SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM 417 



individual organised structures and of whole organisms. 

 It therefore may be regarded as the condition to be sought 

 after, whenever a disturbance of organ, or function, ensues 

 from any cause throughout our own organism, and when 

 our scientific knowledge is appealed to to prescribe the 

 means of its re-attainment in others, the importance 

 of its practical and utilitarian bearings will thus at once 

 appear. Equilibrium, in the highly complex organism 

 of man, is a matter over which nature fortunately watches 

 with great care, and usually, if left alone, is quite able 

 unaided, except by passive submission, to maintain and 

 to retain, by virtue of her application of the vis medicatrix, 

 to the right place and at the right time ; it behoves us, 

 therefore, at all times, except when obstacles or impossi- 

 bilities are placed in her way, and the removal of these 

 is then dictated, to trust and dutifully aid her in her 

 beneficent and often ill-requited work. 



On a little thought and consideration of the subject 

 of want of equilibrium, as it concerns and flows out of 

 the conditions surrounding man, it will become obvious 

 that it may make itself apparent and have its inception 

 in any, or all, aspects of his being i.e. physical, mental, 

 or moral ; and that, therefore, its re-attainment by the vis 

 medicatrix nature has at times to be aided and supple- 

 mented by the forces of civilisation known as medicine, 

 law, and divinity, although, that these are unfortunately 

 sometimes ineffectual as aids, from the want of rational 

 and concerted application, is only too obvious an ex- 

 perience. The application by nature of her vis medicatrix, 

 therefore, requires the rational and concerted use of every 

 means provided by civilisation, in order that she may be 

 able to place the human species on the high platform of 

 moral, mental, and physical health, to which it is on non- 

 utopian lines entitled to be placed, and which the whole 

 history of the race up till now proves that it is longing 

 for, if not always striving after. Disturbance of physical 

 equilibrium in the individual organism may be universal, 

 or local, may involve a system or systems, a viscus, organ, 

 or tissue, and, therefore, may be felt as a disease, only 

 faintly appreciated, or pass altogether unobserved, accord- 

 ing to its extent and incidence. Thus, it may involve 



2 D 



