Emerson College - Emersonian Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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vital organs, but their effect was disappointing. But the Creator of the body has given man a machine, with- out money and Without price. Man must be taught to use it. These facts, gathering in my mind, have resulted in this conclusion: that there is no such thing as a chronic disease of any vital organ, so long as that organ maintains its normal altitude. If there is such a case, I have yet to find it, and I have examined many hundreds of persons in regard to that one point. The next method by which the vital organs are developed is, by exercising the Qnuseles that surround the vital organs. The organs themselves do not possess voluntary muscles, nor are they connected directly with voluntary muscles, but they are surrounded and held in place by voluntary muscles. These muscles exercise over those organs a certain quickening power. lt may be asked how this can be, When these muscles are not connected directly With the vital organs. The muscles have a certain mechanical effect, they bring 'a definite mechanical pressure to bear upon the organs. The muscles that surround the body are not to rest, but Were destined to activity, from birth to death., It is a curious fact of observation, that the muscles around and over the vital organs, though not attached directly to any, -and the separation is clear-cut,- 11

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chest out. The lungs are not on the outside, they are in the trunk of the body, and, as they are lifted, the shoulders are thrown apart and the back is broadened as much as the chest is expanded. Too much is said about H holding the shoulders back, as if they were ,given us to put behind us. The shoulders belong on the sides, and in raising the lungs it is not necessary to throw the shoulders back. To bend the back and bulge the front of the body is to sacrifice the bacfli to a protuberance in front. It is an injury to the lungs, and especially an injury to the stomach. I have known more cases than I have recorded, of pei-sons cured of dyspepsia by muscular cxcrcisc. Ilui' thc iirst step in effecting such a cure was to lil't1 the vital organs sufficiently high in the body, for I liavc IIIQYOI' known a case of chronic dyspepsia where the stoinacli was as high as it ought to be while, at thc same time. thc person ha.d proper nourishment. A clcrgymzin c-:unc in mc the other day saying that he had dyspcpsia, -- wliich some believe to be a H semi-clerical discasof' The stomach proved to be two and one-half imflxus below its normal altitude. I told him that if he could bring the stomach up to its proper position, and his parish did not starve him with a small salary, he might become healthy and rotund. Dr. S, S. Fitch invented machines for sustaining the 10

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seem to 'be so related to the vital organs that one can judge of the condition of a vital organ by the muscles over it. For example, one can judge of the condition of the stomach by the condition of the muscles over it. A physiologist would not neerl to ask a man how his food agreed with him if he could examine the muscles over the stomach. A person with chronic dyspepsia cannot bear a touch upon the muscles over the stomach. lf he happens to meet a hlunflering June bug he collapses. lVhy is this so '? My opinion is that the nerve centres which rule the vital organs are affected, through reflex action, by those nerve centres which govern the muscles sur- rounding the vital organs. Sonic muscles are con- trolled by the same nerves that control the organ under them. Those muscles that holfl the organs in place, create such activity in the pin-uinogastric nerve that it carries life and animation to the stomach and liver. I know not how else to account for this observable fact. I saw it lirst recorded by Dr. Jackson, thirty years ago, as a record of his long experience with dyspeptie patients and those who had what they called H liver complaint. p Moreover, the muscles that hold the stomach in place, constitute a portion of the muscles of respiiationg therefore, if a person breathes only in the upper part of 12