202 Medicine : 



little mindful are they of the need of rest to over- 

 worked function that, so long as sexual power 

 lasts, they spend it recklessly in the gratification 

 of lust, thinking no harm provided it be the 

 exercise of licit love. 



That the body is a complex reflex mechanism 

 is now a familiar notion, strange and ignored as 

 it was when Descartes first conceived it more 

 than three hundred years ago, expressly setting it 

 forth then in a series of distinct propositions,, 

 which, as Huxley said, constitute the foundation 

 and essence of modern physiology of the nervous, 

 system. The conception, untimely born, fell into 

 utter neglect. Even now, after so many years, 

 but little has been learnt scientifically of the mani- 

 fold bodily reflexes or sympathies — motor, sensory, 

 secretory, and nutritional — although everybody 

 might make the needed observations on his own 

 person, and a full and exact knowledge could not 

 fail to be put in excellent practice. How is it 

 that a patch of psoriasis on one leg, although 

 itself left untouched, is cured by curative applica- 

 tions to a similar patch on the other leg ? Certain 

 it is that a clear conception of the reflex mechanism 

 of the organism as a whole, and an exact know- 

 ledge of the reflexes or sympathies of its parts, 

 will yield much profitable use, not onl) - through 

 systematic and skilful employment of kneadings, 

 rubbings, pressings, and such-like manipulations 

 and appliances, whereby an infirm organ may be 

 more benefited sometimes than by many, or 



