VOMITING. 87 



The stomach has been called the grand centre of sympathy. Its sympathies 

 are great, but there is no reason for considering it the centre of sympathy. Blows 

 upon the head or testicle, and diseases of the kidney and uterus, nay, the mere 

 pregnant state of the latter, severe pain in any part, or a disgusting sight, will 

 often cause vomiting. Any depressing passion deranges the stomach, but anxiety 

 is a common source of stomach complaints, although the stomach generally bears 

 the whole blame, and is in vain drugged and dieted, or want of exercise or great 

 mental occupation is regarded as the cause, while the anxiety is overlooked. 

 Pleasurable mental exertion, " constant occupation without care," must be very 

 excessive to injure the stomach. 



The stomach itself, except as far as its inner surface is very extensive and sen- 

 sible and therefore highly adapted for the influence of ingesta, appears, on the 

 whole, to affect other organs, by mere sympathy, far less than it is influenced by 

 them. The immediate debility and breathlessness occasioned by a blow on the 

 stomach is, however, well known. I saw a person gradually sink, and die at the 

 end of a few days from this cause, and nothing was detected after death. 



The removal of a piece of the par vagum, or the destruction of that part of the 

 brain with which it is connected, or of a considerable part of the spinal marrow, 

 puts a stop, not to the muscular action of the stomach, or to its circulation, but 

 to the secretion of gastric juice and to digestion, according to Le Gallois, Sur le 

 Principe de la Fie, and many former writers ; and Dr. Philip, who is confirmed 

 by several others, declares that the removal of a portion of the nerve impairs 

 digestion much more than mere division, and that the application of galvanism 

 to the stomach restores digestion ; and MM. Leuret and Lassaigne declare, that 

 after the division of the par vagum, and even the removal of six inches of each 

 nerve, digestion proceeds as before, the only effect being the paralysis of the 

 sphincter of the cardia. I should remark, that Mr. Brodie and Dr. Magendie 

 found even digestion uninfluenced, if the division was made, not in the neck, but 

 close to the stomach. Phil. Trans. 1814. Precis Elementaire, t. ii. p. 103. 



