Emerson College - Emersonian Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 32 text:

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

Page 31 text:

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

Page 33 text:

the chest, he does not exercise what i-s below the lungs. Deep, full breathing, exercises the muscles around the waist and exercises the abdomen. The contents of the abdomen are thus moved, and their energy is quickened. I am aware, in saying this, that certain works on physi- ology, declare that men and women ought to breathe differentlyg that, while men should take a full and deep respiration, women should not, that woman is not constituted so that she should, especially after the years of puberty. Yet, if we look at the muscles of respiration, we find that they are precisely alike in men and women, and the stomach and the liver need the same motions in both sexes in order to promote the activity of these organs. Now, the third method by which these vital organs are developed is by preserving a due balance between the energy that supplies and the energg that wastes. There are certain muscles of the body that quicken the supply of blood, -that develop the power of life. It is blood that we want, -it is blood for which every part of the organism is crying out. Nourishment, nourishment, nourishment! Where is the nourishment? In the blood. What manufactures the blood? The vital organs. Look well to them. From them radiates all power. The vital organs are the manufacturers of life. Now, a certain number of muscles are used perpetually 13