584 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
Our first duty is to inquire into the process by which 
recovery is effected, either by the aid of medicine or inde¬ 
pendent of it. 
Disease we have found to exist in three forms, viz. excited, 
diminished, and altered action of a part or organ ; and excess, 
defect, or change of structure. That these modifications 
are, many of them, temporary, and almost all remediable, 
we are aware. The method of removal requires discus¬ 
sion. 
STRUCTURE OR FUNCTION IN EXCESS. 
Every portion of the animal economy is liable to this con¬ 
dition, under the action of courses which need not be reverted 
to here. From the ordinary influence of external circum¬ 
stances, the functions of the body are constantly excited, but 
return to their quiescent condition under rest: their continued 
activity will be inevitably due to the continuance of an exciting 
cause. Respiration and circulation are excited by exertion, 
and continue so excited until the body has remained quiet for 
some time. The exertion is the cause of the excited func¬ 
tions, but its cessation is not immediately attended with their 
subsidence, for the reason that the impression made upon 
the nervous system keeps up the stimulus. 
Where the resistant power of the system is sufficient, the 
excited nervous functions are soon calmed; but should this 
resistant power be wanting, or the impression be so strong 
as to overcome it, the stimulus continues its action, and the 
excited functions remain. This retention by the nervous 
system of an impression made upon it, we desire stringently 
to insist upon, as without it we should in vain strive to 
explain the continuance of an effect after the original cause 
had ceased. The notion that excited respiration neces¬ 
sarily influences the heart’s action is not consonant with 
fact. The action of the chest may be increased at pleasure, 
and continued without materially exciting the pulse; and in 
the hot air bath, both in our own case and also in animals, 
the heart’s action has been increased to twice or thrice the 
normal rate, without in any degree affecting the movements 
of the lungs; while a few minutes’ exercise would have 
equally, or at least proportionately, excited both functions at 
once. The primary stimulus originating in the act of vo¬ 
lition is communicated, not merely to the muscles of loco¬ 
motion, but, by nervous agency, to various other parts; thus 
the voluntary movements and the reflex functions of circu- 
