HEALTH AND DISEASE. 955 



costiveness, hysteria, amenorrhea, low spirits, 

 habitual melancholy, and torpor of all the organs 

 not, however, because " they are supplied with 

 a vitiated nervous fluid," but because they are 

 supplied with imperfectly arterialized blood, 

 which, as I have already shown, is even more 

 essential to the healthy activity of the brain and 

 nerves, than to that of any other tissue. 



In accordance with the hypothetical views of 

 Hoffman and Cullen, Dr. James Johnson tells 

 us, that "the brain presides over and furnishes 

 energy to every other organ in the body." (Op. 

 cit. p. 13.) And Dr. Andrew Combe observes, 

 that " changes in the quality or amount of nervous 

 influence transmitted from the brain to any 

 organ, have a direct power of modifying its 

 function, that if by some violent emotion of 



on by gluttony, and the excessive use of spirituous liquors ; but 

 it is much oftener the consequence of grief, anxiety, disappoint- 

 ment, excessive study, want of exercise, exposure to vicissitudes 

 of weather, without sufficient clothing ; and, frequently, by the 

 imprudent use of cold drinks. That the proximate cause of the 

 disease depends chiefly on diminished respiration, circulation, 

 secretion, and nutrition, is evident from the fact, that the patient 

 often complains of cold extremities, succeeded by more or less 

 fever, pains in the head, back, and limbs, giddiness, stupor, and 

 general debility, attended with an indisposition of wounds and 

 ulcers to heal kindly, or a diminution of the vis medicatrix 

 natures symptoms that obviously require the warm bath, mode- 

 rate exercise, warm clothing, pure air, nourishing food, agreeable 

 company, with whatever is calculated to augment the circulation, 

 and improve the vital properties of the sanguineous fluid. 



