DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY DRINKS |
| DIRECTOR Horst Stringfellow |
ABOUT
A medicine may act directly upon the nervous energy * of the part to which it is applied, and the effect produced there be extended to the other parts of the system.
It has long been admitted, that medicines acting on the stomach have their influence extended to the whole of the system ; that they act upon the sensible and irritable parts of the stomach ; and that it is only upon this supposition that we can account for the sudden changes which are produced upon distant organs and parts of the body, soon after a medicine has been introduced into the stomach: an impression is made upon one organ, and extends quickly over the whole body. How is this to be explained ?
* Nervous energy is that power inherent in the nervous system, including the brain and the spinal marrow, which renders the body susceptible of impressions both mental and material.
That every medicine operates either directly or indirectly upon the nervous system can scarcely be denied. When a medicine is absorbed and taken into the circulation, we are unable to prove that any chemical change is effected in the circulating mass by it; and, even were this the case, still we must refer its ultimate effect to some action upon the nervous system, unless we suppose that the secretions are mere chemical changes in the fluids, altogether independent of the vital principle, an idea which is totally devoid of support. Chemical changes, also, in the fluids can be more readily explained, on the supposition that, a new action being excited in the organ or organs secreting the fluids, the result will be a change in the nature or the proportion of the components of these fluids, than that the medicine penetrates the vessels and acts chemically upon their contents. It is true that many medicines enter the blood vessels, and, being conveyed to various organs, these are excited in the same direct manner as the surface to which the medicines were first applied: but, at the same time, phenomena occur which can only be referred to nervous sympathy. H.S.