ia converted into blood. There iins what may be 

 termed the function of appropriation. After their n>n\er>ion into 

 blood in th new particles are returned to the left 



the heart, whence they are carried out to the system by the larger 



trunks of the arterial vessels. These tubes terminate in a system of 



vessels minutenetw, called the. I i ;-.-. liieli are 



appropriat-ir* of the new particles prepared for them in the. 



lungs, the architects and masons < m, liy which the new 



[articles are deposited in the room of the old in the respective organs, 



and by whi.l; oaired. If, then, the capillaries ..t the 



heir duty.no matter what i|uantity or what 



quality of nutrient mat: ht to them, the function of nutri- 



tion is suspended, and the body wastes; ami. in like manner, if the 

 capillaries of any jiarticular [wrt fail, the nutrition of that particular 

 part must lie at an end, and consequently its bulk diminish. 



7. It is chiefly in consequence of the disease of these capillary 

 vessels, that ; I, nidi as inflammation and fever, are always 



I with so great a degree of -h there is always, 



combined with tin .e functions ; so that in 



acute diseases nutrition is interrupted in a two fold mode, by dimi- 

 nished digestion, and by imperfect appropriation of what is digested. 



8. But a due supply of nervous influence is as indispensable to 

 nutrition as a due supply of arterial blood. Whenever, therefore, the 

 capillary vessels do not receive their appropriate nervous stimulus, the 

 parts to which they belong waste. Whatever injures the nerves in 

 such a degree as to impair their functions, is invariably found to 

 occasion atrophy. If the nerves which supply a part waste, that part 

 immediately begins to diminish in bulk; if a part has been long 

 wasted, the nerves distributed to it become so small that they can 

 scarcely be traced. If the head of an unreduced dislocated bone press 

 upon the large trunk of a nerve, the parts to which the nerve is 

 distributed waste. If a poison capable of producing paralysis of the 

 nerves, such as lead, be gradually and slowly introduced into the 

 system, the body wastes ; an example of which is seen in the atrophy 

 commonly attendant on the disease termed the crJira /iirt>:rn ia , the colic 

 of painters. As will be fully shown hereafter, it is the organic, not 

 the .sentient, system of nerves that supplies the nervous influence 

 indispensable to nutrition. Injury to the sentient system may indeed 

 occasion atrophy, but it produces this effect indirectly ; whereas 

 injury of the organic system produces it directly, by arresting the 

 nutritive functions : and accordingly, the degree of atrophy arising 

 from diseases of the brain and spinal cord is always very much less 

 than that which is consequent on destroyed or impaired function of 

 the organic nerves. 



9. Finally, cessation of function, from whatever cause, i 



and invariably followed by wasting of the organ in which the function 

 had its seat The gland that does not secrete diminishes in bulk ; the 

 nerve that does not receive and transmit impressions, or convey its 

 wonted stimulus, wastes; and the muscle that does not contract, 

 dwindles away; while increased exercise contributes exceedingly to 

 the augmentation of its volume, as we see in the bulk of the blank- 

 smith's arm, and in the leg of the opera-dancer. From the COT 

 and long-continued cessation of action, the substance of organs in 

 times almost entirely removed ; nothing remaining by which its original 

 structure can be distinguished. 



Such are the mot obvious and common causes of wastiiu 

 detection of which, it is obvious, must precede any rational treatment 



