Transcriber's Notes
1.Typos were silently corrected.
2.The "cover-page" is developed and placed in public domain as well "Table of Contents" added by the Transcriber.
Table of Contents
[ARTICLE I.]
[ARTICLE II.]
[ARTICLE III.]
[ARTICLE IV.]
[ARTICLE V.]
[ARTICLE VI.]
[ARTICLE VII.]
[ARTICLE VIII.]
[Editorial, Etc.]
[Bibliographical.]
[Monthly Summary.]
[Footnotes]
THE
AMERICAN JOURNAL
OF
DENTAL SCIENCE
Vol. xix. Third Series.—OCTOBER 1885. No. 6.
[ARTICLE I.]
NERVOUS ENERGY.
BY DR. E. PARSONS, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA.
[Read before the Georgia State Dental Society, May, 1885.]
Gentlemen—The subject I have chosen for your consideration at this, our Annual Meeting, is "Nervous Energy, how Actuated, and its Varied Phenomena." No one can question the importance of knowing all that can be known about it.
There is an invariable law by which means mind acts on matter, and it is my purpose, in this paper, to briefly elucidate what I have learned by reading, observation and experience on the subject. The great advantage of meeting in council is an increase in knowledge on all subjects in any way relating to our profession. We have many things yet to learn that will be, when known, of great benefit to both ourselves and the public.
Science demands a full and free investigation of all or any causative principle by which life is manifested, or death produced. So long as we draw our conclusions only from appearances, we shall often be deceived in a correct diagnosis; consequently often fail to cure diseases that come within the legitimate bounds of our specialty.
Proper remuneration for our services are absolutely necessary for the respectable maintainance of ourselves and those dependent on us; but our best men are laboring unweariedly in their endeavor to elevate our standard throughout the world, but particularly in our own country, and this Society can do much to help them in their onward march, developing all possible improvements in Scientific Dentistry.
Again, we all have a full consciousness of three things—we love, we think, we act. But few have a scientific knowledge of the means employed by which mind acts on matter. There are such varied forms and circumstances controlling its development, that we need not marvel at anything that comes within the sphere of our observation. As we are brought face to face with almost every possible condition of the nervous system, our opportunities for investigating the various manifestations of nervous energy, its source and supply, may we not equal any other specialty in solving the great problem of cause and effect manifesting nervous energy? As the brain is the seat of all sensation, I briefly present some of the best authenticated views of its organization. I think you all will agree with me that it is wonderfully constructed by Infinite Wisdom for the development of the finite mind. In the elucidation of my subject, let us not forget the fact that the blood has much to do with the various conditions of the nervous system. It holds, or should contain in solution, all the elements necessary for the growth and sustenance of every organ in the body; it is both a receiver and a giver; it is fed from what we eat and drink, without which it cannot perform the office intended.