Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. II

by Erasmus Darwin

Another method of decreasing the action of the stomach for a time, and thence of increasing it afterwards, is by the accumulation of the sensorial power of irritation during its torpor; is by giving ice, iced water, iced creams, or iced wine. This accounts for the pleasure, which many people in fevers with weak pulse express on drinking cold beverage of any kind.

A second method of exciting the stomach into action, and of decreasing that of the capillaries in consequence, is by the stimulus of wine, opium, bark, metallic salts of antimony, steel, copper, arsenic, given in small repeated quantities; which so long as they render the pulse slower are certainly of service, and may be given warm or cold, as most agreeable to the patient. For it is possible, that the capillaries of the stomach may act too violently, and produce heat, at the same time that the large muscles of it may be in a torpid state; which curious circumstance future observations must determine.

Thirdly. Hot fomentation on the region of the stomach might be of most essential service by its stimulus, as heat penetrates the system not by the absorbent vessels, but by external influence; whence the use of hot fomentation to the head in torpor of the brain; and the use of hot bath in cases of general debility, which has been much too frequently neglected from a popular error occasioned by the unmeaning application of the word relaxation to animal power. If the fluid of heat could be directed to pass through particular parts of the body with as little diffusion of its influence, as that of electricity in the shocks from the coated jar, it might be employed with still greater advantage.

Fourthly. The use of repeated small electric shocks through the region of the stomach might be of service in fevers with weak pulse, and well deserves a trial; twenty or thirty small shocks twice a day for a week or two would be a promising experiment.

Fifthly. A blister on the back, or sides, or on the pit of the stomach, repeated in succession, by stimulating the skin frequently strengthens the action of the stomach by exciting the sensorial power of association; this especially in those fevers where the skin of the extremities, as of the hands or nose or ears, sooner becomes cold, when exposed to the air, than usual.

Sixthly. The action of the stomach may be increased by preventing too great expenditure of sensorial power in the link of previous motion with which it is catenated, especially if the action of that link be greater than natural. Thus as the capillaries of the skin act too violently in fevers with weak pulse, if these are exposed to cold air or cold water, the sensorial power, which previously occasioned their orgasm, becomes accumulated, and tends to increase the action of the stomach; thus in those fevers with weak pulse and hot skin, if the stomach be stimulated by repeated small doses of bark and wine or opium, and be further excited at the same time by accumulation of sensorial power occasioned by rendering the capillaries torpid by cold air or water, this twofold application is frequently attended with visible good effect.

By thus stimulating the torpid stomach into greater action, the motions of the heart and arteries will likewise be increased by the greater excitement of the power of association. And the capillaries of the skin will cease to act so violently, from their not possessing so great a superfluity of sensorial power as during the greater quiescence of the stomach and of the heart and arteries. Which is in some circumstances similar to the curious phenomenon mentioned in Class [IV. 2. 2. 10]; where, by covering the chill feet with flannel at the eruption of the small-pox, the points of the flannel stimulate the skin of the feet into greater action, and the quantity of heat, which they possess, is also confined, or insulated, and further increases by its stimulus the activity of the cutaneous vessels of the feet; and by that circumstance abates the too great action of the capillaries of the face, and the consequent heat of it.

[XIII]. Case of continued fever.

The following case of continued fever which I frequently saw during its progress, as it is less complicate than usual, may illustrate this doctrine. Master S. D. an active boy about eight years of age, had been much in the snow for many days, and sat in the classical school with wet feet; he had also about a fortnight attended a writing school, where many children of the lower order were instructed. He was seized on February the 8th, 1795, with great languor, and pain in his forehead, with vomiting and perpetual sickness; his pulse weak, but not very frequent. He took an emetic, and on the next day, had a blister, which checked the sickness only for a few hours; his skin became perpetually hot, and dry; and his tongue white and furred; his pulse when asleep about 104 in a minute, and when awake about 112.

Fourth day of the disease. He has had another blister, the pain of his head is gone, but the sickness continues by intervals; he refuses to take any solid food, and will drink nothing but milk, or milk and water, cold. He has two or three very liquid stools every day, which are somtimes green, but generally of a darkish yellow, with great flatulency both upwards and downwards at those times. An antimonial powder was once given, but instantly rejected; a spoonful of decoction of bark was also exhibited with the same event. His legs are bathed, and his hands and face are moistened twice a day for half an hour in warmish water, which is nevertheless much colder than his skin.