ON IDIOPATHIC TETANUS. 
679 
them the materials of the fluid which they are destined to 
secrete, and these they appropriate, by a real selection, to them¬ 
selves. Besides, the nerves communicate to them a peculiar 
composition, and bestow on the fluid which is the product of it, 
specific qualities always bearing a certain relation to the mode 
of action of which it is the result. Thus, the liver seizes certain 
materials contained in the blood, elaborates and combines and 
converts them into an animal fluid, distinguishable by peculiar 
characteristic properties, called bile. 
Now, taking the liver for an example, in tetanus we find that 
the secretion of bile is altered ; we likewise find the sympathetic 
nerves affected, and this change in the condition of the bile is 
applicable to all the secretions of the animal economy. 
Since, then, it must be admitted, that the various secretions are 
dependent on the nerves, any plan of treatment that can be pur¬ 
sued to restore the nervous energy, that the glandular organs may 
perform their proper functions, would be highly beneficial. 
I believe that purgatives by themselves will not produce a 
return of the secretions; but when combined with counter irri¬ 
tants, in the form I have recommended, they may have a bene¬ 
ficial tendency. The cases^which are submitted in this paper to 
your notice, very sufficiently prove the good effect of the blisters, 
especially the last one. In this instance purging was not pro¬ 
duced until the morning of the sixth day ; on the eighth costive¬ 
ness was again present. No medicine of any kind was given to 
remedy this, but a strong blister was applied to the abdomen, 
and on the following day the secretions returned, and a copious 
discharge of faeces was the consequence. Here it w^as evident 
that the change that took place in the visceral glands was pro¬ 
duced in consequence of the blister. 
We cannot explain the modus operandi of the blisters, except 
it is by sympathy. A knowledge of sympathies is of the highest 
importance in the practice of medicine : it affords us the means 
of explaining how an affection is first local or limited in its 
extent,- and tnen spreads and extends to all the systems: it is thus 
that every morbid process is carried on ; and likewise, when we 
wish to avert an irritation fixed in a diseased organ, experience 
and observation prove that it is on the organ which bears to it 
the closest sympathetic 'connexion that it is useful to apply 
medicines intended to excite irritation. 
The reader will perceive that I have not used any opium in 
the cases which I have described as cured by the application of 
the blisters. My reason for so doing arose not from -any doubt 
that I entertained respecting its efficacy in lulling irritation, as I 
well know, from experience, that it is a most valuable remedy 
