532 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



muscular movement is most constant and violent, an 

 outlet is provided by which waste products are allowed 

 to run off most directly and easily, in order to the 

 saving of the more distant emunctories, or outlets, such 

 as the sweat glands and the coccygeal excretory apparatus. 



We thus see -it may be somewhat imperfectly that 

 the comparative freedom of childhood and youth from 

 the incidence of such diseases as rheumatism, in all its 

 varieties, may be due to the patency of the olfactory 

 excretory organism, and that advancing age accounts for 

 the prevalence of such diseases by the gradual clogging 

 up of that organism, and the consequent delegation of 

 this part of the excretory functions of the nervous 

 system to the pituitary outfall, the cutaneous and other 

 surfaces, as well as to the before-mentioned coccygeal 

 glomerulus and associated parts. 



All this seems the more probable because, as the power 

 to take physical exercise decreases with advancing age, 

 the effete products of neuroglial disintegration and nervine 

 " tear and wear " accumulate in the cerebro-spinal lymph 

 of the body, and not finding an exit by the skin, which 

 has to a great extent ceased to carry on its active 

 functions of excretion or diaphoresis, begin to act as 

 pathological presences, both within and without the 

 proper nerve structures, interfering with their vital 

 processes, and acting as mechanical impedimenta. 



In connection with olfactory excretion some mention 

 ought perhaps to be made of snuff-taking. 



Snuff-taking, in its physiological bearings, may to some 

 extent be understood, when considered in connection with 

 the application of these views. 



Thus snuff, which is a narcotic irritant, when brought 

 in contact with the Schneiderian membrane, induces in 

 the unaccustomed indulger of the habit more or fewer 

 violent acts of sneezing, with copious nasal discharges, 

 and in the seasoned devotee the concluding stage of the 

 above process, and the gratification of a much enjoyed 

 habit, with the result that the olfactory and surrounding 

 structures are relieved, and this relief is followed by a 

 greater or lesser relief to the tension of the cerebro-spinal 

 cavity that may exist. 



