CHAP, v.] NUTRITION. 831 



the pharynx owing to the paralysis of the oesophagus and larynx, 

 and then passing into the air passages and so setting up inflamma- 

 tion. Death in these cases is moreover often the simple result of 

 inanition caused by the paralysis of the oesophagus allowing no 

 food to reach the stomach. The phenomena of the paralytic 

 secretion of saliva are also of a complicated nature. 



But even without insisting on such instances as the above, 

 various other phenomena of disease seem to indicate such an 

 influence of the nervous system on nutrition as we are discussing. 

 As examples we might mention the rapid and peculiar degenera- 

 tion of and loss of contractility in the skeletal muscles in certain 

 affections of the spinal cord, the changes in the muscles being 

 more rapid and profound than in the nerves ; the phenomena 

 of bed-sores, especially the so-called acute bed-sores of cerebral 

 apoplexy ; some at least of the cases of vesical affections attendant 

 on spinal or cerebral diseases or injuries ; the more rapid atrophy 

 and loss of contractility in muscles which follow upon contusions 

 of nerves as compared with the effects of simple section of nerves ; 

 the occurrence of certain eruptions, such as lichen, zona, ecthyma, 

 &c., in various spinal or cerebral diseases, and indeed the general 

 phenomena, and especially the topography of the eruption, of a 

 large number of cutaneous diseases. Lastly but not least we 

 might quote the general process of inflammation. These are 

 examples of disordered nutrition. To them we might add as 

 instances of altered but yet orderly nutrition the remarkable 

 connections observed between changes in the form of the fingers 

 and growth of the nails and hairs, and certain internal maladies, 

 such for instance as the 'clubbed fingers' of pthisical and other 

 patients, and the like. We might also call attention to the 

 influence of light on the nutrition of animals. The experience 

 of blind people and blind animals indicates some special connection 

 between visual sensations and the nutrition of the skin ; and this 

 can hardly be other than a nervous connection. The effects of 

 prolonged darkness on nutrition in general and the experimental 

 results which shew that the total metabolism of the body is 

 influenced by light, also suggest some nervous action. The in- 

 fluence of cold again in determining the growth of hair points 

 in the same direction. 



Making every allowance for the intervention as factors in the 

 production of the phenomena quoted above of such common 

 actions of the nervous system as are already well known to us, 

 such as vaso-motor changes, making every allowance for the con- 

 sequences of the failure or bluntness of sensation and the absence 

 of those beneficial after results of muscular activity which we 

 pointed out in 86, recognizing moreover that changes in one 

 organ may affect the condition of other distant organs by changes 

 induced in the composition or qualities of the blood, there still 

 remains a residue which seems distinctly to point to the con- 



