SYSTEMIC NERVINE NUTRITION 173 



no exception to the universal rule that all nutritive pheno- 

 mena are due to circulation, and, therefore, conducted 

 along definite lines of circulatory spaces, by the operation 

 of definite circulatory forces, for definite nutritive pur- 

 poses, and definite eliminatory necessities. 



In short, nutrition, neuro-sympathetic, and systemic, 

 conjointly constitutes the central, and terminal, or really 

 integrative, act, of the long series of circulatory disposals 

 and preparatory physical changes which characterise the 

 preparation of tissue pabulum for the operation of the 

 metabolic forces which control the chemico-physiological 

 phenomena of the nutritive process, and which has no 

 sooner been accomplished, than the inverse, or disinte- 

 grative, circulatory disposal, of that pabulum begins, and 

 pursues its course until its removal from the economy 

 is effected, and room made for fresh material the round 

 of the changes thus outlined constituting that universal 

 system of organic circulation, of which the " circulation of 

 the blood " constitutes the dynamic centre. 



The process of nutrition is, therefore, as continuous 

 and uninterrupted as that of circulation, and consists 

 in the maintaining of the continuity of organic structure, 

 by the substitutive replacement of the displaced particles, 

 in perpetual and unbroken succession, by, or in obedi- 

 ence to the operation of the metabolic laws of change, 

 and exchange and the physical laws of organic circulation. 



As thus effected, the onward movement of the circu- 

 lated organic pabulum is uninterrupted by regurgitation, 

 or the possible admixture of the pure and impure or 

 the nutrient and effete elements, and hence, so long 

 as the physiological balance is maintained, a condition of 

 perfect, or physiologically-sound, health, must obtain, but 

 so soon as it ceases to be so maintained a pathological 

 state of health becomes the result. 



