I have given these bulky descriptions of the forest and ocean to prepare the mind of man to begin the inspection of the machinery that has constructed the body of which he is the indweller. If we cannot swallow all, we can taste.
FROM NECK TO HEART.
The hearts of all animals should call the most careful attention of the student of nature. He finds in it the first act of life; from it go all parts or by it all parts of the body are made, and the student of nature soon learns that at the heart he finds the first evidence of the power of life to continue and give useful shape to matter. Its first work is to complete itself in material form with necessary chambers to hold blood and with tubes to convey to all places of need. He sees vessels leaving the heart to form brain, lungs, liver, trunk and limbs, and with each and all he can see the nerves of motion, sensation, nutrition, the voluntary and involuntary—all working in perfect harmony and content to do their part in the economy of life. Without that union in action a confusion will show in form of abnormality which is known as disease. On its work all nerves do depend for force and strength to build and renovate the body in all its bones, muscles and nerves—thus all channels to and from the heart must be cleared from all hindrance. No nerve can do its part unless it be well nourished. If not it will fail to execute its part for want of power—for by it all blood must move. These nerves are found in plexuses in all parts of the body; they are abundant in the skin, fascia, muscle, lymphatics and all organs great and small. The Osteopath must know or learn that no infringement can be tolerated in any part. Nature's demands are surely absolute, and require that the last farthing shall be paid in full. Now for a start—we will explore the neck; here we have the great and small occipital and the cervical group all receiving from the brain and feeding parts below. Thus we must stop at the neck and read the lessons that can be found there, and learn them well; or we will find that we will not be able to meet diseases only to be defeated. We must have the fight during the four seasons of the year. In the cold seasons we will find lung and other diseases—croup, pneumonia, diphtheria, sore throat. All these do their mischief through the nerves of the neck.
Where is or who is the great thinker who knows and can tell all of the duties and actions of the nerves of the neck, or what nerve failed and slept while a tubercle was formed in the lungs? Which nerve slept while fat is heaped up in useless piles in the body? Let us wake up! Consumption does not come without a cause. What plexus is overcome and allows the lungs to waste away? To what ganglion of the spine would the finger of reason point, and say, "that is the cause of phthisis pulmonalis?" In our search we find a division of nerves run from the brain through the regions of the neck, and find a point at which a branch leaves a greater nerve on a line that leads to the lungs. We will likely find a ganglion at which place all or much of one or both lungs are supplied. Then we, by reason, would see that freedom of action cannot be. If some substance should intrude by pressure on any nerve in that region, we must judge by conditions if that pressure has cut off nutrition equal to feeble condition of the lungs.
DYSPEPSIA OR IMPERFECT DIGESTION.
In our physiologies we read much about digestion. We will start in where they stop. They bring us to the lungs with chyle fresh as made and placed in thoracic duct, previous to flowing into the heart to be transferred to lungs to be purified, charged with oxygen and otherwise qualified, and sent off for duty, through the arteries great and small, to the various parts of the system. But there is nothing said of the time when all blood is gas (if ever) before it is taken up by the secretions, after refinement, and driven to the lungs to be mixed with the old blood from the venous system. A few questions about the blood seem to hang around my mental crib for food. Reason says we cannot use blood before it has all passed through the gaseous stage of refinement, which reduces all material to the lowest forms of atoms, before constructing any material body. I think it safe to assume that all muscles and bones of our body have been in the gas state while in the process of preparing substances for blood. A world of questions arise at this point.
QUESTIONS OF GAS.
The first is, Where and how is food made into gas while in the body? If you will listen to a dyspeptic after eating you will wonder where he gets all the wind that he rifts from his stomach, and continues for one or two hours after each meal. That gas is generated in the stomach and intestines, and we are led to believe so because we know of no other place in which it can be made and thrown into the stomach by any tubes or other methods of entry. Thus by the evidence so far the stomach and bowels are the one place in which this gas is generated. Now comes question two: As I have spoken of the stomach that generates and ejects great quantities of gas for a longer or shorter time after meals, this class of people have always been called dyspeptics. Another class of the same race of beings stand side by side with him, without this gas generating. He, too, eats and drinks of the same kind of food, without any of the manifestations that have been described in the first class. Why does one stomach blow off gas continually, while the other does not? is a very deep, serious and interesting question. As number two throws off no gas from the stomach after eating, is this conclusive evidence that his stomach generates no gas? Or does his stomach and bowels form gas just as fast as No. 1? and the secretions of the stomach and bowels take up and retain the nutritious matter and pass the remainder of the gas by way of the excretory ducts through the skin? If the excretory ducts take up and carry this gas out of the body by way of the skin, and he is a healthy man, why not account for No. one's stomach ejecting this gas by way of the mouth, because of the fact that the secretions of the stomach are either clogged up or inactive, for want of vital motion of the nerve terminals of the stomach. Another question in connection with this subject: Why is the man whose stomach belches forth gas in such abundance also suffering with cold feet, hands and all over the body, while No. 2 is quite warm and comfortable, with a glow of warmth passing from his body all the time? With these hints I will ask the question: What is digestion?