88 THE ACTIVE FORCES OF LIVING ORGANISMS 



nervous treatment may therefore be defined as being 

 to make the state of contraction predominate slightly 

 over that of expansion, and to stimulate nervous 

 mobility chiefly within the limits of the former. 



"When a cold bath is followed by a sharp return of 

 blood to the skin a double effect is produced, for a 

 note of contraction and diminished oxidation is 

 struck, succeeded immediately by one of expansion 

 and increased oxidation. The nervous metabolic 

 rhythm acquires under these conditions a dual 

 character, with an increased tendency in both direc- 

 tions, but mainly, it would seem, towards contraction. 

 In those whose nervous system is well balanced the 

 normal rhythm is soon re-established. Those, how- 

 ever, the protoplasm of whose nerve-cells has been 

 constantly contracted and expanded in an exaggerated 

 manner through indulgence in alcohol, or through too 

 free consumption of food-stuffs, or medicaments con- 

 taining alkaloids, or through repeated and intense 

 increases and decreases of oxidation caused in other 

 ways, or, again, through hereditary tendencies due 

 to the heavy drinking habits of parents or an- 

 cestors, such persons will naturally be influenced 

 in an excessive degree by the cold bath. In young 

 people, when there is excess, it is generally on the 

 side of contraction, whilst in old people the reverse is 

 sometimes the case. One of the commonest results 

 of treatment in the way just described is to produce 

 cold hands and feet. This illustrates the mode of 

 action of the bath in such cases, for we have clear 



