PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY, A Treatise comprising the Substance of a Course of Lectures ( with many additionsJ on the Science and Philosophy of Digestion, Assimilation and Disassimilation, and correlated subjects, delivered in the Physio-Med- ical College of Indiana, being the first of a Three-years Graded Course of Lectures BY JACOB REDDING, M. D., Professor of Microscopy, Normal and Pathological Histology, and Author of the " Molecular Theory of Physics." NEW CASTLE, IND.: The Courier Company Press. 1891. ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1891, BY JACOB REDDING, IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C. PREFACE. The physician, without a correct theoretical basis or scientific foundation to guide and direct him in the choice of remedial agents, and all other necessary meas- ures for the relief of the suffering and the restoration of the sick and afflicted to health, is very much in the same situation, figuratively speaking, that a ship would be sailing on the tempestuous sea without a helm or rudder with which to steer her in her proper course. He is constantly exposed to the waves of adversity and to be blown hither and thither by the shifting winds of doctrine, and his little barque, with its freight of human lives, is in constant danger of being wrecked on some inhospitable shore. Thus drifting on the sea of profes- sional life he cannot but feel a deep sense of anxiety, insecurity and uncertainty that seems at times of great- est doubt almost unendurable, and tends to exhaust his physical strength and prostrate his mental energies more rapidly and to a greater degree than the pain of severe bodily suffering would do. The ship is not entirely worthless in the absence of a rudder to steer it, since it may perhaps afford a safe arrival at the desired port or harbor, and it certainly offers a sense of temporary security to the passenger, however vain this may be, while the rudder without the ship would be absolutely worthless, if indeed it should not prove an encumbrance. So, also, in the practice of medicine, our materia-medica may afford ultimate recov- ery from sickness and perhaps impending dissolution, and very commonly secures a present sense of safety and hope, but in the absence of a true theoretical rud- 4 PREFACE. der to steer the physician in his professional course, danger of shipwreck constantly impends over him and his cargo. Nevertheless there are today two school of practice; the one a ship without a rudder and the other a rudder without a ship. The first boasts of her liberality, which is merely looseness, and the other calls herself "Chris tian Science," neither of which does she possess, but mankind is deceived thereby and human life put in jeopardy. There are two other schools of medicine, however, that pretend to have both, but would better have neither, since the rudder is utterly false, and the ship with its cargo of poisonous abominations leavens the whole lump of living freight with the ferment of disease and death. This work was undertaken and com- pleted, therefore, with the earnest hope that error might be exposed and eradicated as far as possible from the domain of medicine, and a safe, sound, and secure fun- damental basis for a truly scientific practice might be furnished in convenient form for a book of reference in times of doubt and uncertainty, and a present help in every time of theoretical or philosophical need. I have, therefore, encumbered its pages as little as possible with extraneous matters. J. R. CHAPTER I. THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. From the time that Chemistry first attained to the dignity of a recognized science, until near the beginning of the present century, Digestion, and indeed almost all of the various processes of animalization, were univer- sally regarded as essentially chemical in character. And even now, with some slight modifications, they are so considered by a very large majority of the medical profession, notwithstanding the fact that a very cursory examination of the facts and arguments presented in favor of this view by the various standard authorities on questions of physiology, would be quite sufficient to reveal to the critically disposed and unprejudiced mind the utter fallacy of such a doctrine. We have entering into the composition of all the various tissues, struc- tures, organs, and nutritive fluids of the animal body one or more of the so-called Proximate Principles in the very same state of chemical aggregation and or- ganic constitution that obtained in the digested pro- ducts, and they may be extracted from these fluids and solids as such proximate principles artificially, and they do ultimately reappear as such in some of the secre- tions and excretions of the body, as will be fully appar- ent farther on. Prof. Dalton says: "A proximate principle is prop- erly defined to be any substance, whether simple or com- pound, chemically speaking, which exists, under its own form, in the animal solid or fluid, and which can be ex- tracted by means which do not alter or destroy its chemical properties. Lime phosphate, for example, is a 6 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. proximate principle of bone, but phosphoric acid is not so, since it does not exist as such in the bony tissue, but is produced only by the decomposition of the cal- carious matter; still less phosphorus, which is obtained only by the decomposition of the phosphoric acid." - Human Physiology, p. 35. The proximate principles are sub-divided into the In- organic proximate principles and the Organic proximate principles, and hence, we see that, in harmony with the above definition, neither digestion, assimilation nor dis- assimilation can properly be denominated chemical in character, whatever such changes may take place sub- sequent to the latter process. It is evident, therefore, that in dealing with man as a physical being, the im- portance of having a clear, concise, and comprehen- sive knowledge of the nature, extent, capabilities or modus operandi, and the limitations of the forces oper- ating in his body, by and through the exercise of which all the various physiological processes and changes are produced, cannot be easily over-estimated. I am not un- mindful of the fact, however, that there exists a very marked disposition on the part of perhaps a majority of the medical profession to strive to ignore as far as possible all questions directly relating to the subject of physics, notwithstanding the fact, as just stated, that it is the physical man that the physician has mainly to deal with. Any effort on his part, therefore, to shirk this subject in its broader aspect, at least, is but an evidence of the urgent necessity of forcing such matters upon his perverted judgement. Surely no one can ever hope to determine the question correctly as to whether the various processes going on in the human body dur- ing the existence of co-ordinate vitality are purely chemical, calorific, electrical, or the result in whole or in part of a mode of energy - so to speak - differing THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 7 from any and all the ordinary forces of Nature, without first having obtained a correct knowledge of the pecu- liar and respective capacities and limitations of the generic energies or forces which constitute the actuating influences or impulses by and through the exercise of which matter is caused to move. I trust, therefore, that what follows may not be deemed unworthy of the read- er's attention, but that it may on the contrary receive his careful and critical consideration, with the earnest hope that he may thereby obtain a better understand- ing of the various processes of animalization than was possible previous to the promulgation (in part) of the Molecular Theory of Physics. This theory involves the fundamental concept that- There are but three generic forms or modes of energy in the physical universe; namely, HEAT ENERGY, MAGNETIC ENERGY, and VITAL EN- ERGY; and they are substantial in character, fixed, definite, and unchangeable in their respective attributes and modes of acting and limitations, and hence are not modes of mo- tion, but actuating energies by and through tvhich matter is caused to move, and that therefore all the various phenom- ena, whether mechanical, chemical, electrical, thermal, vital, or of whatsoever character they may be, are but the manifest expression of one or the other of these energies acting singly or conjointly upon matter. I shall show that each of these respective forms of energy can act in one and only one peculiar and definite direction upon matter, either in the direction of aggregation or integration, or on the other hand, in the direction of ex- pansion or disintegration, just as the case may be; and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that they are each of a triune character. Strive as earnestly as we may, we cannot escape the logical sequence growing out of the fact that force and matter are alike substantial, alike inconvertible, and 8 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. alike indestructible. Two or more of these respective forms of energy, acting in unison upon the same mass of matter at one and the same instant of time, will nec- essarily produce results at variance with that which is peculiarly characteristic of either when acting indepen- dently. But each of these energies acts even then in its own definite and peculiar manner, and the result is the algebraic sum of their combined influences. There is no such thing as the conversion of one mode of en- ergy into another, no change in the specific nature and modus operand! of the forces of the universe, but, on the contrary, their action is definite and immutable, and hence any and all phenomena at variance with this are simply due to the unisonant influence of two, or possi- bly all three of the distinct energies acting conjointly, but in their own respective spheres, to produce the re- sult observed. I do not mean to say by this that the direction in which a body may be moving cannot be changed, whether such a body be an atom, a molecule, or a larger mass of matter, but I do most emphatically assert that there is not one particle of good substantial evidence, not a single well established fact in nature, in support of the doctrine that this or any kind of motion or "mode of motion" is Energy per se. Any one who is not unalterably biased by precon ceived notions and opinions, and who is in possession of even a moderately fair analytical disposition of mind, can easily find internal evidence of the utterly erroneous and fundamentally contradictory character of the Dyna- mic hypothesis, by simply consulting the various recog- nized authorities who advocate this view. They en- deavor to entirely dispense with any such thing as an actuating impulse by and through which matter is caused to move, and are thus compelled to regard the effect - the motion - as the cause of itself, otherwise THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 9 they convict themselves of being inconsistent with their own fundamental propositions. And since it is well known that the direction in which a body may be mov ing at one instant of time can be changed by the exer- tion of an actuating influence operating in a different direction, they are forced to conclude that the result is either directly or indirectly due to a change in the en- ergy itself-that is, in the motion. Prof. Tyndall says: "The matter of the human body is the same as that of the world around us ; and here we find the forces of the human body identical with those of inorganic nature." And Prof. Packard states that "Upon the chemical atoms aggregated together into the form of a cell, at any stage of its existence, a certain power is bestowed - Vital Force; they hold this power in their corporate character." This latter state- ment renders clear the true import of the language made use of by Tyndall, and hence we see that this doctrine of spontaneous generation (for this is precisely what it amounts to), is still advocated by a very large class of individuals when treating of the functions of animalization; and that too, notwithstanding the fact that this heresy has been so thoroughly discredited that "scarcely an authority in Europe will lend his name to it" at the present time. And while confessing that he wishes the evidence was the other way, Tyndall himself is compelled to state that "I affirm that no shred of trustworthy experimental testimony exists to prove that life in our day has ever appeared indepen- dently of antecedent life." Even Prof. Huxley, who some twenty years or more since said that he believed "It possible before half a century has elapsed, that man may be able to take inorganic substances, such as car- bonic acid, water, and salines, and be able to build them up into proteine matter, and that that proteine matter 10 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. may begin to live in an organic form, has since been forced to concede the fact that the doctrine of Biogene- sis, or life only from life, is "Victorious along the whole line at the present day." Now, there must have been some very strong pre-dis- posing influence operating upon the minds of these emi- nent authors and teachers to have thus prejudiced them in favor of the doctrine of spontaneous generation, and to cause them to wish that the facts wTere the other w'ay. It is very evident to my mind, at least, that the dynamic hypothesis was the theoretical sand-bar upon which they founded their prophetic expectations, since just so long as Vital energy, and all other forms of en- ergy wTere arid are regarded as mere modes of motion, just so long must it be theoretically conceded that one form of energy may be converted into another form of energy,-one mode of motion changed into a different mode of motion. If there was any truth whatever in the fundamental teachings of the dynamic hypothesis, it would seem that there had never been a period in the history of the world when the opportunities for such a transformation of energy had been so great as just now. With the accumulated wisdom of the centuries, together with the almost unlimited facilities at our command for the most profound and searching investigations, there ought not to be any great difficulty in enforcing the doctrine of spontaneous generation upon our minds as an established fact, providing the dynamic hypothesis be founded upon the ground-rock of truth. We do not question the correctness of the statement that "The matter of the human body is the same as that of the world around us, " and it must be. conceded also that the second proposition is equally true if either the chemical theory of life, or that other theory which claims that "A specific degree of heat and motion, so THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 11 combined and modified, is the essential principle in the living animal. Yea Rather Life Itself. " The only real difference between these two doctrines of any practical importance, so far as the subject specifically under con- sideration is concerned, is as to whether the various processes of animalization are integrative or disintegra- tive in character. In view of the fact, however, that animal food substances are largely composed of matters in a state of organic integration at the time they en- ter the alimentary canal, the Calorific theory of life will afford a satisfactory and harmonious explanation of di- gestion in accordance with all the known facts relative to the modus operandi of heat and the nature of the digestive process. But this theory of life fails most signally to account for the integrative process by and through which these food substances were first integra- ted, and subsequently integrated anew into our own tis- sue-elements after having been disintegrated in the di- gestive process. Even the dynamic hypothesis forbids that heat should act in diametrically opposite ways, and hence if diges- tion be regarded as a vital process in harmony with this theory of life, it must be conceded that a change in motion is essentially necessary to secure a subsequent integrative result. Heat being regarded as "A motion, expansive, " and being in reality an expansive or disin- tegrative energy, it cannot be tortured into an integra- tive energy. Hence, we will be compelled, by the very exigencies of the case, to either admit that organization is the manifest result of chemical integrative energy, or else that there is a distinctive integrative energy differ- ing from all the ordinary forces of inorganic nature in both its sphere of action and in the results accruing therefrom. If, on the other hand, chemical energy be regarded as 12 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the actuating impulse by and through which the food substances are disintegrated, then it loses its character and reputation as an integrative energy entirely. With this confusion relative to the true nature of energy, and knowing that chemical energy, whether regarded as substantial or as a mere mode of motion, is essentially integrative in character, I see no reason why it might not very consistently be thought competent to aggre- gate atoms together to form cells, and these to form tis- sues and structures. Nay, more, I see no way of escap- ing such a conclusion so long as we regard the forces of the human body as identical with those of inorganic nature. Chemical energy being necessarily and essen- tially integrative in character, renders it practically im- possible and scientifically inconceivable that it should reverse its mode of action, if substantial, or its mode of motion, whether dynamic or substantial, and become disintegrative in result. To do this it would neces- sarily cease to be chemical energy, and become trans- muted into heat energy. This it could not do if really substantial. Both the chemical and the vital theories of digestion were promulgated at a time when there was absolutely no real scientific means of investigation and research by which to gain any definite knowledge of even the existence, much less of the nature, physical and chemical properties and constitution of bioplasm, and of its peculiar and respective functional, nutritive and formative capacities and vital powers. There was no means by which to even distinguish or differentiate matter living from matter not living. We need not be greatly astonished, therefore, that each of these respec- tive schools of doctrine should have attributed all the various processes going on in the living body to one and the same form of energy respectively, since they were both founded largely upon a misconception as to THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 13 what really constituted vital energy, or more properly perhaps, as to what vitalization consisted in. There is, therefore, something radically wrong in the fundamental teachings of both these schools with regard to this en- tire question of energy, and unless an effort is made to clear up the mists of darkness and uncertainty that en shroud the subject, I fear the obscurity will ultimately become even more dense than it unfortunately now is. Prof. Tyndall says: "We derive the muscle and fat of our bodies from what we eat. Animal heat you know to be due to the slow combustion of this fuel." -Heat a Mode of Motion, p. 83. Ignoring for the present all questions as to whether it is the combustion of the food we eat primarily, or the combustion of the muscle and fat subsequently, we will ascertain just what is involved in this concept of the source of animal heat, so as to discover, if possible, whether the production of muscle and fat is due to an integrative or a disintegrative process. If to the former, then digestion must be due to the latter, and vice versa. He says: "The diamond is a closely packed assem- blage of carbon atoms, between which, when heated, and the surrounding oxygen there is exerted an enor- mous attractive force. Urged by this force upon every carbon atom, the oxygen atoms precipitate themselves in pairs, two atoms of oxygen conspiring as it were to attack each single atom of carbon. The heat of this atomic collision is so intense that the carbon, in union with the oxygen, is jerked away from the solid nucleus, yielding a substance which is neither carbon nor oxy- gen. but a gaseous compound of both, called carbonic acid." "In carbonic acid the mutual attractions of oxy- gen and carbon being satisfied, the heat-producing power is used up, and combustion can no longer be sustained. * * * This leads me to say a word or two 14 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. regarding our own -warmth. During the whole course of our lives we are continually inhaling and exhaling at- mospheric air. * * * When we inhale, the oxygen passes across the cell-walls of the lungs and mixes with the blood, by which it is carried through the body. W'hen we exhale, we pour out from the lungs the carbonic acid produced by the slowT combustion of our bodies. To this slow combustion we owe our ani- mal heat. Carbonic acid may be regarded as the rust of the body, which is continually cleared away by the lungs." - Heat, pp. 52, 53, 54- You can hardly have failed to notice that there is recognized in the above concept an enormous attractive force as operating between the respective atoms enter- ing into the new compound that is not a ''mode of mo- tion, " but the cause of the mode of motion. And since the product of this atomic union is "the rust of the body, " this attractive force cannot be the integrative energy essentially concerned in the organic process of muscle and fat building. Moreover, since heat was nec- essary to initiate the integrative process by first disin- tegrating the previously existing oxygen and carbon molecules, we are forced to conclude that chemical en- ergy is not a mode of motion, but a cause of motion; is not a disintegrative energy, but an integrative energy; is not a molecular integrative energy, but an atomic integ- rative energy; and that it is not directly concerned in either the process of digestion on the one hand, nor in the process of tissue formation on the other hand. That is to say, chemical energy not being motion must be sub- stantial, and acting upon atoms to form molecules, it can- not act upon molecules to form masses. This form of en- ergy is denominated cohesion. ' ' By the force of cohesion, then, the molecules are held together ; by the force of heat they are pushed asunder; and on the relation of these THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 15 two antagonistic powers the aggregation of the body depends. Every fresh increment of heat pushes the molecules more widely apart; hut the force of cohesion, like all other known forces, acts more feebly as the distance through which it acts is augmented * As, therefore, the heat grows strong, its opponent grows weak, until, finally, the particles are so far loosened from the thrall of cohesion, as to be at liberty, not only to vibrate to and fro across a fixed position, but also to roll or glide around each other. Cohesion is not yet destroyed, but it is so far modified that the particles, while still offer- ing resistance to being torn directly asunder, have their lateral mobility over each other's surface secured. This is the liquid condition of matter."-Heat, p. 116. Now, this is the very condition to which the food- substances of both the animal and the vegetable king- doms must be reduced in order, not only to gain access to the living matter to be nourished, but in order that they may be integrated into new forms. Moreover, the modus operandi of heat, as above stated by this eminent physicist, provides for the disintegration of the organic structures entering into the composition of our food- substances, without necessarily disturbing the cohesive relations existing between the component molecules of the distinctive proximate principles beyond that of mere liquefaction. Hence, it provides for their continued ex- istence as such proximate principles, even after diges- tion has been fully completed, and we have already seen that they do thus remain unchanged as such even'in the completely formed tissue-elements, but in many of these tissues so combined as to appear as a homogeneous mass. Seeing, therefore, that chemical energy is spe- cifically concerned in uniting atoms together to form * I have Italicised the above In order to call attention to a direct contradiction as recorded on page 18. 16 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. molecules, and cohesive energy is specifically concerned in uniting molecules together to form masses, and being told by the same author on page 185 of the same work that "The force of gravity almost vanishes in comparison with these molecular forces; the pull of the earth upon our pound weight, as a mass, is as nothing compared with the mutual pull of its own atoms, " we conclude that this heat force is an enormously strong force or energy also, since it is not only competent to overcome cohesive force, but the mutually attractive energy by which atoms are united to form molecules, and by which they are held in this embrace after thus being united. Thus far, then, we have got along without any very serious conflict in our premises and our deductions. But heat is said to be a mode of motion, and animal heat is said to be due to the combustion process, and "Casting a backward glance over the series of actions here illus- trated, we first figure the mutually attracting atoms apart, then rushing together, and acquiring while cross- ing the insensible interval which separates them the velocity with which they strike each other. That this velocity is enormous is proved- by the amount of heat which it generates." - Heat, p. 56. This last sentence clearly indicates what is meant by saying that "To this slow combustion wTe owe our animal heat, " since we know full well that we cannot generate that which is substantial, and hence the thing generated must be mo- tion. We enquire, therefore, just what kind of motion is heat motion ? and to just what peculiar force or energy are we to look for the actuating impulse by and through which this peculiar motion is superinduced in the digestive process especially ? We need not ask as to the kind of motion which this enormous velocity gen- erates in the above instance, since we know that the combustion process is a chemical integrative process, an R-1 THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 17 aggregating process, a condensing process. This is not the kind of heat we are seeking for just at this time, since it would not aid us very greatly in solving the riddle of digestion. We want that kind of heat which will make it possible to secure this latter mode of motion when desired. We are in search of something of which it may be truthfully said:"Every fresh increment of heat pushes the molecules more widely apart, " so that "As, therefore, the heat grows strong, its opponent grows weak. " We want that kind of heat motion which is expansive in its nature and tendencies, and hence, if the dynamic hypothesis cannot furnish us with a better form of heat energy than they get out of the combus- tion process, we will be compelled to seek for something more substantial, and much less tricky. They tell us that "When the atoms clash they recoil, and the consequent tremulous motion is one form of heatbut this is most assuredly erroneous, since atoms are naturally supposed to be absolutely solid bodies, and consequently devoid of elasticity, and hence they would be very likely to do precisely what two cannon balls would do if thus forcibly clashing, the impact would ar- rest the motion of both balls at once. Moreover, Prof. Tyndall says: "Now this vibration has nothing to do with the pressure or expansion of the gas, which is taken as a measure of its temperature. The vibration, in fact, though a portion of the heat, is not the portion by which temperature is determined." - Heat, p. Now, temperature is determined by the degree of expansion effected, and since atomic vibrations, even could such a thing take place, are incapable of producing expansion, we must obtain a different kind of heat in order to dis- integrate existing compounds before new combinations can take place. Moreover, this combustion heat of theirs could not be obtained at all without previous dis- 18 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ruption of the molecules entering into the composition of the food substances primarily, and this would com- pletely spoil our proximate principles and fill the ali- mentary canal with Tyndall rust. In the union of atoms to form molecules, there must necessarily be some mo- tion of the atoms entering into such chemical combina- tion, even though it be ever so slight, and hence the question: Is this motion chemical affinity ? or is it heat motion? If the latter, then what is chemical affin ity ? Is it substantial ? If this motion is chemical af- finity, then is it lost as such when atomic union has been effected ? If such be the case, then we ask: What holds these atoms together after such "enor- mous " affinities have exerted themselves ? Fortunately the answer is just at hand. "We are now upon the outmost verge of molecular physics. * * * Every atom is held apart from its neighbors by a force of re- pulsion ; why, then, do not the mutually repellent mem- bers of this group part company ? The molecules do separate when the external pressure is lessened or re- moved, but their constituent atoms do not. The reason of this stability is that two forces, the one attractive and the other repulsive, are in operation between every two atoms; and the position of every atom is deter- mined by the equilibration of these two forces. When the atoms approach too near each other, repulsion pre- dominates and drives them apart; when they recede to too great' a distance, attraction predominates and draws them together* The point at which attraction and re- pulsion are equal to each other is the atom's position of equilibrium. "- Tyndall, Heat a Mode of Motion, p. 471. Then why in the name of science do they not come to rest at this point? We thus see that even the "highest living authority * Tlie italics are mine, and designed to call attention, to statement on page 15. THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 19 on physics " is compelled to finally introduce two forces, which are not motion per se, but actuating influences, in order to even give a semblance of truth to the dynamic hypothesis. They can no more dispense with some form of substantial energy, independent of both matter and its motions, as an actuating influence, than they can spontaneously generate life. If the hypothesis was true they could do both ; but not being true, they can do neither. Moreover, it is a strange kind of attractive force that grows stronger as the distance is increased between the particles upon which it is supposed to act. Strange indeed, when we take into consideration the fact that "the force of cohesion, like all other known forces, acts more feebly as the distance through which it acts is augmented." [See page 15.] We will, there- fore, for the sake of perspicuity, call this repulsive force HEAT, or if preferred, luminiferous ether, and try and dispense with this unbwwn attractive force which was invented entirely in obedience to the exigen- cies of the dynamic hypothesis, and substitute instead thereof MAGNETIC ENERGY, which increases in at- tractive energy inversely as the square of the distance. I have only introduced these few facts and arguments in opposition to this contradictory dynamic hypothesis in order, not only to prepare the reader for a better understanding of what may follow by disabusing his mind of erroneous impressions, should any such exist, but also with a view to stimulate a more earnest desire upon his part to thoroughly and conscientiously inves- tigate this entire question relative to the nature and source of primary energy, in order that he may have a better conception of the true nature of the source of the impulse by and through which the various pro- cesses going on in the living economy of man are su- perinduced and maintained during life. We will, there- 20 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. fore, I trust, be permitted to offer some thoughts in this connection in support of a new and original theory in reference to the real nature of molecules, and es- pecially as regards the mutual relations of the compo- nent atoms, and the character, modus operand!, and limi- tations of the force operating to produce and sustain such atomic relations. We will assume, then, that the molecules of which all material substances are composed, whatsoever their na- ture or their condition as regards solidity, fluidity, or gaseousness may be, are hollow bodies, the walls con- sisting of two or more planes depending entirely upon the rarity or density of such molecules, and the cavities filled with an incorporeal substance called Heat.. We will leave it to the logic of future events to determine whether or not the assumption is well founded. Taking this view of the question, then, we will pic- ture the atoms of which a molecule consists as being constituted of hemispheres, one hemisphere of which is endowed with positive magnetic polarity, and the other with negative polarity. In order to render the concept as clear as possible, we will picture the positive hemis- phere as white, the negative as black. It will be seen, therefore, at a glance, that a comparatively narrow belt running parallel with and having for its center the line of union of the two hemispheres, will be neutral as re- gards polarity, the two forces being equal and opposite. In combining to form molecules, therefore, these atoms will be of necessity so related that the positive pole of one will coincide in point of contact with the negative pole of its fellow, or rather approximately so, and thus the very manner of their union, as determined by the energy through which such atomic union is effected, would involve the necessity of such atomic arrangement that the belts of neutrality would be directed towards THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 21 the inner and the outer surfaces of the molecules. The points of absolute contact between the atoms would nec- essarily only be approximately the points of strongest magnetic attraction, since to be in absolute contact the atoms would have to be arranged in straight lines, and this would leave the terminal atoms of each molecule with attractions unsatisfied. It is mainly due to this fact that the atoms arrange themselves in the form of a circle or sphere as regards the molecule. The over- plus of magnetic energy, due to the divergence of these points of strongest magnetic attraction, will be exactly proportionate to the degree of such divergence, all things else being equal, and this overplus of energy we will call Cohesion and Gravity. It is precisely the same energy, acting in precisely the same direction, but is simply diverted in part to the work implied by the use of the terms just made use of. The union of molecules into immobile masses is thus provided for by the superficial contiguous atoms of one molecule being engrafted between those of its neighbor- ing molecules on either asimuth. The greater the de- gree of specific magnetic energy any substance may possess the more dense, firm and resisting will it be, rel- atively speaking. And by virtue of this difference in specific magnetic energy which actually does normally exist, we are enabled to consistently account for the dif- ference in consistency in specific normal relative condi- tions as regards solidity, fluidity or gaseousness, in re- sistance to expansion, heat conducting properties, in co- hesive energy and specific weight or gravity, etc. We will, therefore, subdivide Magnetic energy thus, - Chem- ical affinity, Cohesion, and Gravity; not that any differ- ence obtains in the nature or modus operand! of the force per se, but simply because it seems to manifest it- self in three distinct ways. We denominate that form 22 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. or manifestation of this energy which acts mutually be- tween the atoms to form the wall of the individual mo- lecules, " chemical affinity," in order that confusion in the use of terms may be avoided; and whatever of overplus of this energy there may be that is not thus used up or rendered latent-so to speak - in holding the atoms in this embrace, we denominate "cohesion" and "grav- ity, " for the very same reason. The force, beauty, scientific scope and consistency, and great practical importance of this conception of the na- ture of atoms and molecules, and of the energies of the universe, cannot be over-estimated; especially so if we take into consideration the fact that the concept involves the doctrine that all molecules, in the mater ial universe, with the possible exception of those of electricity, have precisely the same number of atoms entering into their respective walls; and that all the differences in different substances, and the same substance at different times, as regards density or rar- ity, gravity, etc., is wholly due to the size of the molec- ular spheres or spheroids under the then existing en- vironments as regards pressure, temperature, etc. A moment's serious consideration of this question will convince any intelligent mind that the smaller the mo- lecular sphere the smaller will be the intermolecular cav- ity and intermolecular spaces and the greater the number of planes or strata of atoms composing the walls of the molecules. It must be observed also that the smaller the molecular diameter the greater the divergence of the points of magnetic polarity from that of actual contact mutually between the atoms, and hence the greater the amount of overplus of magnetic energy not thus engaged specifically between the atoms, and which is, therefore, manifest in the form of superadded cohesive energy and gravity. THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 23 If we care at all to be logical and thoroughly consis- tent with the teachings of nature, we will regard this energy as no less active after atomic union has been effected to form molecules, and molecular union to form homogeneous masses, and these to form heterogeneous masses, than it was previously, notwithstanding the fact that it may and will have ceased to be actively mani- fest to our senses. We will also concede the fact that it is the only energy known to man that can influence matter thus specifically, and that this is the legitimate office or functions, limits and definite characteristics of magnetic energy. In harmony with the above concept, then, magnetic energy is triune in character, integrative in result, and can act in no other way. And in this connection I wish to call attention to a matter of the most profound im- portance to the whole scientific world, and more espe cially so to the Biologist and the Physiologist. It is this: "The mode of association of the elements of or- ganic substances is in general altogether different from that so obvious in the other division of the science, [the one we have just been discussing]. The latter is invariably characterized by what may be termed a bi- nary plan of combination, union taking place between pairs of elements, and the compounds so produced again uniting themselves to other compound bodies in the same manner. Thus, copper and oxygen combined to oxide of copper; potassium and oxygen to potassa; sul- phur and oxygen to sulphuric acid; sulphuric acid, in its turn, combines both with oxide of copper and oxide of potassium, generating a pair of salts, which are again capable of uniting to form the double compound, CuO, So3 A KO, SO3. The most complicated products of in- organic chemistry may be thus shown to be built up by this repeated pairing on the part of their constituents. 24 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. With organic bodies, however, the case is strikingly dif- ferent; no such arrangement can here be traced. * * The elements concerned [in building up organic sub- stances] are, as it were, bound up together into a sin- gle whole, which can enter into combination with other substances, and be thence disengaged with properties unaltered. "A curious consequence of this peculiarity is to be found in the comparatively instable character of organic compounds, and their general proneness to decomposi- tion and change, when the balance of opposing forces, to which they owe their existence [?], becomes deranged by some external cause. If a complex inorganic sub- stance be attentively considered, it will usually be found that the elements are combined in such a manner [the manner already stated above, for example] as to satisfy the most powerful affinities, and to give rise to a state of very considerable permanence and durability. "- Fowen's Chemistry. "Scientists all agree that countless ages must have passed before the first dawn of life in this world, and that plant life wTas the first to make its appearance. Until vital energy, the first form of life, trembled into being, in the lowest form of the single-celled plant, no power had acted, nor seemingly inhered in atoms, nor in any of the energies, thus far manifested, capable of advancing farther than the inorganic world. There was no life manifest. After the energies already liberated had performed their work, and matter had been moulded and fitted for higher purposes, in its many compounds and co-ordinated relations, another entirely new, or hitherto inoperative energy, made its appearance in the universe in the form of plant life, or vitality, and mat- ter began to live. * * * Vitality is not a change of nature, direction, or relation introduced among the ener- THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 25 gies and forces which reigned in the inorganic domain, so that they act differently and other than before, but is unlike all other energies; is a new, and hitherto non- existing or non-acting energy, which now dominates and overcomes, controls and directs, in a certain degree and to a certain extent, all that preceded. But this new energy can only do so much, can rise only so high. It can make the lifeless live, but it cannot make that living thing feel, nor think. It can [no£] tear inorganic compounds to pieces and take the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen composing them, and out of them weave a beautiful, living, blooming thing; [but it can take them in their molecular form and build them up into a more complex compound, into a heterogeneous compound, but homogeneous in appearance, and herein is one of the great differences which obtains between vital energy and chemical affinity.]" - T. B. Bedding, Ph. D., in W. A. W. It is not my purpose to discuss this subject more fully here, but to simply show that every manifestation of energy between atoms to unite them into the form of molecules should be denominated chemical affinity; and every manifestation of energy to form homogeneous masses, or masses resulting in the wake of such chemical union, or any time subsequently, should be denominated cohesion; and hence if vital en- ergy had the power to tear atoms asunder, which it has not, then any new combinations of these atoms would be due to chemical energy, and would obey the binary law of union above mentioned, and give us "rust" and ammonia, etc., instead of organic substances or com- pounds. See Chapter II. Vital vegetative or integrative energy differs, there- fore, in this essential particular, that it can and does take dissimilar molecules and builds them together into a heterogeneous mass, so to speak, while in the chemi- 26 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. cal process the molecules resulting therefrom alone en- ter into cohesive union to form the new mass. I trust I have made my meaning clear. It is quite evident that atomic affinities will be found much more powerful than any overplus of magnetic en- ergy would or could prove to be, and hence the "per- manence and durability" of chemical compounds as com- pared with those of the molecules themselves, whether resulting in the wake of chemical integration or those of dissimilar molecules resulting from the operation of vital integrative energy. Now, we most assuredly can- not look to an integrative energy for disintegrative man- ifestations, if there is any fixed, definite, and stable prin ciple in Nature, and most assuredly if there is not, then there can be no such thing as science. It is truthfully stated by chemists' and physicists that the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen have stronger mu- tual affinities potentially existing for one another than they have for their own like atoms, and yet we know that the mechanically mixed gases may be kept for any length of time, at ordinary temperatures, without suffer- ing chemical union. The same is equally true of oxy- gen and carbon, and indeed of many other substances, and in a somewhat modified respect it is true of all known substances. When a lighted match or other in- tensely heated body is brought in contact with the me- chanically mixed gases, or with oxygen and carbon as we have already learned, union at once takes place, - and in the case of the mechanically mixed gases with explosive violence. It requires a temperature of from 570 degrees to 750 degrees F. to render such union pos- sible under ordinary circumstances ; and I see no rea- son why these mutual affinities between the atoms of the pre-existing molecules should become less vigorous in obedience to the exigencies of the combustion dogma THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 27 relative to the source of animal heat. But then, on the other hand, I can see no reason why these stronger af- finities potentially existing should not become actively manifest without the intervention of the heating process at all, if the generally accepted idea or conception of molecules be true. See Plate II. If molecules were really composed of two, three, or some other definite limited number of atoms, as is uni- versally held and taught by physicists and chemists to- day ; and if they are separated to a greater or less de- gree from each other, as they of necessity must be theoretically in order to execute vibratory or other kinds of motions in obedience to the demands of the dynamic hypothesis; and if their attractions are thus specific, inherent, and a mere property of the matter per se, or even ab extra, then there can be no plausible reason given why the weaker attractions or affinities should not yield in obedience to the demands of the potentially stronger, under all circumstances and in all cases, when brought into intimate mechanical relation- ship, without the intervention of any heating process whatever. The reader will search in vain through all the various works written on the subjects of chemistry and physics for even an attempt to explain wThy heat should be applied in order to secure the union of these atoms of stronger potential affinities in effecting new compounds. Heat being regarded as a mode of motion, '•ea?panswe, restrained, and acting in its strife upon the smaller particles of bodies," the heat would necessarily and essentially tend to separate such atoms more wide- ly apart, it is true, and would thus favor the union of such atoms, and hence the process could not be main- tained for any period of time without an extrinsic sup- ply of heat, and how would that be obtained ? They en- tirely ignore this question, and for the very reason, I 28 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. apprehend, that any attempt to give a plausible and consistent reason would show the utter absurdity of the dynamic hypothesis. Moreover, it would most as- suredly require an enormous "mode of motion" to overcome the "enormous attractions between the atoms" of pre-existing molecules even if the dynamic hypothe- sis wTas true (which it is not), and hence, if the com- bustible elements of our food, or of our fully organized tissue-elements, will combine chemically with the oxy- gen of inspiration at a temperature of 98.1 degrees F., as they positively assert is the case, then in the name of science we ask, Why does not and cannot such unions take place outside the animal economy on a hot summer day with a thermal range of 99 degrees F. and upwards ? The very fact that it does not and cannot is good evidence that both the theory of animal heat here indicated, and the hypothesis upon which it is es- sentially founded, together wTith all the deductions directly growing out of it, are absolutely false and per- nicious. In the above quotations with reference to this ques- tion of chemical and vital energies, and the experiments recorded in connection therewith, we discovered that there was absolutely nothing involved either in the atoms, or the energy by and through which they were united together to form molecules, that could possibly be tortured or evolved into a disintegrative energy. The same fundamental fact holds good as regards vital en- ergy, it is entegrative in sequence, and cannot become disintegrative in character, whatever its nature may be. We are also forced to conclude that the heat evolved as a result of the combustion process was previously in- volved in the molecules constituting the mechanically mixed gases, since the chemical and cohesive energy still persists as such in all their original power and THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 29 vigor, and hence, we must concede the fact that heat is not a mere mode of motion, but a real substantial actu- ating energy. We know that the quantity of heat obtained from an equal amount of the mechanically mixed gases, oxygen and hydrogen, as compared with that obtained from oxygen and carbon - by weight of course,- is far greater, notwithstanding the fact that the "clashing of atoms" is perhaps just as vigorous in the one case as in the other. This could not be the case if heat was truly a mode of motion per se, since the amount of mo- tion is wholly dependent uponWhe number of atoms on the one hand, and the amplitude of such motion on the other hand. Moreover, since the mechanically mixed gases unite to form a fluid normally, and the oxygen and carbon unite to form a gas, the amplitude of the atom's swing or vibrations, admitting the existence of such, w7ould be much the greater, and hence its heat motion should and would be proportionately greater af- ter such chemical changes had been effected, if there is even the shadow of truth in the dynamic hypothesis. In view of what has already been stated, then, to- gether with numerous additional facts of like import that will be discussed in future chapters, I feel fully justified in positively asserting that HEAT is the only known Energy' in the universe that has the power or capacity to disintegrate any kind of integrated product, whether simple or compound, whether organic or inor- ganic, or whatsoever its nature mayO be, except that secondarily due to molar motion or mechanical friction, as, for instance, in the case of our match wuth which the above processes were supposed to be initiated. If the reader will but carefully and conscientiously con- sider the fact in all its bearings that all things ma- terial naturally tend to become absolutely solid in the 30 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. absence of a sufficient degree of heat to prevent the realization of such a condition, and that therefore the fluid and gaseous states of matter are conditions - not properties - of matter, due to the presence of heat in greater or less quantity, as the case may be; and re- member also that the vast majority of chemical inter- changes- all except those of a very weak or unstable character - are necessarily effected by the presence of a superadded quantity of heat over and above that nor- mally existing even in the hottest months of the year, I think he will be ready to concede the fact that heat is substantial and substantially concerned in the disinte- grative process, whether it be of molecules in the pro- cess of chemical change, in the disintegration of homo- geneous masses into fluids and gases, the disintegration of animal or vegetable structures into their component proximate principles, or of the latter into their discrete molecular forms. I think he will concede the fact that it must substantially exist in the cavities of molecules in order to prevent a vacuum and to maintain them in a state of elasticity rather than that of absolute solid- ity ; and that this heat, though latent as regards our senses, is- actively present in resisting counteracting in- fluences tending to greater solidity. He will also con- cede the fact that the intermolecular spaces are filled in part with heat at least, and that thus the universe is_ rendered a substantial whole. Whatever his conclusions may be in the premises, however, I think that by the time we have finished this question with regard to the true nature of energy per se, he will be thoroughly convinced that neither diges- tion, secretion nor excretion, or waste, are either vital or chemical in character, but purely physical, and depen- dent wdiolly and entirely upon the incremation of a su- peradded quantity of substantial heat as the disintegra- tive impulse. THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 31 The assumption that if "food is in no sense vitalized previous to its removal from the alimentary canal, " then "digestion is a mechanical and chemical process, " was the true incentive to the preparation of this work. Just so long as vital energy was and is regarded as be- ing identical with the forces of inorganic nature, or, in other words, just so long as vital energy is regarded as synonymous with the term "heat" or that of chemical affinity, just so long will this confusion exist as to the nature of the various physiological processes of the ani- mal body, since either horn of this dilemma leaves us with but two distinct energies in the entire universe with which to primarily influence matter. Bioplasm, and bioplasm only of all created things, is competent to touch the non-living with the power of its own marvelous energy and thereby lift it up into the kingdom of the organic universe. And in so doing it endows it with its own peculiar vital attributes, its own formative powers and functional and nutritive capacities. We should naturally expect, therefore, to find the con tents of the alimentary canal to essentially consist of a mass or masses of bioplasm immediately after digestion was completed, if there is any real scientific reason for regarding digestion as a vital process per se, or even as a vitalizing process - strictly speaking. So far from this actually being the case, however, we find the di- gested products resolved downwards in the direction of a more simple organic constitution - the proximate prin- ciples, - and these rendered fluid so that they may gain access to the bioplasm of the portal circulation, where they are more fully elaborated for the nutrition of the higher forms of bioplasm. See Chapter III. Bioplasm is not a nutritive substance, neither indeed can be so long as it remains bioplasm plus the BIOS ; but it is a substance to be nourished and grow and mul- 32 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. tiply at the expense of proper pabulum. Hence, if the food was even primarily converted into bioplasm in the process of digestion, it would be absolutely necessary that such bioplasm should not only cease to be bioplasm plus the bios, but that it should be resolved into the proximate principles by some disintegrative force before it could become pabulum for the bioplasts of the portal side of the circulation, which bioplasts together with those of the entire venous side of the circulation, are alone concerned in still farther preparing the food sub- stances for the nutrition of other elements. We would, therefore, be compelled at last to look elsewhere than to a vitalizing process for the final preparation of the food substances for the nutrition of the body at large ; otherwise there could be no life outside the alimentary canal proper. If it could be shown that after the process of di- gestion had been fully inaugurated there was a con- stantly increasing accumulation of bioplasm in the ali- mentary canal until the process was completed, and that this was the rule in such process of digestion, then we might be induced to regard digestion as a vital process per se, even though this should involve an acceptance of the scientifically inconceivable and prac- tically impossible conversion of an integrative energy into a disintegrative energy, and vice versa. There is, however, not one particle of evidence in support of the vital theory of digestion, but there is the most positive and overwhelmning evidence to the contrary, so conclu- sive, indeed, that such an hypothesis could only have originated from a misconception as to the nature of vi- tal energy itself, namely, regarding heat as synonymous with life. It is both theoretically absurd and practical- ly misleading to long hold and inculcate such a view, since the revelations of the microscope have so clearly R-2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 33 demonstrated the true nature of living matter and its integrative characters, tendencies, and products. The supposed evidence in favor of the chemical theory of digestion is, from a merely superficial stand- point, much more plausible than anything that can be educed in favor of the vital theory. Nevertheless, the very fact that this chemical theory also involves the same scientifically impossible to be complied with de- mand for a radical change in the nature of the energy from an integrative to a disintegrative character, war- rants us in stating metaphorically, at least, if not in- deed truthfully, "that it was conceived in sin, and brought forth in iniquity," if we may judge of its source by the evil results following in the wake of the practice based upon this conception. The organic proximate principles are triune in char- acter, consisting of the hydro-carbonaceous substances, the albuminoids, and the fatty matter; and the same may be said of the digestive fluids, there being only three general classes or groups, namely; the gastric juice, the pancreatic fluids, and the bile. All the secre- tions of the alimentary canal directly concerned in the digestive process resemble one or the other of these three classes in their essential character; and hence, if digestion is in any true sense of the word a chemical process, then we should most certainly expect to find, upon careful investigation, that these different substan- ces from the two sources had suffered complete change in both chemical composition and physical appearance subsequent to digestion. We should just as certainly expect to find the products resulting from chemical in- tegration in such an event, as we did in the case of the vital hypothesis. This is the invariable and inevit- able result of chemical union outside of the living body, and it is contrary to the dictates of common sense to 34 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. anticipate anything different in the living organism as a legitimate result of chemical union. Indeed the term "chemistry" is virtually synonymous with Atomic Affin- ity, and hence, when we speak of chemical change, we virtually mean the union of atoms to form molecules, either simple or compound; and if the latter, then the physical properties will necessarily be the algebraic sum of the combined properties of the dissimilar atoms entering into such new compound. This rule holds good in all cases, whether the combination be effected by chemical, cohesive, mechanical, or vital energy, the resultant properties will be the algebraic sum of the combined properties of the primary elements entering into such mixture. Take the case of bioplasm, for ex- ample, which upon an ultimate chemical analysis being made, is found to consist of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, "these four and no more," and since the first three primary elements mentioned are known to possess transparent properties, and the last mentioned opacpie properties, we would, in accordance with the above proposition, naturally infer that any possible combination of the first three would be transparent in the most pronounced sense of the word, and that in whatsoever proportion the fourth should be added the result would be to modify the transparency of the mass in the same relative degree. Now we find this to be absolutely true under any and all circumstances, and under every possible combination, whether primarily ef- fected by the union of atoms to form molecules, i. e., chemical union; or the union of Heterogeneous Mole- cules to form the physical basis of Life- BIOPLASM. But to proceed: It is a well-known fact that even the mechanical mixture of yellow and blue paint substances will produce the appearance of green, and the precise tint can be modified to suit the taste by simply exer- THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 35 cising care in the quantity of each color selected. The yellow particles remain yellow, and the blue blue, and the impression of green is simply due to the combined and unisonant influence produced by the admixture of the two primary colors. Much more so, then, should we expect the chemical union of heterogeneous atoms into the composition of a molecule to produce by their specific unisonant influence, results at variance with that which would characterize either when acting inde- pendently. There is no change whatever in the atoms per se, but they are simply combined by chemical ener- gy to form compound molecules, and the result is the algebraic sum of the combined influences. Any change in specific relationship* over and above this must, there- fore, be due to some modification directly dependent upon an over-plus of the chemical energy per se, or else to the presence of a super-added energy of a dif- ferent character, as for instance that of life energy in the case of bioplasm. We shall expect, therefore, to discover just such changes in the contents of the alimentary canal as would naturally follow in the wake of the chemical union of two or more of these specific substances to form a new compound, and that this change will be the algebraic sum of the properties of the primary substances enter- ing into the new compound, if digestion be a chemical process. Now, it is stated that gastric juice has the power of digesting, or dissolving all kinds of albuminous substan- ces, and that thus any oleaginous and starchy particles that may be incorporated in the food-mass is set free - the oleaginous substances being found floating upon the surface of the other contents of the stomach in the form of oil drops. By this process the various albumi- nous substances, such as gluten, legumen, connective tis- 36 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. sue, caseine, etc., are disintegrated, and held in solution by the gastric juices, and the entire contents of the stomach is reduced to a diffluent condition. Prof. Dal- ton says: "The albuminous matters are dissolved out, leaving the starchy or oleaginous ingredients in a free condition, but chemically unchanged." If we shall dis- cover that after digestion has been fully completed, and the contents of the alimentary canal have been absorbed into the blood-current, we still find these substances precisely the same in all their ascertainable physical and chemical characters, except that they are simply reduced to a more minute state of division, will we not be fully justified in positively asserting that they have suffered no chemical change whatever, and that, there- fore, some other than chemical energy has effected their solution or Disintegration ? It is claimed, however, that the digestion of caseine is a chemical process. For, after stating that the coagu- lation of the caseine of milk, produced by its first con- tact with the gastric juice, is no obstacle to its subse- quent digestion, Prof. Dalton says: "The caseine does not form a solid uniform clot, but is thrown down in the form of minute flocculi, of soft consistency, wThich are constantly bathed by the digestive fluids, and at the temperature of the living body undergo readily the con- version into albuminose. As it is this chemical change which constitutes the real process of digestion, the pre- liminary coagulation of the caseine does not interfere with its accomplishment." The Pancreatic juice differs but little in its ultimate composition from gastric juice, and it also possesses digestive properties very similar to that of the latter in many respects. In addition to its solvent properties on albuminous substances, which are but little inferior to that of gastric juice, if any, it re- solves the fatty matters into the most minute state of THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 37 subdivision, and is said to convert starch into glucose or grape sugar. With regard to the physiological function of Bile, "we may say that nothing whatever is yet known which can account for the constant presence of so important and peculiar a secretion," at least by the school of doc- trine. In experiments on. artificial digestion, it was found to possess a solvent influence upon a certain pro portion of oily matter, and also a feeble influence in transforming starch into glucose. It has also been clearly demonstrated that it facilitates the passage of oily substances through organic membranes more read- ily when they are moistened with bile than when not so moistened. Cholesterine is a fatty crystalline substance - a waste product - and is found in most of the structures of the animal body, the brain and nervous system normally consisting of forty parts in the thousand, and Bile is the only animal substance knowm that possesses solvent properties on this waste matter. It is very evident, therefore, that the bile which is taken up into the gen- eral circulation, as also that which is left in the alimen- tary canal, and ultimately cast out of the body without ever having found its way into the blood-current as such, serves the very purpose of dissolving this choles- terine, and holding it in solution, so that it may not accumulate in the economy to an injurious extent. Having thus briefly called attention to the actual, and the supposed, changes effected by the digestive process; we are pleased to know that the only supposed changes of an essentially chemical character are the conversion of caseine into albuminose and the conversion of starch into sugar. They tell us that the nutritive elements of the food, after having been prepared for absorption by the digestive process, are taken up into the circulation 38 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. in the different forms of Albuminose, Chyle, and Sugar, and accumulate as such, at certain times under certain conditions of ingestion, in the blood. But these condi- tions are temporary and transitional, the nutritive ma- terials soon being converted into other forms, and as- similated to the pre-existing elements of the circulating fluid. It is clearly evident, therefore, that the very substan- ces of which the food primarily consisted, has entered the blood wholly unchanged in its chemical composi- tion-unless it be the caseine and starch - and that di gestion is simply a solvent or disintegrative process, separating the food-mass into its proper organic constit- uents (not yet including the above exceptions, of course). It is conceded that the proportions of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, of which all the albumi- nous group is composed, appear to be identical; "and they seem all capable of being reduced by the digestive process, to a like condition. Hence it is a matter of lit- tle consequence, except as regards the proportion of in- organic matters with which they may be respectively united, whether wTe draw our histogenetic materials from the flesh of animals, from the white of egg (albumen), from the curd of milk (caseine), from the grain of wheat (gluten), or from the seed of the pea (legumin)." The only real differences between these substances, after all then, is due to the incidental presence of inorganic elements, which do not constitute any part of the al- buminous compound proper. And it is the elimination of such accidental substances that produces all the phy- sical change that is observed to take place in the diges- tion of caseine, etc., that has led these eminent investi- gators to mistakenly regard digestion as a chemical process, when the mere fact that chemical energy, in the very nature of things as regards binary limits, is THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 39 wholly incapable of producing a particle of albumen, or any other heterogeneous compound, especially of an or- ganic character. By consulting Carpenter, Dalton, Flint, and others, you will discover that the change here in- dicated is all that actually does take place in digestion, and that the albuminous substance was present all the time as such, and the physical appearance previous to digestion was due to the combined and unisonant influ- ence of all the elements incorporated in the heterogen- eous mass. Again, if the reader will consult any one of the above named authors, with reference to the production of Gly- cogen and Glucose in the Liver, he will learn, if he was not aware of the fact before, that this substance, often called "animal starch," is identical with starch in its ultimate chemical composition, and that Glycogen is produced in abundance in the liver, after the ingestion of starchy and saccharine food, and that it makes no difference whether these substances be taken as starch or as sugar; "since starchy matters are always trans- formed into glucose by the process of digestion, to be afterward absorbed by the blood vessels of the intes- tine." "It is under the form of glucose, therefore, that they all enter the portal circulation, and thus reach the tissue of the liver. The process of the conversion of this substance into glycogen is a DEHYDRATION ; that is, the separation from it of the element of water, as follows: C6H12O - H2O=C6H10O5. - DAL TON. If then the conversion of glucose into starch is a de- hydration, the conversion of starch into glucose must be a hydration; and since digestion is a solvent pro- cess, and formative change is a condensing process, it seems to me that it would be just as easy, and far 40 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. more consistent with all the known facts relative to the matter, to assume that the latter formula, minus its chemical import, existed as an organic compound from beginning to end, and that the water was merely pres- ent as a solvent which had been taken up by absorp- tion in the process of digestion, as it is to assume that the starch is first converted into glucose, and this back into starch, and this latter back again into glucose, all under the influence of chemical affinity, when we know full well that chemistry cannot produce a particle of either of these three organic compounds. It must not be forgotten that "the existence and production of sugar in the liver was discovered anterior to that of glycogen," and that sugar is a product of the final so- lution of the hepatic formed material in the process of waste or disintegration, and that, therefore, the sub- stance under consideration has the appearance of starch in its condensed state, and the appearance of sugar when in a state of solution. Moreover, no such a chem- ical formula can possibly exist, in view of the fact that the Law of binary union absolutely forbids any such atomic combination as is here assumed. And were it otherwise, then chemical affinity could produce organic structure or its equivalent, which it cannot however. Notice closely that in the above formula, the quantity of both oxygen and hydrogen is in just the right pro- portions to form water, and that not one atom of oxy- gen is left to unite with the carbon. Notice also, that the formula given actually forbids that any known or even supposable chemical combinations of the elements here given, other than that already stated, should occur. Chemical energy unites atoms together to form molecules, and as there can be no loss of energy, nor any such thing as the conversion of one form of energy into another, it continues just as energetically to hold them in this embrace. THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 41 Vital energy acts upon molecules to unite them into hetero- geneous masses, and continuing to act, it holds them in this embrace. Molecules resulting from manifestations of chem- ical energy must of necessity unite to form homogeneous masses in all cases in which there is an overplus of magnetic energy by virtue of atomic polar divergence - so to speak; and this overplus we call Cohesion. Vital energy, in the exertion of its condensing influ- ence upon the heterogeneous substances wfliich constitute the physical basis of life, also makes use of the energy of Cohesion, We see, therefore, why it is that chemi- cal compounds are, as a rule, so much more enduring than vital compounds. Now, let us wrrite the above chemical formula in the terms of an organic formula and see the result: Car- bon 6 molecules, water 6 molecules, minus wTater 1 mol- ecule, equals Carbon 6 molecules, water 5 molecules. There is no chemical change yet manifest. Moreover the result will be the same virtually if we subtract or dehydrate the water all away, molecule after molecule, until none is remaining, and what then? Simply Carbon left. Well, that is precisely wfliat takes place when we submit these substances to the Combustion process, the water is, and of necessity must be first evaporated, and then the Carbon combines with the oxygen of the air, and carbon dioxide results. The chemical theory of Life essentially involves the chemical theory of digestion also, as is clearly evident from what has already been stated; and hence they both stand or else they both fall together, as the case may be. I shall show farther on that neither chemical affinity nor cohesion can possibly effect the integration of bioplasm, nor any of its various formative products, and not only so, but that when vital energy has ceased to manifest its influence upon any of these products, 42 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the heat evolved in the nutritive and formative process tends to rapidly disintegrate such products, and thus to overcome or render latent the cohesive energy by and through the exercise of which alone could organic in- tegration be effected if the chemical hypothesis -was true. Another fact that strongly militates against the chem- ical theory of digestion, to say the least, is that the di- gestive fluids are absorbed into the blood current after they have accomplished their functions in the alimen- tary canal; which they could not do, as such unchanged fluids, if digestion was a chemical process. Dalton says: "The gastric juice, after having accomplished its work in the digestion of the food, is reabsorbed from the ali- mentary canal and taken up by the blood vessels. It thus forms a vehicle for the dissolved nutritious mater- ials, and again enters the circulation with the alimentary substances which it holds in solution. * * * There is accordingly, during digestion, a continuous circulation of THE digestive fluids from the blood vessels to the alimentary canal, and from the alimentary canal back again to the blood vessels." Evidently this could not be the case if digestion is really a chemical process, unless, indeed, the chemical products resulting from such union in the alimentary canal actually suffer decomposition on reaching the blood current, with the result of reproducing at least the original digestive compounds, if not indeed the food compounds also. There are two fatal objections to such an assumption, however, one of which is that there is no energy present in the blood-mass competent to effect such a result, the temperature being so nearly the same in both localities, thus rendering it inoperative, so to speak; and they have no recourse on vital energy, and even if they did it would not help the matter any, since it is an integrative energy - not disintegrative. THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 43 The other fatal objection is this, a temperature suffi- cient to disintegrate such a supposed chemical com- pound would utterly destroy the digestive fluids as such, and new combinations would follow of a very dif- ferent character from those previously existing. In proof of which we quote the following remarks from Prof. Dalton in regard to the digestive process. He says: "This action is in every case more or less de- pendent upon the temperature. It is entirely suspended at or near the freezing point, but becomes more and more active with the increase of warmth, and is more energetic from 35 degrees to 40 degrees (about 100 de- grees F.). Above that point its activity again dimin- ishes, and at a boiling temperature it is entirely de- stroyed. It is owing to the influence of temperature that digestion is more slowly performed in the cold- blooded reptiles than in the warm-blooded birds and quadrupeds. This difference has been shown by Schiff, who made acidulated infusions of the stomachs of two serpents, and placed in each the same measured quan- tity of coagulated albumen; one of the infusions being allowed to remain at a temperature varying from 10 de- grees to 17 degrees (50 degrees to 62 degrees F.), the other being introduced, in a closed glass tube, into the stomach of a living dog. The second was found to have digested in six hours as much albumen as the first at the end of three weeks." The law of the conservation of energy forbids that chemical affinity should cease to exist in all its po- tency, either as a result of a temporary elevation or a lowering of temperature, however great the degree of such change. There can be no doubt, then, but that a temperature of about 212 degrees F., actually destroys the digestive fluids by virtue of molecular disintegra- tion and the subsequent formation of new combinations, 44 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. and that thus the hetrogeneous mass is resolved into two or more homogeneous masses, in harmony with the Law of Binary union, which is so characteristic of all chemical action. Notwithstanding the fact that the evidence against both the Chemical and the Vital theory of digestion is cumulative in character, and that, therefore, much more evidence will be forthcoming in the farther considera- tion of this subject, I think we are now fully warranted in positively asserting that it is utterly impossible for an integrative energy to reverse its order of acting - its modus operand!-and thus to become disintegrative in character; and, hence, we must of necessity look to HEAT as the real, the only source by and through which the disintegration of the food-mass, or any other substance whatsoever, can be effected. That Heat has a very important function to perform in the digestive process is not questioned by any one, I believe, and it seems to me that a thorough and un- prejudiced analysis of the matter will strongly tend to convince, even the most skeptical, that it is the initial, and the main factor, in the digestive process, and that the digestive fluids per se play a secondary and, in a certain sense, a much less important part in the process. I will not be misunderstood in the above statement, since I am fully conversant with the fact that the di- gestive fluids are absolutely essential to the well being of the economy, not only as a menstrum for holding in solution the food-elements after they have been disin- tegrated by the agency of Heat, but I insist that they serve precisely the same purpose subsequently in the economy at large in holding in solution the waste pro- ducts, and hence, that they ultimately escape from the body with such waste matters, without ever having per- formed a second digestive function in the alimentary THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 45 canal, as has heretofore been taught. Moreover, the gastric juice possesses the additional very remarkable peculiarity of exerting a preservative influence against putrefactive changes, and it is quite probable that the blood plasma owes its preservative properties to the presence of this fluid in some measure at least. The point that I desire to most thoroughly and forci- bly impress upon the mind, however, is that HEAT is the great - the only disintegrative energy in the physical universe - except that resulting from Molar motion or mechanical attrition - and that without the influence of this first and most important step, every subsequent process and resultant influence wTould be rendered abso- lutely impossible of being accomplished. Every disin- tegrative process occurring in the animal organism is just as surely and essentially due to the specific energy of heat as is the disintegration of solids into fluids, and the latter into gases, and ultimately the decomposition of the molecules themselves into their discrete atomic forms previous to chemical recomposition, and, perhaps, subsequent integration into homogeneous masses. We may strive to ignore these facts as earnestly as we will, but we only render confusion worse confounded by so doing, whether the subject be one of physics as related to man or not, the result is inevitably the same. Water is a so-called solvent for sugar, salt, and many other substances belonging to both the organic and the inor- ganic world. The solution of these substances is ef- fected and maintained under proper environments with- out suffering any change in molecular constitution or chemical composition whatever. Yea more, even water itself, in the form of ice, is susceptible of undergoing liquefaction when chloride of sodium is added, as, for example, in the process of making ice cream; and after liquefaction it exerts all its solvent properties as be- 46 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. fore; nevertheless you will observe that it does SO at the expense of heat obtained from some extrinsic source - from the cream in the above instance - in the absence of a sufficiency of intrinsic heat to effect such solution. We may not be able, perhaps, to give a clear and satisfactory explanation of just how and why the mechanical mixture of these two solid substances causes a change in the normal relative capacity for heat, but we are sure of one thing, and that is that heat is the sole agent or energy in effecting the disintegration or solution of both substances, and that the respective spe- cific chemical compounds remain unchanged in their in- dividual molecular composition. It would, perhaps, be difficult to furnish an example that more forcibly and conclusively proves that heat is the disintegrative influence, and that no chemical change whatever is essentially involved in the process; not- withstanding the fact that such chemical change may and necessarily does take place under proper environ- ments. Again, wThile it is true tha.t the solvent power of hot water is proportionately greater than that of cold water, it is, nevertheless, a remarkable fact that in the above instance solution will and does take place at a temperature below the freezing point, while the sol- vent influence of the digestive fluids ceases on approx- imating this point. It is to some such difference as this that we must attribute the fact that in the forma- tion of new chemical compounds heat must be furnished from some extrinsic source in some cases so as to effect previous molecular disintegration in order that the atoms may enter into new combinations, while in other cases the intrinsic source of heat is sufficient to accom- plish the result - more especially so after the initial impulse has been given. In all such instances as the latter, however, the resulting compound is less in volume THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 47 than* was the combined volume of the two former, pre- vious to such change. No one will be so foolish. I imagine, as to attribute this difference in volume to an actual reduction in the quantity of the material substances entering into such compounds, and hence we are forced to conclude that the difference in volume is due to the evolution of an equivalent measure of heat, owing to a difference in the molecular capacity for latent heat from that previ- ously existing. This difference is due, no doubt, to a difference in the specific atomic attractions, and conse- quently the molecules tend to become either more dense - as above - or more rare, as the case may be. See Plate 1. This naturally and inevitably leads to a differ- ence in the relative position of the points of strongest magnetic attraction between the atoms of which the molecules are composed, the more dense substances hav- ing these points more divergent, the more rare the sub- stance the less divergent these points of strongest mag- netic polarity. In harmony with this view, then, we shall expect to discover in all cases in which a solid or semi-solid is dissolved there will be an actual increase in volume at the expense of heat of extrinsic origin, and that such heat thus becomes latent so far as our senses are con- cerned, but active so far as maintaining the molecules in this expanded condition is concerned, The import- ance of this question is such that a clear and correct understanding of the disintegrative process cannot be had without first obtaining a comprehensive knowledge of the matter just now under consideration. I trust the reader will not grow impatient, then, because of this apparent prolixity in reference to the nature of atoms and molecules, and the changes effected in the atomic relations and molecular diameters by heat. Let 48 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. me again state, then, that Molecules are hollow bodies - normally spherical or spheroidal in shape - and the walls of which are composed of a large number of atoms, which are also spherical in form, but of solid consistency, and so united together, by virtue of mag- netic properties with which they are endowed, as to ad- mit of an overplus of magnetic energy - in a greater or less degree - which overplus tends to unite the mol- ecules of such substance into a homogeneous mass, and also determines the specific gravity of molecules. If, then, these atoms were united one to another in a per- fectly straight line, the points of the strongest mag- netic attraction between any two atoms would be in actual contact, and since chemical affinity, cohesion, and gravity are one and the same thing virtually-Magnet- ism- they would manifest but little if any attractive influence other than that existing between the atoms themselves, except that due to the energy of the two terminal hemispheres of the two latteral atoms, since the point of union of the hemispheres of any atom is essentially a neutral point. The terminal atoms as above surmised could have no existence in fact, how- ever, since having no other attractions equal to that of their own mutual attractions, they would be irresistibly drawm together -thus converting the straight line into a circle, even if no other influence wras operating to produce this result, which there is, however. Within the cavity of such molecules, and completely filling them, is an incorporeal substance - HEAT - which has a real substantial atomic existence, but not a molecular. The quantity of this Heat varies just in proportion to the size of such molecular cavity under the then existing circumstances. When we speak of the Capacity of a steam boiler, a cistern, a barrel, or other vessel whose dimensions are fixed and definite, R-3 THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 49 the term has a specific value. If, however, we speak of the capacity of a toy balloon, for example, whose walls are elastic, then there is an inclefiniteness about the expression that cannot be obviated, since the capac- ity varies in ratio proportionate to the degree in which the internal pressure exceeds the external, that is, in proportion to the degree of actual dilatation - all things else being equal. Its specific weight varies in precisely the same relative degree, whatever the gaseous sub- stance used may be. Suppose, for instance, hydrogen gas be used to inflate the balloon, then the little toy will become lighter and lighter as the inflation pro- ceeds, and the question of paramount importance to us now is, Why ? The natural inference would be, because the specific weight of hydrogen gas is so much less than that of India rubber, and hence the more hydro- gen the less the combined weight. Well this is all quite true, and it is the only information previously ever attempted by any one so far as I have any knowl- edge, and it simply amounts to almost no information at all. It reminds us of an experiment made some years ago by Prof. Tyndall, in which he discovered '•That ponderable bodies are ponderable," and forth- with proclaimed the marvelous discovery to the world. Now, hydrogen molecules are of less specific weight than any other material substance known; and why ? Prof. Tyndall says: "It is a noteworthy fact, that as the specific heat increases, the atomic [molecular] weight diminishes, and vice versa; so that the product of the atomic [molecular] weight and specific heat is, in al- most all cases a sensibly constant quantity." Since it is utterly impossible for atoms to vary in size, in weight or in any other respect whatever from the normal, I have parenthetically substituted the word molecule in the above quotation. 50 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Accepting the theory of molecular conformation pre- viously promulgated by me through the columns of the Physio-Medical Journal, and here endorsed, we find that the hydrogen molecule is of less specific gravity or weight than any other known substance, simply because it contains relatively more heat - all molecules having 'precisely the same number of atoms entering into the con- stitution of their respective trails. This conception natur- ally involves the farther conception that the more dense a substance is the thicker the molecular walls, the smaller the sphere in diameter, and the greater its spe- cific weight, and cohesive energy also. The greater the diameter of the sphere, the larger its cavity, the less its specific gravity, the less its cohesive energy, and the less the number of the planes of atoms entering into the composition of its wall. And again we ask, why this difference in cohesion and gravity or weight ? A molecule of hydrogen contains just the same number of atoms as does a molecule of oxygen, or any other substance, as already stated. The specific weight of an atom per se, or in other words, the magnetic energy of an atom neither increases nor diminishes in potency by virtue of any possible combination; and, hence, if it were possible to determine the specific gravitative energy independent of every other atom of the universe, it wTould always be found the same. Why then the marked difference in the specific grav- ity, and cohesive energy, in the case of the above named gases, for instance ? And why the remarkable increase in specific gravity and cohesive energy when they unite to form water ? Let us, for the sake of perspicuity, assume that a hy- drogen molecule has entering into the formation of its wall two planes of atoms ; and that an oxygen molecule THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 51 has entering into the formation of its wall the same number of atoms, but arranged in four planes. The lat- ter would, therefore, have the points of strongest mag- netic attraction more divergent - the molecule being less in diameter than the hydrogen molecule -and hence the mutual attractions existing between the atoms of the oxygen molecule would be proportionately less [as the square of the distance], and their gravitative and cohesive energy proportionately increased - in- versely as the square of the former distance - as com- pared w'ith the hydrogen molecule. In other words, the more nearly the atoms approximate a straight line in their union to form molecules, the more closely these points of strongest magnetic attractions are approxim- ated one to another; and consequently the stronger their mutual attractions for each- other, and since there can be neither an increase nor diminution of energy per se, it follows that they will lose in cohesive and gravi- tative energy in the same relative degree. On the incremation of more heat the atoms of the in- ner planes would necessarilly glide up between those of the outer planes, and in so doing their mutual attrac- tions would be more or less disturbed for the time be- ing, so that in the presence of unlike atoms or atoms of a different elemental substance having stronger affinities for each other than that previously existing in the orig- inal molecules, new chemical aggregations would take place, as, for example, that between the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen to form water. In the absence of such additional substances, or even in the absence of stronger affinities than those already existing in the original compound, no such new combinations will take place, notwithstanding the fact that their mutual attractions are temporarily weakened -inversely as the square of the distance - the tendency is in the direction of a more 52 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. perfect union by virtue of the fact that as the diameter of the molecules is thus actually increased, the points of strongest magnetic energy must necessarily be more closely approximated than they were previous to such additional incremation of heat. Their mutual attractions would thereby be intensified inversely as the square of the distance; and since there can be no actual loss of energy, the inevitable result must be a proportionate loss in cohesive and gravitative energy. ' ' As the specific heat increases, the atomic [molecular] weight diminishes, and vice versa."- Tyndall. And herein we find a correct solution of the behavior of iodine toward starch and glucose, without having to resort to the miserable sophistry, and contradictory as- sumption of a chemical change. Molecular cohesion takes place between the starch and iodine, while at the same time there is a slight change in the size of the molecules of both substances in consequence of the ab- sorption of moisture from the iodine on the part of the starch, and the result is a change in the chrometism of both -the combined influence being such as we see. See my Molecular Theory of Physics on this subject. Let us take a bar of iron, for example, whose cohe- sive energy is known to be very strong, and learn what wTe may from its behavior under the influence of heat. The first thing that specially attracts our attention is that the bar is apparently increased in all its dimen- sions- expanded. We conclude that this change is the aggregate result of the expansion of the individual molecules of which the mass is composed. The next thing we specially observe is that just in the same de- gree that the bar is increased in its dimensions, in pre- cisely the same relative degree it diminishes in spe- cific weight. We ask ourselves the question, Is this increase in size and diminution in weight due to an THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 53 increase or a loss of substance per se ? No! Force and matter are alike indestructible, and alike inconvert- ible. We continue the process, and lo! the solid be- comes fluid. Has the energy of cohesion been converted into some other energy ? No, it is still present, but in a markedly debilitated degree, if I may be allowed the expression. Continue the process, however, and if the calorific energy be sufficiently intense, cohesion will cease to exist as such, and gravity will have suffered a very great loss of energy. Have they been trans- formed into some other form of energy ? By no means. The incremation of heat has simply so enlarged the diameter of the molecules as to constantly approximate the points of strongest magnetic attraction between the atoms more and more closely together, so that ulti- mately the cohesive energy, as also a very great pro- portion of the gravitative energy, is diverted to the purpose of atomic mutual attractions in the respective molecules. This process has necessarily been a gradual one, and the resultant phenomena can only be accounted for in harmony with all the facts upon the molecular hypothesis above advocated. Any possible or conceiv- able change in motion would be a new mode of motion; and hence the changes thus effected would have to be instantaneous, in harmony with the dynamic theory, which is positively not the case in practice or practi- cally. If molecules were composed of two, three, or any other limited number of atoms, as represented in Plate II, then the greater would be the specific gravity and cohesive energy, the greater the degree of expansion, since the universal Law is that the attractive energy is inversely as the square of the distance, whether it be of atoms, molecules, or masses. The farther the atoms of a molecule are apart, the nearer the atoms of the molecules of a mass are together. 54 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. We are forced to conclude, therefore, that DISINTE- GRATION essentially consists in so far inflating the molecules of a mass by the incremation of HEAT, that the atoms composing the wall of such molecules shall have their points of strongest magnetic polarity so closely approximated that the residue of energy not thus wholly exerted between any two contiguous atoms, will not be sufficient to longer maintain that degree of cohesive influence necessary to hold the molecules to- gether in the form of a mass ; and that continuing the action still farther, to even overcome molecular attrac- tions to such a degree as to permit of complete disun- ion, so that the molecules may become entirely discrete. This is precisely what does take place under the influ ence of HEAT ; and it is precisely what does not take place under any other influence whatever. The union of oxygen and hydrogen, quietly and with- out explosive violence, when mechanically mixed, and in the presence of a perfectly clean piece of platinum, might on first taking thought, seem to militate against this view, but, on the contrary, it can only be explained by and in harmony with this theory; as is the case also with reference to the behavior of salt and ice al- ready referred to. Indeed, we may exhaust the physical universe for evidence to the contrary, but it will be all in vain; and if we search the Inspired Word we shall find that even here the evidence is all on this side of the question. For has not GOD said "I will destroy the Earth with a fervent HEAT, and there shall be a NEW earth," - thus virtually declaring that the disin- tegrative energy of HEAT is first necessary before new combinations of matter can be effected ? It is simply impossible for us to ignore the force and logic of the conclusions thus far presented; and hence we must ac- knowledge that integrative energy can only act as such, THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 55 or in such manner, and that Digestion, Secretion, Excre- tion, and every other disintegrative or liquefactive pro- cess, is directly and specifically due to the agency of HEAT. The only distinction I would make between the words Disintegration and Decomposition, is that the former term applies under circumstances in which the environ- ments are such that the affinities already existing are stronger than any that might exist by virtue of the presence of other substances under existing circumstan- ces, or, as for that matter, under any circumstances, while, on the other hand, the latter term applies under circumstances in which such stronger affinities do exist. In any event, however, disintegration is the first step in the process of decomposition, and the latter can only be completely accomplished in the presence of such substance or substances as do have stronger affinities for the atoms of the original compound than for their own like atoms, and vice versa. This phenomenon actually does take place in the hu- man body under certain conditions normally existing; as, for an example, in the formation of certain of the urinary constituents - the disintegration of the formed material of the renal epithelia being effected in pre- cisely the same manner as occurs elsewhere in the or- ganism, but differing in this respect from the rule, namely, the water present, and holding in solution oxy- gen gas, results in the union of the oxygen atoms with those of the disintegrating organic compound, (the formed material of the renal epithelia). Such chemical change could not possibly take place in the absence of the oxygen gas, nor could it occur even though the oxygen be present, if the former atomic attractions were not disturbed or weakened by the changes effected by the incremation of a superadded quantity of heat in the 56 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. process of disintegration. The heat directly concerned in the disintegration of the outer portion of the formed material of each individual cell is evolved by such cell in the process of converting pabulum into bioplasm pri- marily, and the latter into formed material subsequently, and hence we see that the vital integrative energy is and of necessity must be operative upon matter in a more or less rarified or disintegrated state previous to such integrative process, wdiile the heat thus evolved is diverted to the purpose of disintegrating such formed material as is no longer under the control of the vital integrative energy. Each individual cell therefore has an independent vital existence so far as its nutritive, formative and disinte- grative processes are concerned, and it is by virtue of this fact that they are enabled to maintain their rela- tive normal status as regards size, etc., during the en- tire period of life, notwithstanding the incessant changes constantly taking place by and through which they are just as constantly preserved in a state of newness, vigor, and functional activity. When we come to deal with the question of paren- chymatous nephritis, in which the tubules become filled and distended with rapidly growing and multiplying liv- ing matter, thus preventing the water holding in solu- tion oxygen gas from passing down through the lumina of such tubules into the pelvis of the kidneys, we shall find that no such chemical changes as above indicated can take place. Under this condition of things, the formed material having been entirely disintegrated and eliminated in the early history of the process, and sub- sequently the compression of the intertubular capillar- ies having led to a relative disproportion between the supply of pabulum on the one hand, and the amount of bioplasm present on the other hand, necessarily, and in THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 57 harmony with a universal law governing this matter, leads to a partial and relatively proportionate disinte- gration of such bioplasm. The bioplasm thus affected is that farthest from the source of nutrient supply, namely : that which is most centrally located in the lu- mina of the tubules. Disintegration is effected here as elsewhere through the energy of heat, and had oxygen been present in an uncombined state at the moment of such disintegrative influence, chemical change would very likely have occurred, but being absent, no such change can take place, hence, we have the bioplasm wfliich has ceased to be the theater of nutritive activ- ity, resolved back into its proximate organic principles, just as was the case in the digestive process in the alimentary canal. The fat of composition will be found present in the urine subsequently in the form of casts and independent granules, and thus we see that these proximate principles had not been transformed into the products resulting from the combustion process; and that even when chemical change does occur, as in the formation of urea, uric acid, etc., it takes place in mat- ter that has served its physiological purposes in the economy, and has practically become a foreign body or substance to be got rid of as effete matter. It is only after vital integrative energy has ceased to operate upon matter that disintegrative change can take place at the normal temperature of the animal body, and even then chemical change cannot be effected in the absence of the necessary elements out of which to construct such compounds, and this condition posi- tively obtains no where in the economy of man except in the lumina of the convoluted and looped tubules of the kidneys, and in the lumina of the sudoriferous ducts of the skin. In the process of digestion, therefore, the food sub- 58 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. stances are not changed in the least in so far as their organic nature or proximate character is concerned, but the organic compounds or proximate principles en- tering into the composition of the mass constituting the animal and vegetable structures, are separated into their respective proximate compounds through the expansive energy of heat, the cohesive energy being diverted in proportionate degree to such expansion to the work of atomic mutual attraction. The same is equally true as regards gravitative energy, and hence just in pro- portion to the relative normal susceptibility of these respective proximate principles to the expansive energy of heat, in the same relative degree will they lose in cohesive and gravitative energy and gain in fluidity. Thus, the fatty substances having the greatest relative heat capacity, will float on top of the mass, and sugar will naturally come next, having a greater capacity for heat than albumen. Animal bioplasm cannot be nourished and grow at the expense of inorganic substances, whether or not these inorganic elements be the products of organic, or molecular decomposition and subsequent chemical re- composition. On the other hand, vegetable bioplasm cannot be nourished and grow at the expense of or- ganic compounds, but must look to the inorganic world for their nutrient supply ; and consequently if digestion even involved the decomposition of the organic com- pounds or proximate principles - much more if it in- volved the decomposition of the molecular constituents of such proximate principles, and new combinations of such elemental substances - would it render the food- substance wholly unfit for the very purpose for which it was originally designed. The former process (the organic decomposition) would eminently fit these ele- ments for the nutrition of vegetable bioplasm, and es- THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIGESTION. 59 pecially such organisms as bacteria, bacilli, vibriones, etc., but I doubt if even these organisms could assimi- late such new chemical compounds as would likely re- sult from molecular decomposition, especially such com- binations as would necessarily take place in the alimen- tary canal, in the venous side of the circulation, and elsewhere in the absence of free oxygen. "The animal could not exist before the plant. The animal cannot assimilate elemental matter, nor inorganic matter in any form, with but one or two exceptions, but assimilates and appropriates to its uses only organized matter - that which, at some time, has been made alive by the plant."-T. B. Bedding, Ph. D., in W. A. W. 1890. The reverse of this is equally true of all vegetable bio- plasm with not a single exception as I fully believe, as is also probably the case on the other hand. This is not only a death blow to the combustion dogma, the chemical theory of digestion, etc., but also to the veget- able germ theory of disease, as we shall conclusively show when discussing that question. It is just as impossible for the animal to integrate anew the food-substances at the expense of which it lives until it has first been disintegrated as such struc- tural compound, as it is to get new chemical combina- tions of atoms without first disintegrating or decompos- ing the former atomic unions. We cannot convert a beefsteak into our own muscular structure previous to complete structural decomposition. We could not assim- ilate it at all if organic decomposition should take place, even though the component molecules of such organic substance remained wholly unchanged in chemical com- position. Digestion essentially consists, therefore, in the separation of the proximate principles from each other and their more or less complete liquefaction. And the digestive fluids serve the purpose of menstruums to hold 60 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. these proximate principles in solution, as also the vehi- cles through which heat is furnished in part for the purpose of food disintegration. They owe their specific solvent or menstruum properties to their respective co- hesive and gravitative relations to such proximate prin- ciples. For example, if we assume that the cohesive energy mutually existing between the fatty substances and the gastric juice has a real existence in fact, but that the relative cohesive energy of the fat is less than that of the gastric juice, as also of that of the albumin- oids, then cohesive union will obtain and maintain be- tween the two latter by virtue of this fact, as also by virtue of the same or nearly the same specific gravity existing in both of these substances, while the fat, being of less specific gravity and cohesive energy, will neces- sarily be separated from them. The same logic holds good relative to the other proximate principles and their relations to the digestive fluids. Digestion, then, is a purely structural disintegrative process primarily, and is effected by the incremation of heat into the molecular cavities of such structural com- pounds, and hence this and the farther liquefaction and suspension of the resultant proximate principles, is neither chemical nor vital in character, but physical. The subsequent conversion of these digested products into bioplasm is purely vital in character, as is also the farther condensation of such substances, after they have been transformed into bioplasm, into formed material or organic structure. The disintegration of this latter af- ter it has served its purpose in the economy, and is therefore no longer under the dominion of the vital in- tegrative energy, is effected at the expense of heat also, and is likewise a physical process. PLATE I. FIG. I. FIG.2. FIG. 3 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE I. Fig. 1 shows atoms arranged in a straight line, the points of strongest magnetic polarity being in actual contact. Fig. 2 represents a molecule composed of two planes of atoms, the inner plane having the points of atomic polarity more divergent than the outer plane of atoms, and by placing the outer row of atoms within the inner you would have a concept of the difference in specific gravity, specific heat capacity, and in cohesive energy. By causing them to move outwards again so as to form existing molecule you will perceive that a disturbance in atomic mutual attractions will necessarily supervene momentarily. Fig. 3 represents a molecule compressed by hammer- ing or otherwise, so as to destroy lateral cohesive energy and increase terminal cohesive energy. By re- heating in forge or otherwise a spherical conformation is produced and cohesive energy again equalized at all points. CHAPTER II. BIOGENESIS. The eminent Dr. Hartshorne says: "If there be one fact or idea which more than any other is the gravita- tive center of all truth in physiology, pathology and medicine, it is that of the peculiar agency and suprem- acy in the body of the life force, and of its intimate relations with the other physical forces."-"Essentials of Medicine," p. A truer statement, in the main, was never made by anyone, as will be quite apparent to every reader by the time he has familiarized himself with the contents of this book. It is also evident, on the very face of the proposition, that we can have no true concept of the peculiar agency and supremacy in the body of the life force, and of its intimate relations with the other forces or energies operating in man, unless we first ascertain the true nature and modus operand! of these forces re- spectively, in order that we may have some definite and specific means of differentiating them, or at least of de- termining to which of these peculiar and specific actu- ating impulses any and every particular phenomenon is due. I am well aware of the fact that there exists a strong predisposition upon the part of a very large number of intelligent medical men to decry every presentation of this subject as merely theoretical speculation, and but little better than a superstitious vanity on the part of the one guilty of such an undertaking. Nevertheless, they are quite free to tell us what they conceive Vital BIOGENESIS. 63 Force to be, and are usually very dogmatic in their statements; but let one who believes in a real, substan- tial, vital energy proclaim his convictions publicly, and the probability is that his production will be rejected without respectable consideration, and the author thereof be denominated a "superstitious bigot" or a "crank." Trusting that I may escape such an imputation, by manifesting a disposition to learn all that can be ascer- tained relative to this matter under existing circum- stances, together with as clear and impartial a presenta- tion of the status of the subject as now obtains amongst the different schools of doctrine, I have deemed it pru- dent to gather together a number of authoritative state- ments that we may analyze them carefully, so as to be the better able to shun the errors of others, and to ar- rive at conclusions more nearly in harmony with the truth as it is in nature. We may ask, therefore, what was the real status of knowledge in regard to this question of paramount importance at the time Prof. Hartshorne wrote the above statement ? He says: "What would be said, then, were a man to undertake to repair a watch when he had never seen its works in motion and had no proven knowledge of the mode of action of nearly all its machinery ? If he should find on trial that hanging it up, or laying it down, or shaking it when it stopped, or keeping it warm or cold, promoted its good time-keeping, very well, let him do so. But if, in this state of uncertain knowledge, he should seize and alter with fingers and forceps the delicately arranged and complicated wheels and springs, would not the chances be that he would do more mischief than good? Nor would reasoning about possi- ble or probable watches, theories in chronometry, avail him much towards the medication of the particular time-piece in his hands. Yet this is our position, as 64 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. physicians, regarding the present relations of physiology and pathology to the actual treatment of disease." Now, it seems to me. metaphorically speaking, that hanging the watch up, or laying it down, or shaking it when it stopped, or keeping it warm or cold, and espe- cially the last experiment - as was actually practiced upon ex-President Garfield-would be very unsatisfac- tory to the busy owner of the watch, if not indeed fatal to its mechanical integrity, as the heat-abstracting, fin- gering and probing, poisoning and starving was fatal to the vital integrity of the illustrious dead. Such practice is gross empiricism, and is unworthy the re spect and confidence of him who has it employed. It would certainly be much better for the owner to do his own experimenting, and thus save his money and guard against encouraging such impostors, if he cannot find a skillful workman to employ who is competent to prop- erly correct the structural defect in such a manner as will enable the machinery to perform its respective and co-ordinated functions in an orderly and natural manner. The individual who attempts to repair a watch should first thoroughly acquaint himself with its works in mo- tion and at rest; he should have some proven knowl- edge of the mode of action of all its parts, and if he has not the energy, the intellectual capacity and the moral sense of his duty to himself, his employer and his God, to enable him to obtain such necessary infor- mation, he should be rigidly compelled to seek some less occult pursuit. A man who professes to be an ex- pert in chronometry, and yet could not tell the func- tional difference between the main-spring and the hair spring of a watch, but should attribute to the latter the functions of the former, would be thought a fool or a knave. And yet this is just the status of a large num- ber of the medical profession today. One of the most R-4 BIOGENESIS. 65 erudite members of the Physio-Medical School of Medi- cine states that "much of the mystery presented by vital force arises from the habit of mistaking" the resultant func- tions for the force. I have italicised this proposition, because I believe it to be the very key by which to unlock much of the mystery surrounding this great question, and by which to elucidate many of the inconsistencies and incongrui- ties of former writers relative to the same. There is, however, another unfortunate element tending in the same direction, and which needs only be mentioned to enforce it upon our attention; namely, the use of a term in such a way that we cannot determine positively just what significancy or import the author attaches to it. For example, the writer just quoted, says in the very same paragraph: "Let us regard vitality as a prop- erty of living matter, which it surely is, then let the matter and the property compose the force, which they really do, and vital force will be no more mysterious than the stimulating force of ginger." Now, I do not think the Professor really intended by the use of the above term - "property"- to inculcate the idea that life force is virtually synonymous with all the ascertainable physical and chemical properties of bioplasm. Prof. Curtis says: "Whatever always exists in con- nection with matter, but has no existence without it, is called a property of matter." He thus uses the term in its more restricted sense; and as the material sub- stance of bioplasm is precisely the same in all its as- certainable physical and chemical properties, regardless of the source from which it may be obtained, of its vi- tal resistive powers, its nutritive and formative capaci- ties, the same whether living or dead, I am convinced that he does not use the term in this restricted sense. There is a conventional use of the word "property" 66 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. which has a much broader significancy, and used in the sense in which I Apprehend he intends to be under- stood, is synonymous with the term "condition." Used in this sense he does not convict himself of being in- consistent either in rhetoric or in substance. Transparency is a property of oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and hence, of all their compounds; but fluid- ity is not a property of water, since it may be rendered solid on the abstraction of heat, and gaseous on the in- cremation of more heat. It is, therefore, a condition dependent upon a superadded something-whether this latter be regarded as substantial or motorial. So is the Living state of matter a condition, and dependent likewise upon a superadded something. Let us regard vitality as a CONDITION of a specific form or combi- nation of certain material substances, which it is; then let the matter and the • superadded something compose the essential relations necessary to the manifestations of force or energy, and we will not be so apt to con- found the functions with the actuating impulse, as we otherwise are so very much disposed to do. If we ex- amine a muscular fibrilla under our microscopes after it has lost its vitality, but previous to any ascertainable structural change, we will find it presenting the same properties as it did previous to such loss of vitality. We will seek in vain for any manifestation of functional activity in this Condition of affairs. If, however, we subject a living fibrilla to such an examination we may observe the beautiful phenomenon of contraction and re- laxation, but the comparison will utterly fail to reveal the actuating influence by and through wljich such con- tractions were produced, since the physical and chemi- cal properties remain the same in both instances so far as we can determine. If such fibrilla could now be caused to return to the embryonal condition, such con- BIOGENESIS. 67 tractions could not possibly take place, nevertheless the naked little bioplasts could still be caused to assume the spherical form under precisely the same exciting influences as were used in the former experiment. We could, therefore, no longer have this particular manifes- tation of vital energy, nevertheless, there is actually a greater amount of living matter, and hence of vital en- ergy, than previously. What about the vital energy per se, then, when the bioplasm ceases to live ? Does it still exist in all its potency as before, but not in a manifest form because of the absence of the proper kind of matter through which to manifest itself ? We could not see it pre- viously, and to say it does not exist as substantial en- ergy now is to make an assertion without a single fact, analogical or otherwise, to base such an assertion upon. Mere assertion does not contribute to the cause of scientific progress, nor tend to beget confidence in the author of such statements as a safe teacher. It is cus- tomary to speak of Bioplasm as though it possessed the attributes of life per se, and hence we have it stated that: "Everything else in nature may be moved and caused to increase by aggregation - by particles being added to those already collected; but this alone of all matter in the world moves towards lifeless matter, in- corporates it with itself, and communicates to it in some way we do not in the least understand, its own trans- cendentally wonderful properties, * * * This is the matter which lives. It may be correctly called living or forming matter, for by its agency every kind of living thing is made, and without it, as far as is known, no living thing ever has been made, or can be made at this time, or ever will be made." - Beale On Bioplasm. As a matter of fact, however, life does not inhere in the mat- ter itself, nor does the bioplasm communicate its own, 68 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. or any new properties, to the lifeless nutrient substances at the expense of which it grows and multiplies. Neither does Prof. Beale really hold such views, but he merely uses these conventional terms from the force of habit, as is quite apparent on a more critical examina- tion of his various works relating to this subject. This matter has no more power to impart new properties to non-living matter than has any other material substance, whether simple or compound; nor can it suffer any change whatever in its own intrinsic properties, as such compound, so long as it remains bioplasm. And when it ceases to be bioplasm, and has undergone regressive change, the resultant products possess all the properties of the original mass; and the only difference is that they now no longer manifest these properties in a conjoint manner. Bioplasm is universally, the same in all its ascertain- able physical and chemical properties; the same whether living or dead, just so long as it remains un- changed in composition, and hence whatever difference may be found to exist in vital resistive powers, in nu- tritive and formative capacities and in specific func- tional attributes, or in any other respect whatsoever, is really due to a superadded something which does not inhere in the matter per se. That such differences as just indicated do exist is not questioned by anyone, and to assign such differences to the matter per se is, in view of all the premises, absurd in the extreme; and yet this is virtually the position occupied by those who regard life as the result of organization, or a property of the matter per se - which amounts to the same thing. Bioplasm may very appropriately be called the phy- sical basis of life, and it is just as truly an aggregation of particles of matter to form the mass as is a crystal or any other mass of lifeless substance. Moreover, it BIOGENESIS. 69 is no more competent to move, by virtue of any in- herent power, properties or capacities, than are the life- less compounds. Chemical affinity may cause atoms to move towards one another, and thus by aggregation form molecules. Cohesion may cause these molecules to move towards one another and thus form homogene- ous masses; and Gravity may cause such homogeneous masses to move towards one another to form heterogen- eous masses; and Heat may and does produce just the opposito class of phenomena; but to attribute these phenomena to the mere properties of the matter per se, is to endorse the dynamic hypothesis - a doctrine the most absurd and self-contradictory that has ever been perpetrated upon a, too credulous public. In all these various combinations and decompositions the matter remains absolutely the same in all its phys- ical and chemical properties so far as the elementary substances are concerned, and whatever differences may appear are due to the combined and unisonant influence of the individual properties of the primary elements entering into such compound. The same is equally true as regards the material substance of bioplasm, it is nothing more nor less than an aggregation of lifeless molecules to form a heterogeneous mass of transparent, colorless, structureless, semi-fluid substance, apparently homogeneous because of the intimate admixture of its component molecules. Strictly speaking the matter does not live, but is simply animated or energized by an ab extra called vital force. Prof. Tyndall says: ' ' The matter of the human body is the same as that of the world around us; and here we find the forces of the human body identical with those of inorganic nature." - Heat a Mode of Motion, p. 85. And I feel confident that the most thorough and ex- haustive physical and chemical analysis that could be 70 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. instituted would but confirm the first proposition he here lays down, and hence, it does seem to me that, if the latter proposition was also based upon the results of patient and conscientious scientific investigation, as we know the first to have been, then we should have been properly informed with regard to the particular facts which led him and others to arrive at such con- clusions ; and also why it is that there exists such a vast discrepancy between the resultant phenomena from the operation of these ordinary physical forces as man- ifested in the two kingdoms - the inorganic and the or- ganic. In his work on "Sound" he says: "There is a morality brought to bear upon such matters which, in point of severity, is probably without a parallel in any other domain of intellectual action." I apprehend that herein is to be found the real secret of this whole matter relative to the true nature and modus operandi of vital force, and the great discrepancies existing tn the teachings of so-called authority on this subject. The morality brought to bear in support of the physical, chemical and dynamic theory of life has been anything but severe, as we shall soon discover, and this notwith- standing the fact that interests of such vast importance hinge upon a correct solution of this very question as to utterly render comparatively insignificant almost every other question of science. It has been said: "What will it profit a man though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?" And we may ask: What will it profit a man though he gain the whole world and lose his own life through the ignorance of his attendant physician with regard to the nature and modus operandi of the main-spring of his vital existence ? What are the forces of inorganic nature, as held and advocated by this school of doctrine ? Chemical affin- ity, Cohesion, Gravity, Heat, Light, Electricity, Magnet- BIOGENESIS. 71 ism - all modes of motion, and mutually convertible; and besides these, that marvelous and peculiarly unique double-geared, back-acting, repulsio attractive force, which was invented by man in obedience to the exigen- cies of this Dynamic Theory. Even granting that these forces do actually exist, and granting all the other er- roneous claims these "greatest living scientists" make for them, and that "the forces of the human body are identical with those of inorganic nature," is it not strange that they never produce phenomena in the in- organic wTorld which are currently known as Vital ? We are told that "All tissues are due to the operation of external circumstances, and the properties of the mere matter of the body." And we know that chemi- cal affinity, cohesion, gravity, heat, electricity, etc., are just as potent and, to a greater or less degree, just as active in the human body as in inorganic nature; and, what is a little strange to contemplate, in view of the abover hypothesis, is, they are all potentially and AC- TIVELY present in greater or less degree both during the continuance of life and after death, and decomposi- tion has taken place. Each atom or molecule of the en- tire body executing each and every one of these distinct- ive and peculiar modes of motion with their own specific and definite periods of vibrations and amplitudes of swing, all - all at one and the self-same instant of time. How remarkably strange! Surely there must have been an animating something in the corpse previously that has now departed from it ? Could it have been "The breath of Lives," as the true rendering gives it? To render the matter living, then, in harmony with this view, would require the union of two things, just as it requires the presence of steam superadded to the me- chanism of the locomotive to render the machine active. The dynamic hypothesis, on the contrary, -would in- 72 PHYSIOLOGY ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. volve the necessity of a conversion of one or more of the existing modes of motion into a new mode of mo- tion, with a loss of the former mode of motion, in order to generate life motion. But since it is utterly impos- sible to have a given mass of matter move in more than one definite direction, at one definite rate of speed, at one and the same instant of time, we are under the painful necessity of disposing of all other modes of motion in order to generate vital motion in harmony with the dynamic hypothesis. The uninformed reader may think the discussion of this dynamic hypothesis in this connection devoid of practical interest, and, there- fore, a waste of valuable time. He will discover, how- ever, as we proceed, that it is the theoretical basis upon which rests the two most prevalent doctrines of disease germs - the degradation of bioplasm theory and its modification, the vegetable germ idea - and the treat- ment which obtains in harmony therewith. How much better than the ignorant watch-mechanic is the man who, professing to be versed in the science of biology and physiology, shows himself incompetent to recognize the functional difference between Heat and Vitality on the one hand, or between the latter and Chemical Energy on the other hand? The statement that "life, mind, memory, thought, reason, come from organization, are purely physical phenomena," etc., in- volves the concept that vitality is a genetic result of either heat or chemical energy, since organic structure can have no existence in fact without the intervention of some organizing force or energy exerting an integra- tive influence upon matter previously not thus integra- ted. If, however, life-energy is a real, substantial some- thing, we can no more generate life than we can gener- ate gold or silver, or any other material substance, nor can we change one substantial energy into another sub BIOGENESIS. 73 stantial energy, any more than we can change silver into gold. The above concept, therefore, is in harmony with the dynamic hypothesis, and must &tand or fall with it. Herbert Spencer says: "Life is the definite combination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with external co-exist- ences and sequences," or "the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations." We would ask, therefore, what causes the definite combination of heter- ogeneous changes; the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations ? Surely the effect cannot be the cause of itself. If it be true that "the tissues are due to the operation of external circumstances, and to the properties of the mere matter of the body," we want to know what those circumstances are, so that we may be able to profit by such knowledge at the bedside when circumstances demand a change or modification of such external circumstances. You certainly do not have reference to the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the heat that keeps us warm, or any one or more of our physical environments ? Prof. Henry Drumond says: "One cannot say it is natural for a plant to live. Examine its nature fully, and you have to admit that its natural tendency is to die. It is kept from dying by a mere temporary en- dowment which gives it an ephemeral dominion over the elements - gives it power to utilize for a brief span the rain, the sunshine and the air. Withdraw this tem- porary endowment for a moment and its true nature is revealed. Instead of overcoming Nature, it is overcome. The very things which appeared to minister to its growth and beauty now turn against it and make it de- cay and die. The sun which warmed it, withers it; the air and rain which nourished it, rot it. It is the very forces which we associate tvith life which, tvhen their true 74 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. nature appears, are discovered to he really the ministers of death. This law, which is true for the whole plant- world, is also valid for the animal and for man. Air is not life, but corruption - so literally corruption that the only wTay to keep out corruption, when life has ebbed, is to keep out air." Had he only stopped at this point, he would have stated a literal truth without any admixture of error. But even "Natural Law in the Spiritual World" must needs bow the knee to Baal,, and thus become tainted with the physical theory of life to a greater or less degree in order to pass current in this day of dynamic nonsense. He therefore adds: "Life is merely a tern porary suspension of these destructive powers; and this is truly one of the most accurate definitions of life wTe have yet received-'the sum total of the functions which resist death.' " Page 87. So far from manifest life being a temporary suspen- sion of these so-called destructive powers, they are one and all absolutely essential to the continuance of life for any considerable period of time, and without heat there could indeed be no life made manifest at all. The air is necessary to afford one of the components of the human body in its uncombined form, and enters into the composition of all kinds of bioplasm together with the other nutrient materials; the water of composition serves the same purpose, and free, it holds in suspen- sion these food substances so that they can be assimi- lated ; and the heat not only is essential for the pur- pose of disintegrating the nutrient matters, but also to disintegrate the formed material of the various cells and structures of the body in the process of wTaste, and to thus effect the production of the secretions and ex- cretions. And more important than all else, without heat to render the fluids fluid and the semi-fluids semi-fluid, BIOGENESIS. 75 there could neither be bioplasm to nourish nor pabulum susceptible of being used as such. The tree ceases to grow during the winter months because there is not a sufficient degree of heat to effect the disintegration of its pabulum on the one hand, nor to maintain them in a fluid condition on the other hand, and yet the tree con- tinues to live on during this state of nutritive dor- mancy. If life is the sum total of the functions which resist death, what, then, is the actuating influence by and through the exercise of wffiich these functions are pro- duced ? The sum total of the functions which resist death may constitute wThat we denominate co-ordinate vitality - using the term in a broad sense; but this fails most signally to account for the actuating impulse by and through which these various functions are pro- duced and co-ordinated. It is simply being guilty of the very mistake Prof. Davidson cautions us against, as already mentioned above; and the absurdity of the proposition will be rendered doubly apparent by a far- ther quotation from Prof. Drumond, and a subsequent analysis of the same. He says: "Spiritual life, in like manner, is the sum total of the functions which resist sin." Let me state here that there is nothing more defin- itely certain in 'my judgement than that so far from Christianity being a mere philosophy, it is a science of biology or biogenesis pure and unadulterated, and hence if the first proposition be true the second must be true also, if there is any unity and harmony in the works of Creative Genius. The following renderings, therefore, will emphasize the true import of the above proposi- tions. "Except ye have the sum total of the functions of Christ in you ye are none of his." "It is the sum total of the functions of God that worketh in you to 76 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. will and to do of his good pleasure." This is a legiti- mate use of language in harmony with the premises given, and yet its irreverent character and absurd im- port could be intensified by other quotations, but I for- bear. The hypothesis utterly fails to provide for other than our own moral faculties and bent of mind as an actuating impulse to conform us to the type or image of His dear Son; and yet "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when the change come, we know we shall be like Him." The same rigid law of conformity to type holds good in the natural biological world, and the great and pre-eminently important question is, What is the nature of the potter that integrates and conforms the various tissues to their own respective types and co-ordinates them all into the perfected organism? We hear these contradictory statements of doctrine, and in- congruities of sentiment, given expression to from the pulpit, the rostrum, the lecture hall, and from every source and in every conceivable form;*we find them in- culcated in books written on almost every subject, and the inevitable result of sowing to the wind and reaping the w7hirl-wTind is bearing its legitimate fruit in the shape of religious skepticism, medical skepticism, infi- delity and agnosticism on every hand and on every sub- ject. A careful and impartial analysis of these various defi- nitions of life will convince anyone who is compos men- tis that they all virtually demand the existence of a complete organism as a genetic basis for life. For in- stance, it is very evident that the sum total of the func- tions which resist (sin and) death could not obtain un- til the sum total of the tissues, structures and organs which perform these functions had been integrated and endowTed with powers to generate and co-ordinate such functions. The discovery, however, that "the cell is the BIOGENESIS. 77 morphological unit of organization, the physiological source of specialized function," and that each individual cell has an independent vital existence, an independent nutritive, formative, calorific, disintegrative and specific functional existence, disturbed the spirit of their dreams for a time. But the great allopathic school of medicine had too much previous literature and professional dig- nity at stake to allow her equanimity to be seriously disturbed. They concluded, therefore, "that upon the chemical atoms aggregated together into the form of a cell, at any stage of its existence, a certain power is be- stowed, ' vital force. ' They hold this power in their cor- porate character."-Packard on Inflammation. Having thus spontaneously generated a cell, a mere repetition of the process was all that was necessary to build up a com plete organism, or to restore lost structure as a result of an injury or toxical influence; and they thus rested in fancied security until naked living bioplasm was dis- covered, and then a Carl Heitzman sprang into sudden prominence, bringing with him that mysterious intra- cellular and intra-nuclear network of fibrils. I wish to state most emphatically that there are but three pri mary forces or energies in the physical universe, name- ly, Heat, Magnetism and Vitality, and that these forces or energies are individually and collectively operative in their own respective manner and spheres in both the animal and the vegetable world. We will now suppose that the reader has provided himself with a first-class microscope, and that on looking through it into a drop of water he should discover a small particle of trans- parent, colorless, apparently structureless semi fluid mat- ter, which is found to be constantly undergoing change of form or shape, sending out filamentous processes or projections of its substance in every conceivable direc- tion, and again retracting them; sending out a process 78 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. > through which the entire mass seems to flow, and thus transports itself from place to place, even in opposition to the force of gravity, would you not think you had some knowledge of the mode of acting of this living matter, some knowledge of Bioplastic works in motion ? Suppose you should observe it taking other substances into itself and transforming them into its own peculiar substance, and thus to actually increase in quantity, and finally, after it has grown considerably larger than when first seen, you observe its substance to move in two opposite directions at one and the same time until equal or unequal division of the primary mass into two such masses has resulted; and that each of these two resultant particles continues to grow and divide in pre- cisely the same manner as did the primary mass until numerous naked little bioplasts had resulted from the primary mass, would you not think you had some proven knowledge of bioplastic growth and multiplica- tion ? Suppose you observe this continuing growth and mul- tiplication of the living matter at the expense of its nutrient supply until the latter has been so far ex- hausted as to establish a balance or equilibrium be- tween supply and demand - between the quantity of bioplasm to be nourished on the one hand and the sup- ply of pabulum, at the expense of which they must grow and increase, on the other hand, and suppose pro- vision is made by which to secure the regular supply of this definite quantity of pabulum, as is provided for in your own person by the vascular arrangement - do you think they would continue to increase in size or numbers as before this equilibrium was established, only modified in the rate of increase ? If chemistry is the integrating energy or impulse operating to produce the bioplastic result, then surely there should be a continu- BIOGENESIS. 79 ous increase of the new compound in harmony with the laws of chemical aggregation just so long as the neces- sary elements for such compound are being supplied. At least this is the usual way in which chemistry be- haves in the inorganic world, and seeing that the mat- ter is precisely the same before and after establishing an equilibrium, and that all that is necessary to secure a regular continuous increase of the new compound is to bring the elements to the theater of such catalytic influence as bioplasm seems to afford - even in the most minute quantities - and the force or energy being pre- cisely the same, ought not the result be the same also, if there is even the shadow of truth in the physical theory of Life? If "Living matter is living matter only in its relations to something else, it is but one term in the dynamic equation of life - one term of a relation, the other term, or, at least, one factor of the other term, invariably being oxygen," then most assur- edly the volume of this new compound should continue to be augmented so long as a particle of pabulum is being supplied, just as surely as there is any certainty in the operations of natural law. Nevertheless, just so soon as this balance is obtained the bioplasm ceases to increase in quantity, notwith- standing the fact that it continues to grow at the ex- pense of the pabulum as rapidly as before. How can this be, and yet there be no increase in quantity ? In harmony with a universal law relative to this matter, and by virtue of absolute physical necessity, the bio- plasm loses by formative change on the one hand in the same relative proportion that it gains at the expense of pabulum on the other hand; and just so soon as the in- dividual cells have attained their normal size, or in other words, just so soon as the volume of cells present begins to interfere with the supply of pabulum by me- 80 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. chanical pressure, disintegrative change takes place in the formed material most distant from the theater of nutritive activity, and hence in the oldest portion of such formed material, and in this way provision is made in all the TFarm-AfoocZed animals for the incessant inter- change of new materials for that which is old, resulting in a constant elastic, vigorous state of the entire body so long as normal health is maintained. It is evident that any increase of bioplasm over and above that ex- isting at the time an equilibrium was established would disturb this balance in an opposite direction, and the overplus of vital energy thus manifest in the bioplasm would no longer have any pabulum upon which to act. It is as impossible for matter to exist without occupy- ing space as it is for energy to exist in a state of ab- solute inactivity, and vice versa. If you force heat out of one substance by mechanical pressure or otherwise, it enters into the molecules of other substances, expand- ing them, and thus not only restoring a thermal equili- brium, but at the same time providing against the for- mation of a vacuum. If you reduce the supply of pab- ulum below the integrative demand of vital energy pres- ent in bioplasm, the overplus of such energy does not cease to act, but is simply diverted to the work of still farther condensing the matter through which it primar- ily manifested itself; namely, condensing bioplasm into formed material. And this latter is necessarily prevented from accumulating beyond certain limits in consequence of the limitation of the volume of vital energy on the one hand, if I - may so speak; and thus removed from under the control of this condensing energy, the heat evolved by growth and formative change becomes the controling force-disintegrating the formed material so deprived of the vital integrative energy. Of course the overplus of vital energy must necessarily act at such R-5 BIOGENESIS. 81 point as is situated most distant from the source of nu- trient supply and out of resell of such pabulum, other- wise it would evidently continue to integrate pabulum - since it is not supposed to be specially endowed with an intelligence, or to exercise any particular choice in the matter. The same is likewise true with regard to its limitations to the field of bioplastic condensation. In thus condensing and integrating pabulum into bio- plasm, and still farther condensing the latter into formed material, the cohesive energy of magnetism- and which was disturbed in the disintegrative process of digestion - is brought into active operation in the manner already stated in Lecture I; and in the subse- quent disintegrative change in the process of waste the heat made use of primarily in the digestive process is again economized and rendered latent as regards our senses, a matter of very great practical importance when we come to treat of fevers and inflammation. We see, therefore, that these ordinary physical forces are operative in their respective spheres in the human economy, which could not be the case if they were merely modes of motion instead of moving energies or impulses, and vital energy was a mere resultant of the conversion of one or other of these modes of motion into a new and peculiar mode of motion. Suppose you now examine a white blood corpuscle, a mucous corpuscle, a pus' corpuscle, or any other mass or masses of naked living matter, from whatever source or sources you will, even including the living contents of a ruptured cell-wall of a bacterium or other uni- cellular vegetable body, and that you find that they look, move, change shape, grow, multiply, undergo for- mative change under the same restrictive influences as regards nutrient supply, as did the first particles, and that they are so perfectly identical in all their ascer- 82 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. tainable physical and chemical properties and composi- tion, and in every other respect so far as the material substance of the bioplasm itself is concerned, as to ren- der it absolutely impossible to differentiate them one from another in this way, would you not think that the "properties" of bioplasm always exist in connection with such compound mass as a part of the matter per se? Suppose this matter presents precisely the same physical and chemical properties universally - whether living or dead, animate or inanimate - and in view of all the known facts in the premises it would be con- trary to the dictates of common-sense to state other- wise, then I ask, would you not regard its properties as merely the algebraic sum of the combined and uni- sonant influence of the respective properties of the ele- mental substances entering into such bioplastic sub- stance, whether this compound be the result of vital or of chemical integration? (I exclude heat from this embrace for the very excellent reason that it is a disin tegrative energy, and cannot be tortured into the re- verse of this, as we shall have abundant evidence to prove.) You may well say: It doth not yet appear what they shall be, but when the formative change comes, we know that they shall be like the type from whence they respectively sprang. To what, then, is this law of conformity to type due ? A quotation from that most learned and brilliant writer, Prof. Drumond, will not only afford us a beautiful, con- cise and comprehensive statement relative to this very question, but will tend to place him in a more correct position as regards his belief as to the true nature and functions of Life Force. He says: "No organic change, no modification of environment, no mental en- ergy, no moral effort, no evolution of character, no pro- gress of civilization can endow any single human soul BIOGENESIS. 83 with the attribute of Spiritual Life." This is a wonder- fully sweeping statement, and is certainly the very op- posite in its import to those made use of in endorsing the physical theory of life, and since both can not be true, we will ascertain, by continuing the quotation, his reason for such a radical change of theoretical basis. "The Spiritual World is guarded from the world next in order beneath it by a law of Biogenesis - except a man be born again, * * * except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.* "It is not said, in this enunciation of the law, that if the condition be not fulfilled the natural man will not enter the Kingdom of God. The word is Cannot. For the exclusion of the spiritually inorganic from the King- dom of the spiritually organic is not arbitrary. Nor is the natural man refused admission on unexplained grounds. His admission is a scientific impossibility. Except a mineral be born 'from above' - from the Kingdom just above it-it cannot enter the Kingdom just above it. And except a man be born 'from above,' by the same law, he cannot enter the Kingdom just above him. There being no passage from one Kingdom to another, whether from inorganic to organic, or from organic to spiritual, the intervention of life is a scien titic necessity if a stone or a plant or an animal or a man is to pass from a lower to a higher sphere. The plant stretches down to the dead world beneath it, touches its minerals and gases with its mystery of Life, and brings them up ennobled and transformed to the living sphere. The breath of God, blowing where it listeth, touches with its mystery of Life the dead souls * Water is here used as a figure of speech for flesh. See Revelations xvll, 1 and 15; Isaiah viii, 7; also the concluding statement of the Lord himself relative to the sense in which He used the term. 84 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of men, bears them across the bridgeless gulf between the natural and the spiritual, between the spiritually in- organic and the spiritually organic, endows them with its own high qualities, and develops within them these new and secret faculties by which those who are born again are said to see the Kingdom of God," [and by which they are conformed to the Type or Image of His dear Son.] - "Natural Law in the Spiritual World " p. 66. If the bacteria wishes to become a rotifera, or some other animalcular form, it must be born again, born from above. Left to itself and all its potencies and powers when formative change comes, it must produce an or- ganism in conformity with its type. There is nothing Involved that can Evolve, anything higher or lower in the scale of living thing. That which is Bacteria is Bac- teria, and that which is Rotifera is Rotifera. And let me state in this connection, and furnish the proof else- where, that no kind of vegetable growth can possibly live at the expense of any kind of organic substance whatever previous to its decomposition, when it ceases to be organic. The plant or vegetable must stretch down to the dead world beneath it, touch its minerals and gases with its mystery of life, and bring them up ennobled and transformed to the living sphere, and thus perform their own specific function in the great process of evolution upwards until the acme of perfection is reached in the Spiritual. This Law of conformity to Type is as fixed, definite and unchangeable as any law known to man. There is absolutely nothing involved or inherent in the matter composing bioplasm which, per se, can afford us an ex- planation of the reason for the marvelous differences in type even amongst the lowest order of living things. We are forced to conclude, therefore, that there is a superadded something in this matter that works to not BIOGENESIS. 85 only produce the vital phenomena common to all living matter, but that there is a difference in this vital en- ergy in different kinds of living matter, and that it is to this fact that we must attribute the difference in type. I think I shall be able to satisfactorily prove to the minds of the unprejudiced that this superadded something does not inhere in the matter per se, is not due to new properties, nor to the algebraic sum of the old or pre-existing properties ; but that it is an ab extra over and above everything material and immaterial, everything substantial and unsubstantial - if there be such a thing as the latter - that had previously existed in such matter, including all the ordinary physical forces, whether modes of motion or substantial. For the bettei' comprehension of this subject, we will select a number of nice, clean, fresh hen eggs from two different sources, one-half of the whole number having been properly fecundated, the other half sterile, and institute a series of imaginary experiments, the facts of which are well understood, and see what the logical deductions must prove to be. We will first carefully mark these eggs so as to be able to determine at a glance which are fecundated and which are sterile. We take one of each kind and make a thorough and minutely critical microscopical and chemical examination of them, but fail to detect the least perceptible difference in them. They each exhibit a well-marked Germinal Spot, consisting of pure living matter or bioplasm, with all its wonderful powers, prop- erties, and nutritive and formative capacities, and each in immediate association with the other contents of the egg shell-which is likewise found to differ in no re- spect the one from the other. Having fully satisfied ourselves of the correctness of our conclusions thus far ; and that the egg-formed material, as also the bioplasm, 86 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. are both the products of Integrative energy, we are ready for the next step in the process. We will place a half dozen of each kind in a moder- ately cool place wrhere they wTill not be exposed to any marked changes of temperature; another like number we will put into an incubator in which the temperature shall be elevated for a little wThile slightly above that normal to the hen that laid them ; and another half dozen of each we will place in a refrigerator for future use. Now, while those who endorse the physical theory of life are waiting to gather in the fruits of the hatch- ing process in these eggs, we will take six more of each kind and place them under a good old mother hen; and another equal lot shall be placed in charge of a careful and thoroughly conscientious man who is skilled in the use of the artificial incubator. We are now fully prepared for making our final ex- aminations, and drawing our conclusions from the phe- nomena and facts which shall be thus revealed, and I apprehend that we shall make some very important and extremely significant discoveries during the course of our investigations. On examining one of each kind of eggs placed in the refrigerator we discover no evidence of change - either in organic or chemical composition; no change in their physical appearance, except, perhaps, a very slight dis- turbance in molecular relations previously existing in the respective masses entering into the composition of each; and this slight change we regard as being due to the crystalization of the water of composition as a result of freezing. We are sure of one thing at least, and that is that there has been no integrative change thus far, either vital or chemical; and we are just as confident that there has been no true disintegrative change that can properly be so denominated. We have BIOGENESIS. 87 no reason to doubt but that if they had been left in the refrigerator for even years under existing environ- ments they would have remained permanently in the same state in which we found these two to be. There can, therefore, be no doubt but that such change as we did observe was simply due to the crystalization of the water of composition. And as was naturally to be ex- pected, the same forces operating upon precisely the same kind of material substances, both eggs experience precisely the same change so far as we can determine with all the means at our command. We now examine two of the eggs - one of each kind - placed in the incubator in which the temperature was slightly elevated above the normal of the hen, and we find here again that both have experienced precisely the same modifications - if any modifications there be that can be detected--so far as we can now determine with the means at our command. Here again the re- sults obtained were naturally to be expected, since both the physical energies and the material substances were absolutely the same. We now hand one of each kind of these eggs from each of these two sources to the man who has charge of the second incubator with the re- quest that he try hatching them, and await the result. In the meantime, we make a meal off of the remainder in order to ascertain whether or not they are compe- tent to nourish animal bioplasm, knowing full well that if they are, their organic composition or nature has not yet been destroyed. The result shows that they re- main organically intact. We are now prepared, I trust, to investigate the con- dition of the four eggs obtained from the two sources above mentioned, and which were placed in the hands of the man presiding over the incubator. On opening them as carefully as may be possible, we very readily 88 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. discover that something has been at work in all of them, producing results identically the same in each as we would logically infer again, and for the very same reasons. Merely the sense of smell is all-sufficient to convince us that some remarkable modifications have taken place in them. And in view of the fact that it was necessary to secure a certain elevation of tempera- ture in order to obtain this result, we are forced to con- clude that whatever the primary energy may have been by and through the exercise of which they were first integrated, this new integrated product-which is evi- dently chemical in character, did not and could not take place until the former products were first disintegrated by the incremation of more heat, and that artificially supplied. In the absence of a certain degree of heat, then no such chemical changes can be effected. Never- theless, the chemical energy, by and through which the atoms were united to form the molecules, out of which the heterogeneous mass composing the egg substance was derived, is just as surely present and as potent in these eggs previous to the incubating process as at the time or subsequently ; but it could not divert its opera- tions in maintaining original molecular compounds to the formation of new combinations of atoms, even if stronger affinities should exist potentially in the hete- rogeneous mass. Old atomic affinities must first be dis- turbed before new affinities can be made manifest. It becomes absolutely essential, therefore, that heat should be first applied in order to effect the disintegration of the original mass before new integrative products can come to exist. We will now investigate the eggs placed under the good old hen, and learn what we may learn. How mar- velously strange! We find them precisely the same in all their physical and chemical properties, the same BIOGENESIS. 89 in composition, Bioplasm and all, and yet what a wonder- ful difference we now discover in the resultant products between those that had been properly fecundated and those that remained sterile. The chemical- energy pres- ent was the same in all of them, as has been fully proven by our former experiments; the degree of heat applied, by and through which the disintegrative changes were effected, was necessarily the same, and but slightly less than that used in the other incubator, and in which the results were the same in the two eggs. What shall we say then ? The results were pre- cisely the same in both the fecundated and sterile eggs respectively in each particular experiment, as was log- ically to be expected under the same peculiar environ- ments. But here we find that each egg marked "F" has brought forth a mouse? No! A cat? No!! Some of them one thing and others a different thing? No! No! What then? Ah. my friends, there is a LAW of conformity to TYPE that demanded a Chick in each case, and Chicks they proved to be. Yes, they each bring forth a living, sentient being, formed without moulds and fashioned wfithout hands, and yet they are each perfect in character and conform to the image of their progenitors. But what about th® sterile eggs ? We must remember that they had the Germinal Spot just as well marked and perfectly developed, so far as we could ascertain, as did the others; and hence if chemis- try is the integrative energy, or if the properties of the matter constitute in part or wholly all there is of life, we should certainly logically expect to obtain precisely the same result in the one lot of eggs as in the other. The food-substance thus stored up and provided for the purposes of nutrition is the same; the bioplasm present in all the eggs is also identically the same in its ma- terial composition; the temperature was precisely the 90 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. same also; in other words, the environments were pre- cisely identical in all the eggs, nevertheless they did not hatch chicks. And why ? Ah, yes, well may we ask wThy. Physiologists tell us that "a very large and import- ant class of the vital phenomena are those of a chemi- cal character." And one of our own most brilliant writers denominates oxygen the vitalizing element, and speaks of "vital combustion." Packard says : "The setting up of a mystery in the shape of a vital force, independent of and opposed to the ordinary laws of physics, is a physiological super stition." - Inflammation, p. 181/.. On page 260, he says: "Thus nerve-force, heat, and what for want of a bet- ter term I have called vital force, are mutually convert- ible. In other words, we convert chemical or mechan- ical force, or life-force, .or electricity, into heat, and as the cold dressing is heated at the expense of the af- fected part, the latter loses a force amounting to what- ever is necessary for this heating." Which loss is not only the total overplus of heat, but the total vitality of the part affected and to the integrative influence .of wdiich the evolution of such manifest heat is due, as I know from actual observation. Now, since we do not wish to be thought superstitious in such matters, we will concede for the present, that the eggs placed in the refrigerator had their mechani- cal, chemical, electrical, cohesive and vital energies con- verted into heat, and then entirely absorbed. This leaves them entirely destitute of any kind of force or energy for the present - the cold dressing having ab- sorbed them, whatever they be. We know that the fe- cundated eggs were rendered wdiolly incompetent to produce chicks by this refrigorific process, and hence something serious must have happened to the vital force BIOGENESIS. 91 at least, and we should take warning from this experi- ment, and shun the use of refrigorative dressings in all cases where we do not wish to destroy the vital integ- rity of a part. The heat of the subsequent incubative process failed to restore the vital energy, or anything else very remarkable, except the chemical compound or compounds, and a well developed Dynamic Absurdity. For the very same reason above given, we will also grant, for the present, that the hatching process is es- sentially one of those important vital phenomena of a chemipal character. We have already learned that chem- ical energy is definitely integrative in character, and surely no one doubts the fact that the organic process is also integrative in character. Thus far, then, there is no lack of consistency in such an assumption. Why should the fecundated eggs bring forth chicks, then, and the sterile eggs utterly fail to do so without a single exception ? We have the most positive evidence to prove that all the elements which are said to enter into the physical basis of life, even including sulphur, are present in each and every one of the eggs experimented with. It is, therefore, foolish to even mention the fact that the sterile eggs have not been properly fertilized, since they possess all the elements that Chemistry needs out of wThich to construct a chick, without the necessity of en- riching by the addition of even a very little more of precisely the same protein substance as already exists in the Germinal Spot - if I may call it protein sub- stance. It is said that life, etc., come from organization, are purely physical phenomena, and cease at death. There must, therefore, be in existence an organizing force or energy at work before we can have life. We know that many organic structures are to be found at all 92 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. times in which there is no evidence of life manifest, and we marvel why this is so in view of the above hy- pothesis. We are sure they once possessed life, else they could not have come to exist as such. Indeed, the mere fact that all organic existences must sooner or later cease to be living, and that no organic struc- ture whatever has ever come to exist without the inter- vention of life force in some form of bioplasm, renders it absolutely imperative that we either reject the above hypothesis entirely, or else that we seek for and dis- cover a pre-existing structure of some kind or other in this bioplasm which acts as a generator of life energy, by and through the intervention of which the fully formed secondary structures come to exist. I do not have regard in the above statement to the opinion of those who know nothing of the revelations of the mi- croscope as the direct result of personal observation, but do have respect for the statements of those who, by long and laborious microscopical investigation and re- search, have come to know definitely whereof they speak. Now, every microscopist in the civilized world worthy of the name recognizes the fact that there is such a thing as bioplasm, and that it is the progenitor of every cell, tissue, structure and organ in the organic universe, and the only question of dispute between them is, Does this living matter consist of simply a transparent, colorless, Entirely Structureless semi-fluid substance, or does it contain a structure of some kind or other to which it owes its vitality and all its vital powers and capacities? Carl Heitzman says: "Under suitable conditions it can be shown that it [bioplasm] is composed of a very minute network of fibrils. This network, which we shall know as the intra-cellular net- work, contains in its nodes minute dots, and these pro- BIOGENESIS. 93 duce the granular appearance, which is, however, due to fibrils seen in optical section. In the meshes of the network is contained a hyaline interstitial substance. The accompanying wood-cut shows these relations and also that the kernel or nucleus contains a similar net- work- intra-nuclear network - which is in direct connec- tion with the intra-cellular network." I presume that no one who has made, this question a matter of careful microscopical investigation will doubt the fact that "un- der suitable conditions" such an appearance may be very indistinctly obtained; but the real question is Can such a network be seen under Proper conditions - thus prov- ing its existence in fact's Not content with a mere misrepresentation of the facts as to the presence or absence of such a network, he dogmatically assumes that the peculiar movements characteristic of bioplasm are due to an alternation of contraction and relaxation of these fibrils, and that it is here in these fibrils that the life force exists. See Atlas of Histology, by Klein and Smith. Anything short of this would not have answered the demands of the physical theory of life, since even the existence of such a network would have left grave doubts in the mind of the student as to whether the vital force had its home primarily in the network or in the interstitial hyaline substance. As for myself, I freely confess that I would have naturally supposed that life energy had been operating in, through and upon the latter, and that the recticular structure was a legitimate result of integrative change in this transparent, color- less, structureless, semi-fluid matter, and thus have placed myself in opposition to "the whole tendency of modern thought," had Heitzman not substituted his brain pow ers for mine in drawing a conclusion for me from his false premises. That there does exist an organizing 94 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. force or energy of some kind and somewhere is a self- evident fact, and whatever the nature of this force may be, there are two things certain to my mind; namely, it is integrative in character, and hence must exert its energy upon matter not integrated at the time. In what condition of matter, then, are we so likely to have this force made manifest as in a perfectly structureless mass of specialized matter, susceptible of being moulded and shaped and conformed to type, as is bioplasm - minus a reticular structure ? Those who regard oxy- gen as a vitalizing element, and the vitalizing act as "vital combustion," need not feel unduly alarmed at the above question, providing they do not regard the product of such vitalization as "carbonic acid." since this would not necessarily invalidate the physical the- ory of life (whatever the result to the combustion dogma may be), since we might still assume that chem- ical energy integrates the reticulum out of the unorgan- ized interstitial hyaline substance, after which some kind of molecular motion is superinduced which we de- nominate "Life." We could then truly say: "Life, mind, memory, thought, reason, come from organization." and that "I assume that upon the chemical atoms ag- gregated together into the form of a cell [ a beautiful reticulum of some kind], at any stage of its existence, a certain power is bestowed - vital force," and that they therefore "hold this power in their corporate character." In the published proceedings of the American Society of Microscopists, fifth annual meeting. Dr. Barrett is represented as follows: "From a priori reasoning he was predisposed to accept the reticulated structure of protoplasm. That the mind cannot conceive of volun- tary or spontaneous motion in any structureless body. A drop of homogeneous jelly can only move or change BIOGENESIS. 95 its form by an -exertion of external force. That if the so-called structure be but an aggregation of disconnected granules, movement is equally impossible. They must either be connected in some way with each other, or they must have differentiated organs to act as propel- lers. That if the amoeba or the pus corpuscle be en- tirely homogeneous, any inherent movement is impossi- ble ; and, hence, we must suppose some kind of struc- ture, and to account for the phenomena exhibited a re- ticulum, of some kind seems most plausible." The dog- matic character of his statements thus given would force us to meekly concede the correctness of his assumptions at once, and be done with the controversy forever, if it was not for the fact that he has not only given a death blow to the old dynamic theory of energy, which he is trying to perpetuate even in the bioplastic kingdom, but he has also given us, unwittingly no doubt, a good rule to measure his statements by. He says in the very same connection, and on the same occasion above ad- verted to: "Our predilections and prepossessions often lead us astray in graver matters than the observations of these little blood corpuscles." With a conscientious disposition to get at the exact truth of this question of paramount importance to the Living, sentient, intelligent being, the scientific mind will not be satisfied with a priori reasoning, plausible predispositions, gratuitous suppositions and dogmatic as- sumptions, so long as we possess microscopes and ob- jectives with which we may detect structures and mark- ings no less difficult to be seen than such a reticulum would be - had it an actual existence in fact. Never- theless, if it be granted that life force does come from organization, then we must either demonstrate some such reticular structure as here indicated, or else con- tinue on in our unscientific guesswork, since we do know 96 PHYSIOLOGY': ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. that each living bioplast in the entire universe does possess an independent vital existence. Moreover, "Life has be'en defined as a peculiar kind of motion of the molecules (plastidules) of living mat- ter, and is regarded as being of comparatively short duration. And here let me remark that we are now upon the utmost verge of molecular physics; and that I am attempting to familiarize your minds with concep- tions wThich have not yet obtained universal currency even amongst chemists; which some chemists, moreover, might deem untenable. But, tenable or untenable, it is of the highest scientific importance to discuss them. Let us, then, look mentally at our atoms grouped to gether to form a molecule. Every atom is held apart from its neighbors by a force of repulsion ; why, then, do not the mutually repellent members of this group part company ? The molecules do separate when the external pressure is lessened or removed, but their con- stituent atoms do not." - Tyndall, "the highest living authority on physics," so regarded by those who en- dorse the dynamic hypothesis. Now, taking this statement relative to the molecules, in connection with those of Heitzman, Barrett, Packard, and others of like import, we are forced to conclude that if life is indeed a peculiar kind of motion of the molecules of some kind of reticular structure existing in bioplasm, and that if life is of comparatively short duration, then this structure is also of comparatively short duration, since it is the theoretical generator of both life and motion, they being synonymous terms. Nevertheless, a certain writer said. "I believe every part of a healthy organism to be alive, even to the enamel of the teeth - otherwise we would have the very strange feat of dead matter performing an act, a func- tion." On being led thus step by step to the outmost R-6 BIOGENESIS. 97 verge of molecular physics, I said in my perplexity, is it possible that the very enamel of the teeth is actually executing molecular gyrations, even in advanced age, regardless of the doctrine that life is of comparatively short duration. Taking it for granted that short might mean long -when necessary to so regard it, I said, is it possible that molecular gyrations are actually super1 induced in artificial teeth, cork legs, and such like arti- ficial contrivances, by mere contact with a living organ- ism. and that they thus spontaneously begin to run the short race of vital existence ? I said, Yes! It must be so, ''otherwise we would have the very strange feat of dead matter performing an act, a function." Moreover, if life comes from a reticular structure of some kind or other, and is merely a mode of motion, wdiat is more probable than that one of these little molecules in the gum, or in the stump of the limb, should come in col- lision with a molecule of the artificial appliance and thus generate a motion in it similar to, if not precisely the same as that of the molecule exciting such motion. This would be in harmony with the doctrine of "Epi- thelial infection" as a source of degradation in bio- plasm. and of wdiich we shall have more to say under the caption of "Disease Germs," which see. In the name of this beautiful reticulum, then, why do not the sterile eggs bring forth chicks '? Is it possible that the germinal matter of these sterile eggs "lives faster than in health, in consequence of being supplied with an undue proportion of nutrient material, a morbid bio- plasm results; and if the process continues for a short time, changes familiar to those conversant with patho- logical alterations occur upon a large scale,"* sulphur- etted hydrogen gas, for example? "A doctrine assert- ing that by continual retrogression through ages, the * Beale on Disease Germs, pp. 115,116. 98 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. descendents of the highest forms would gradually de- teriorate until their only remaining representatives were monads, would not be very easily disproved, and might be supported by many ingenious arguments. It is a view that doubtless would recommend itself to many minds in the present day."* Certainly! Just so long as authorities persist in regarding the Germinal Spot as the true representative particle from which the en- tire organism is to be evolved, and regard the Sperma- tozoa as merely a "fertilizing substance," just that long will some men conclude that "It is obviously possible that there should be infinite advance and infinite retro- gression in multitudes of parallel lines, as it were, without the resulting forms of any one line becoming identical with those of another."* This would destroy the Law of conformity to type, but what do these men care for one of Nature's most rigid Laws when it stands in the way of a great theoretical and practical proposition which constitutes the therapeutical basis of their system ? Given certain definite elements, however, in certain definite quantities, and chemistry must of necessity pro- duce a definite resultant compound, in obedience to the law of conformity to type, whether it be a chick, sul- phuretted hydrogen gas, or whatsoever it may be. The difference in result could not have been due to "a too rapid increase of the living or germinal matter" in the sterile eggs, leading to "changes familiar to those con- versant with pathological alterations," such as inflamma- tion, etc., since they were not even enriched by the ad- dition of a "fertilizing substance," as was the fecun- dated eggs. If all tissues are due to the operation of external cir- cumstances, and the properties of the mere matter of * Beale on Disease Germs, pp. 115,116. BIOGENESIS. 99 the body, then surely these sterile eggs should have brought forth chicks also, urtless the fertilizing sub- stance actually differed in elemental character from any- thing contained within these eggs - which we know it did not. Moreover, it is very evident that these eggs should have hatched chicks also, whatever view we may take of this question of vitality, providing the germinal spot is the true source of. every cell, tissue, and organ of the entire body, since any change in nutritive powers and formative capacities in the process of growth and multiplication must, therefore, be due to external cir- cumstances, and these external circumstances were pre- cisely the same in all these eggs now under considera- tion- except that some were supplied with a minute quantity of "fertilizing material" while others were not. Why do not the sterile eggs hatch chicks, then, instead of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, bacteria, bacilli, etc ? What could be more probable than that these ex- ternal circumstances, so often adverted to, have to do directly and specifically with the nutritive materials, at the expense of which these living germinal spots grow and multiply ? Indeed, if chemistry be the organizing energy, we cannot escape this conclusion, since the laws of chemistry are fixed and definite, and in the aggrega- tion of chemical atoms to form cells of beautiful reticu- lar structure as a home for molecular motion to cut up her antics in, it is evident that the resultant product must be the algebraic sum of all the elements entering into such compound. If this "fertilizing substance" was not identical in material constitution with the germinal spot itself, we might attribute the difference in result, therefore, to the absence of this matter. Or, on the other hand, if it was the fertilized eggs that suffered "infinite retrogression in multitudes of parallel lines," and thus produced sul- 100 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY phuretted hydrogen gas, etc., instead of the sterile eggs, we could exclaim, in harftiony with the whole tendency of modern thought, ' ' The cheesy inflammations and suppurations of numerous membranes elaborate a poison which, when absorbed, produces tubercle"-instead of chicks. That is to say, "tubercle bacilli" result in con- sequence of the living reticulum having been excited into such tumultuous molecular gyrations by the pres- ence of this fertilizing material - this increase of nu- trient matter -as to have actually caused the molecules to separate, even without the lessening or removal of the external pressure, and thus to destroy the beautiful reticulum. That is to say: They lived too fast, or in other words they moved over too great a distance and at too great a velocity to permit the network to remain intact. Why did not the fecundated eggs suffer this change, then, in harmony with the degradation of bio- plasm doctrine, and the sterile eggs escape such an in- finite retrogression in parallel lines, seeing that they also possessed a well-marked germinal spot respectively, and were not exposed to the degrading influence of too much pabulum, nor to that of septic poisoning incident to the subcutaneous injection of the fertilizing element, as the others were ? We have no assurance whatever that any special precautions were taken to obviate such a catastrophe in the fecundating process; and hence, in the light of "the whole tendency of modern thought" relative to this very subject, it seems to me that this question is extremely pertinent, and that we would hardly be justified in calling such a question an utter absurdity, a "physiological superstition." "It is now regarded as an axiom that function de- pends upon structure, and that disease is the result of altered structure," reticular, he means, of course. Well, nutrition is the one pre-eminent function of all living BIOGENESIS. 101 matter, and only approximatively equaled by that of or- ganic change or conformity to type. Are we to take it for granted, therefore, that after chemistry has built up this magnificent intra-cellular and intra-nuclear net- work of fibrils, the molecular gyrations, which we "for want of a better term, have called vital force." are liable to become so tumultuous as to endanger the con- tinued existence of this beautiful reticulum as such, and thus to engender disease and death ? Surely noth- ing else can tend so strongly to produce disease and death as the separation of these little molecules of which this reticulum is composed ; and in the light of past experience, what is more likely to prevent such impetuous molecular gyrations, such excessive vital ac- tion, such exalted functional activity as the most viru- lent poisons ? It has been fully demonstrated that a subcutaneous injection of "elixir of life" will not do it. Moreover the fecundated eggs had some such an injec- tion and yet they hatched chicks. An injection of a "glycerine pure culture of tubercle bacilli," if shot through a German aceptic rubber-bulb hypodermic syringe, has been thought to effect a cure of infinite retrogression in multitudes of parallel lines, but unfor- tunately these sterile eggs had no such injections. Have we, then, discovered the reason for this perplex- ing difference at last ? No. The rooster had not yet learned of this new fake, and hence the fecundated eggs had no such German solicitude either. We will, therefore, take it for granted that the old hen, "from a priori reasoning was predisposed to accept" no such questionable responsibility as to attempt to hatch chicks out of eggs which had not been duly fecundated, and hence she refused to turn them over at regular inter- vals, as she did the others. Nor do I think any chari- tably disposed individual will feel inclined to seriously 102 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. blame the old hen. in view of all the premises, even if the Germinal Spot was there, and notwithstanding the fact that she did thus cheat the chemical integrative energy out of a due and continuous admixture of the elements necessary to the proper composition of the re- ticular structure. Evidently the hen possessed an intui- tive sense of what was right and proper, in harmony with the "whole tendency of modern thought," namely, that life, mind, memory, thought, reason come from or- ganization, and she felt no disposition to aid chemistry in the organic process, farther than to supply a little heat, after having been so shamefully cheated out of her natural rights. Is this a species of "physiological superstition," or an utter absurdity? If so, I am cer- tainly not to blame, for I have striven, as best I knew how, to be consistent with the whole tendency of mod- ern thought, and we are told that "It is scarcely prob- able that we have reached the initial point in biology, which a .structureless protoplasm must of necessity form. It will not answer the demands of morphological growth, and hence we must look yet further back for the starting point of organic genesis. Therefore, a structureless .sarcode, or one containing but independent granules, seems an utter absurdity."-Dr. Barrett, in Transactions A. S. M., 1882. Back of a structureless sar code, forward to a reticulum of some kind, as we have already quoted him as saying. If Bioplasm really does possess a reticular structure as taught by Heitzman and others, or indeed if it pos- sesses a structure of any kind whatsoever, then there is absolutely no possible escape from the conclusion that the physical theory of life is correct. And if the almost universally accepted doctrine that the germinal spot is the representative particle out of which all the tissues, organs and structures ultimately come to exist as com- BIOGENESIS. 103 ponent parts of the animal economy, be true, then we are logically compelled to endorse the dynamic theory of physics, and hence the physical theory of life also. We nowhere see phenomena peculiarly characteristic of vital energy except in Bioplasm primarily, and secon- darily, phenomena may be manifest in the structures which have resulted in consequence of formative change taking place in the Bioplasm. If, however, there al- ready exists a structure of any character in Bioplasm, then there could be no farther organic change so long as this structure exists as such, and to destroy or dis- integrate it in order to integrate the matter anew would be to destroy life, in harmony with this theory. If any one is disposed to doubt the correctness of this propo- sition let him attentively examine the wood-cut, as copied in various works from Klein and Smith, and he will have his doubts dispelled. Suppose we maintain this view, then, for the present, that from a single mass of undifferentiated Bioplasm - the Germinal Spot - is derived ultimately all the var- ious tissues and structures of the human body, or the body of the chick; then I ask, What determined the difference that so evidently obtains in the different tis sues, structures and organs of the perfected organism ? Bioplasm is universally the same in all its physical and chemical properties, so far as we can determine with all the means at our command, whether this sup- posed network has an existence in fact or not. Please to keep this constantly in mind. The matter being the same, then, the difference in vi- tal resistive power, in nutritive and formative capacities, (admitting that this latter obtains), must be due to a difference in the force per se. You cannot convert gold into silver, nor can you convert any one of the primary elements into another. If force or energy has a real 104 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. substantial atomic existence, it would be just as impos- sible to convert one kind of energy into another as it is to convert gold into silver, or vice versa. This view of vital energy would provide for that rigidity in the law of conformity to type w7hich so universally obtains throughout the organic kingdom, but it would utterly fail to account for the development of the different tis- sues and organs of a complex body out of a single un- differentiated mass of bioplasm. We see, therefore, that if- the Germinal Spot really constitutes the representa- tive particle out of which is evolved the entire organism of the chick, or any other animal, then the Dynamic theory of physics and the Physical theory of life must both be true. There is no escape from this conclusion, since the matter* being universally the same, whatever difference there may be in other respects must be due to a difference in the energy per se, and for this to be susceptible of change it must be motion ; and as this peculiar motion is never observed to obtain in any other kind of matter than bioplasm, we must have this form of matter pre-existing before wTe can have such peculiar and characteristic motion. There is, therefore, but two sides to this question ; namely, does life come from or- ganization, or does organization come from life ? If the first proposition be true, then organization is the result of physical integration, and life is motion since you can- not generate anything substantial. If the latter propo- sition be true, then life is substantial since a material effect cannot be produced without a substantial cause-- from nothing, nothing comes. Moreover, fixed and defi- nite results in obedience to the law of conformity to type cannot obtain without the existence of a substantial and unchangeable cause. Dr. Beale says: "I have showm that even with the aid of the highest powers of the microscope no difference can be discerned betwmen bio- BIOGENESIS. 105 plasm from the cell or elementary part of the highest organism at any age or period of development, and bio- plasm of which the lowest simplest being in existence is composed. A minute particle of germinal matter of an amoeBa could not be distinguished from a portion of pus or mucous corpuscle, or white blood corpuscle, etc. * * * It will probably strike many as very remarka- ble that the highest magnifying powers hitherto placed at our disposal serves but to convince us that a minute particle of bioplasm of the most malignant tumor, or the most rapidly growing pus corpuscle, resembles in every particular that we can ascertain by observation or experiment, a minute particle of healthy living bio- plasm, from the blood or from any tissue, and it is proved beyond a doubt by the same means of inquiry, that the living particles of bioplasm in vaccine lymph cannot be distinguished from those present in normal lymph or chyle. In short, that no difference exists in color, form, density, chemical composition, or movements, between living particles producing the most different substances (formed material). I think we shall find ourselves compelled by the necessities of the case to re1 fer the properties of these different substances to what must be termed a difference in vital power." - Disease Germs, p. The magnifying power used by him was a one-fiftieth objective - a power so great "that to see a hair in its entire width under this power would ap- pear to be nearly one foot in diameter," but not suffi- ciently great to show any kind of structure whatever in any mass of bioplasm, as he has repeatedly affirmed in his various works. If the reader has carefully followed us in the presen- tation of facts and arguments thus far, and has duly weighed the above statement of facts by Dr. Beale in all its bearings, I think he will be strongly inclined to 106 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the opinion that the only reason why the sterile eggs failed to hatch chicks wTas simply because the germinal spot had not the vital power or substantial energy nec- essary to conform to type all or any of the contents of such eggs, or, in other words, to produce all or any of the formed products entering into the composition of the body of the chick. If he has obtained biological information sufficient to comprehend the import of the plainest teachings of this branch of medical science, he must conclude that the Germinal Spot had not the nu- tritive capacity even to appropriate or assimilate the kind of pabulum of which the egg was composed, even after it had been properly disintegrated by heat. If he will let his mind go back in its search after truth to the time when the mother herself was but a mass of embryotic matter, and trace the developmental process upwards to the full period of organic maturity, he will discover that there was a time in the history of such developmental change when egg substance itself could not be then produced, because the nutritive environ- ments necessary to such rapid grow'th and formative change' did not fully obtain. He will discover that it was necessary first that certain so-called vegetative bio- plasts should take up the proximate principles, convert- ing them into their own substance, and subsequently through disintegrative change elaborate pabulum for all the higher forms of Bioplasm, including those concerned in the generative process in both the male and the fe- male. * After such a course of scientific investigation he will be convinced, I think, that the Germinal Spot has not the peculiar vital nutritive power nor formative capacity to produce any results beyond that which it has fully accomplished in the production of the egg-substance * See Lecture III. BIOGENESIS. 107 proper, in which it is embedded, and which was at one time the same as the Germinal Spot yet remaining. This Germinal Spot is the remains, then, of the Bioplasm which grew at the expense of the blood plasma with which it was supplied while in the graffian vesicle or follicle, and as the mechanical pressure due to the growth of the Bioplasm, and finally the accumulation of its formative products increased, it naturally resulted in diminished nutritive supply first, then formative change, with the result just indicated, and ultimately to a rup- ture of the follicle, the discharge of its contents, in- cluding the remains of the Bioplasm concerned in pro- ducing the egg-substance, and which alone was able to maintain its bioplastic character under such a cumula- tive reduction of nutrient supply. Had the supply of pabulum been wholly cut off previous to the rupture of the follicle and the discharge of the egg, it is doubtful if even the Germinal Spot would have remained un- formed. The Germinal Spot, or the Bioplasm represented therein, can produce egg-substance, provided the proper supply of pabulum and other necessary environments obtain, and it can produce nothing else of an organic character whatever. It is absolutely essential that we get this Germinal Spot question thoroughly settled in accordance with the eternal truths of nature if we ever hope to have a scientific basis for our therapeutical superstructure. If, then, it be true that "The ovum is merely a simple nucleated cell, or collection of proto- plasm, and the spermatozoa disappear when they have accomplished their mysterious function," and if it be true that "All the complicated changes by which the various intricate organs of the whole body are formed from one simple cell may be reduced to two general processes-viz., segmentation or clevage of cells, and 108 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. their differentiation," as Gray states in his work on Anatomy, p. 94. I say if both these propositions be true, then the doctrine of the Degradation of Bioplasm, by virtue of "Epithelial Infection" or a "too rapid in crease of the living or germinal matter" is also true, and calls for the administration of our "most virulent poisons " in order to arrest such regressive changes, or at least some very material modifications in the Physio - Medical philosophy. The fact, however, that even the very highest powers of the microscope fail to reveal any difference in the physical and chemical characters of bioplasm, or in their wonderful and peculiar movements either - as for that matter - shows that the above propositions are false, or else that the phrase-"Degradation of Bio- plasm"- is synonymous with a change in the energy or the conversion of one mode of motion into another mode of motion. If these modes of motion are identi- cal with those of inorganic nature, which one of the latter modes of motion produces egg substance, which one liver substance, and which one the brain substance of such philosophers as "the greatest living authority on physics"? Don't you see that you are just as cer- tainly compelled to attribute the difference in organic results obtained to a difference in the integrative en- ergy as are those who regard vital force as substan- tial ? Is this mysterious function spoken of above really due to the subcutaneous injection of chemical energy, electrical energy, or some one or more of these Dy- namic ghosts - simiUa similibus curanter ? It is said: "In oviparous animals, such as most fishes and reptiles and all birds, the young animal was well known to be formed from an egg produced by the female; while in the viviparous species, or those which bring forth their young alive, as certain fishes and rep- BIOGENESIS. 109 tiles and all mammalians, the embryo was supposed to originate in the body of the female in consequence of sexual intercourse. But by the aid of the microscope, as em- ployed in the examination of the different organs and tissues, it was subsequently found that in mammalians also the ovaries contain eggs." - Dalton's Physiology, p. 703. I am unable to put any other construction upon the language just qudted than that the supposition that the embryo originated in the body of the female in conse- quence of sexual intercourse was subsequently found to be erroneous upon discovering, by the aid of the micro- scope, that the mammalian ovaries contain eggs also. I trust I have not done the advocates of the doctrine of degradation of bioplasm an injustice in arriving at this conclusion. Such is surely the import of the language made use of, and their writings are replete with state- ments essentially founded in and based upon this very conception of embryology. And this doctrine of embry- ology is just as essentially founded upon the dynamic theory of physics, and the physical theory of life, as everyone must confess who has any regard for truth and consistency. Now, we know very well that if the eggs which were laid away for future use were subjected to the incubat- ing process, the result would be the same as in the case of those submitted to the care of the hen, as also to the care of the man who presided over the artificial incubator; the fecundated eggs would hatch chicks, while the sterile eggs would hatch ''infinite retrogres- sion in multitudes of parallel lines," sulphuretted hydro- gen gas, etc., notwithstanding the fact that in every in- stance there was present a germinal spot, which was in part at least" just as truly living Bioplasm in the sterile eggs as it was in the others. We know that there was 110 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. not one iota of difference in ' ' the operation of external circumstances, and the properties of the mere matter of the body" primarily. We know that Heat was neces- sary to produce or rather to superinduce the changes effected in every instance in which change took place, and hence that Heat is neither life per se, nor a gener- ator of either life or chemical energy. We know that chemical energy is neither life nor a generator of life, if these experiments teach anything, and that being an integrative energy it cannot become a disintegrative energy per se. If, therefore, we concede the existence of a reticular structure in Bioplasm, as so many speculative medical men seem disposed to do, and that life energy inheres in this structure and not. in the unorganized substance, we must also concede that the suppositious fact that the embryo originated in the body of the mammalian female in consequence of sexual intercourse is indeed fallacious, since such a network of fibrils could only or- iginate in the body of the female, male, or any other body or mass of matter, as the direct and legitimate result of Chemical Intercourse. And since the primary elements entering into the composition of Bioplasm is the same, and Chemistry is fixed and definite in all her operations and results, there can be no such thing as either structural or func- tional differentiation, unless it be a change in motion, and this means a change in energy in accordance with a dynamic hypothesis. Why, then, did not the sterile eggs hatch chicks ? It seems very certain that the Chemical Intercourse in those placed in the incubator, at least, was full and complete. "I think we shall find ourselves compelled by the necessities of the case to refer the" different results obtained in the two classes of eggs "to what must be termed a difference in vital BIOGENESIS. 111 2jower." And since the movements of the various kinds of Bioplasm, from whatever source obtained, was found to be the same under the highest powers of the micro- scope, we are also compelled to refer the difference in vital power to something else than a difference in move- ment. This statement of the learned microscopist does not refer to the movements of the mass as such, but to the movements constantly going on in every part of the mass so long as its plasticity and vital integrity are maintained. The change of form or shape, and the movements from place to place can only occur in naked living mat- ter, and those movements vary constantly in direction, and in the frequency of recurrence, even in the same mass of Bioplasm; but the motions referred to take place in all living Bioplasm, and is precisely the same everywhere, whether they be enclosed in a cell-wall or limiting membrane or not. When thus enclosed change of shape and movement from place to place is of neces- sity impossible, but the movements referred to do man- ifest themselves continuously so long as their life lasts, as every microscopist worthy of the name knows full well. But even granting that a difference in motion of par- ticles so minute as to be invisible under the highest powers of the microscope does take place, this could in no wise effect a change in the formative products, nor could it be the motion referred to, since the matter that we are dealing with is not some imaginary luminiferous ether, but it, its motions, and all its subsequent products are visible under the microscope. Surely no one who is compos mentis will suppose that the molecules of which the mass is composed can be hopping around in a direction or directions different from the motions of the minutely visible particles of the mass of which 112 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. these molecules are the components. Moreover. "New- ton seemed to consider that the molecules might be ren- dered visible by microscopes; but of atoms he appears to have entertained a different opinion. 'It seems im- possible,' he says, 'to see the more secret and noble works of nature within the corpuscles, by reason of their transparency.'"-Tyndall, Heat a Mode of Motion, p. 471. One would hardly expect to see a molecule of nitro- gen, oxygen, hydrogen, etc., when he cannot even see water, ammonia, or other such perfectly transparent compound under the microscope. But who shall say that those exceedingly minute dark granules seen in all kinds of bioplasm are not actually molecules of carbon ? Was Newton a visionary fool, that he should have thought such a thing possible ? I think not; but, on the contrary, he was one of the most accurate, pains- taking and conscientious investigators that the world ever knew, and had his deductions and conclusions in many instances been adhered to instead of the visionary speculations of much less able thinkers, the dynamic theory would not be held and advocated today. Yes, I think he was correct in his conclusions in so far as opaque molecules are concerned. Now, this supposed network of fibrils is said to have been seen by only two individuals, I believe, and they and their followers place the home of the vital energy in this reticulum, as we have fully shown, hence this motion must be the kind of motion that is visible, since one of these two men who claim to have actually seen this structure, used only a quarter-inch fourth-rate objective; and the other-Dr. Heitzman himself-only claims to have used a one-tenth immersion lens. He says: "The lens for seeing the structure of Protoplasm must be a first-class 1-10 Immers., such as I use, of Verick's, Hartnack's, R-7 BIOGENESIS. 113 Grunow's and Tole's manufacture." This statement vir- tually discredits the testimony of the quarter-inch ob- jective gentleman, but it does not destroy the fact that if life, etc., comes from organization, this structure must have an existence, and must have been produced by chemical energy. What shall we say, then; shall we accept the unsupported statement of Dr. Heitzman as conclusive ? Or shall we give credence to such men as Beale, with his much higher power; Lester Curtis, with his prescribed 1-10 and 1 16; Dr. George E. Fell, with his 1-16; Dr. Up de Graff, with his 1-12; Dr. J. O. Still- son, a student of Heitzman, and who, using all the ap- pliances of the latter, and under the immediate instruc- tion of this same reputed discoverer of such reticulum, wTas totally unable to see it ? Were it thought necessary, or,even desirable, I could give a list of names of the most eminent microscopists that the world ever produced, and show by their own statements that not one of them had ever been able to see any kind of structure in Bioplasm, even with much higher powers than those used by Heitzman, and I chal- lenge anyone to present the statement of a single micro- scopist of any reputation whatever wTho claims to have seen any kind of structure normally existing in Bioplasm as a part of its substance, except the two referred to, and one of these two, made the irreparable mistake in very early life of not having been born in some "for- rin counthry," and hence his testimony is of no real value. And when I come to think of it, I am really as- tonished that he was born at all, if there is any truth whatever in the above doctrine of embriology, since "The last change which occurs in the ovarian egg, and that which indicates its complete maturity, is the disap- pearance of the germinative vesicle,"-spot and all, I presume, and thus leaves nothing to germinate and 114 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY grow, even if abundantly supplied with fertilizing mater- ial. Of course we could hardly expect an immature egg to germinate and grow, but mature eggs, with their germinal vesicle and spot perfectly intact, and so richly supplied with pabulum as the germs of the hen egg seem to be, makes us think it strange that the sterile eggs did not hatch chicks, in view of all the premises, since the germless eggs of the mammalia, destitute of even a germinal vesicle - much more of the germinal spot-hatch an animal, even of the genus homo, provid- ing just a little fertilizing substance be present. This must have been a case of veritable Spontaneous Gener- ation due to chemical intercourse, since real Bioplasm would hardly be properly denominated "fertilizing sub- stance," seeing that living Bioplasm is a thing to be nourished and not a nutrient substance. Truly this fer- tilizing material does serve a most mysterious function in thus causing a thing destitute of even a germinal spot to actually germinate and grow. Can it be possible that, after all the a priori reason- ing, reticular predisposition and bioplastic degradation of these Germinal Spot doctrinarians to establish the dynamic theory of physics and physical theory of life, this mysterious function accomplished by the fertilizing substance really consists in the impregnation of the egg with about a dozen little bioplasts, each having its own distinctive vital power, its own special nutritive capacities, and its own peculiar formative characteris- tics ? Twelve little Apostles, all full of a living spirit, burnished with a living splendor, endowed with a power from above, and divinely commissioned to preach the gospel of regeneration to the world of formed material with which they are so "abundantly" surrounded, and out of which they shall build up the temple for the in BIOGENESIS. 115 dwelling of the Sentient Spirit. Any one possessing Dr. Beale's work on Disease of the Kidneys will find pictured a spermatozoon represented as containing about this number of distinct bioplasts, and the drawing was made under a magnifying power the same as mentioned above - the 1-50 objective. Moreover, he states in his work on Disease Germs, "That if from any circumstance the bioplasm which is to form a gland or other organ, or a member, is not produced, and does not occupy its proper place at the right period of developmental pro- gress, that gland, organ, or member will be wanting in the particular organism. "-Page 93. On page 113 of the same work he says: "Neither could one of these kinds of bioplasm in the adult develop a mass capable of pro- ducing the rest. Although no one could distinguish one particle from the other, each will produce its kind, and that alone. It would be as unreasonable to expect an amoeba to result from a pus-corpuscle, or from a yeast particle, or to suppose that by any alteration in food or management a cabbage would spring from a mustard seed, or the modern white mouse from the de- scendant of an ancestral white rabbit, as it would be to maintain that muscle, nerve, brain, gland, or other special tissue might be produced indiscriminately by any mass of bioplasm of the adult, supposing that the conditions under which it lived were changed to any possible extent. Its vital powers, which are within, and upon which the capacity to develop depends, cannot be thus changed by any mere alteration in external cir- cumstances." If this be true of the Bioplasm in the adult, then the dictates of common sense, as well as the facts of Na- ture, teach us that it must be true of every particle of living matter at every stage of its existence under every condition of environment. 116 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. The egg-substance is, therefore, the formative product of Bioplasm which "existed originally in the ovaries as a part of their natural structure.1" This Bioplasm increased at the expense of the blood-plasma supplied to it through the vascular network, and thus declared its nu- tritive capacities and limitations; otherwise it would not remain nutritively dormant in the presence of egg-sub- stance had it the power to use such as pabulum. Such a thing would be a direct violation of a universal law regarding nutrition and growth. Formative change su- pervened just so soon as an equilibrium or balance was obtained between supply and demand, whether this was brought about by mechanical pressure or otherwise. The constant increase of Bioplasm at the expense of the blood-plasma, together with the effusion of serum into the Graffian follicles - in mammalia - does bring about mechanical pressure, and thus diminish the supply of pabulum, and hence the constantly diminishing quantity of Bioplasm, until the follicle ruptures by virtue of such pressure, at which time the Bioplasm remaining is nec- essarily reduced to a very small mass, comparatively speaking, and is exactly proportionate in quantity to the relative amount of pabulum still flowing through the vessels at the time the rupture and discharge of the egg occurred. In producing the egg-substance the Bio- plasm declares its formative powers.- "By their fruits you shall know them." This Bioplasm can grow and increase rapidly at the expense of blood-plasma if supplied freely, but it can grow at the expense of nothing else, no difference how freely supplied, nor how appropriate this something else may be for some other kinds of Bioplasm. It can pro- duce just this peculiar character of formed material un- der the proper environments, and it can produce no other kind of formed material whatever. The environ- BIOGENESIS. 117 ments necessary to secure formative change in any kind of Bioplasm are such as will favor the establishment of an equilibrium between supply and demand on the one hand, and then, if the formed material is to constantly increase in quantity, the Bioplasm must just as con- stantly decrease relatively on the other hand, otherwise the heat evolved in the nutritive process would tend to disintegrate the older formed product. Rapidly and suddenly reducing the supply of pabulum very markedly leads to death and disintegration. The Germinal Spot, then, is nothing more nor less than the remains of Bio- plasm which was concerned in producing egg-substance, and having accomplished this, it has nothing more it can do in the economy of nature, unless its vitality be maintained, and it becomes a part of the new organism being builded up through the growth, multiplication, and formative changes of the twelve little apostles already mentioned, after which it may take up its abode in the ovaries - if there be such-as a female missionary to produce by growth and multiplication other egg-produc- ing bioplasts. From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, therefore, the Female performs no other procreative function than that pertaining to the supply of nutrient materials for the growth and multi- plication of the germinal matter derived from the Male. The only element contained in the spermatic fluid which is absolutely essential to the successful fecundation or impregnation of the egg is the Spermatozoa, as has been thoroughly proven by numerous experiments conducted with the most rigid care and impartiality. Spermatozoa the only substances contained in the fluid that manifest any evidence of life, and fecundation cannot take place, even under the most favorable circumstances otherwise, if these have lost their vitality. Each of these little bioplasts contained in a single 118 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. well-developed spermatozoon possesses its own individ- ual vital power, its own nutritive capacities and its own specific formative powers; and it is by virtue of this fact, together with the additional circumstance that the quantity of proper pabulum with which these bioplasts are supplied, that determines the rate of growth and multiplication of such Bioplasm, and which determines ultimately the occurrence and the order of the forma- tive changes taking place in the developmental process. It is in this way, and by virtue of these environments, that the regular relatively harmonious growth and mul- tiplication of the respective kinds of Bioplasm is pro- vided -for, and which so effectually secures conformity to type. "Even the very hairs of your head are num- bered,'' and numbered by the growth and multiplication, and finally formative change of Bioplasm, and the num- ber of these hair-producing bioplasts depends upon the amount of pabulum supplied them, and hence this latter circumstance determines the time when a balance be- tween the supply of pabulum at the expense of which the Bioplasm must increase, if increase it does, and the nutritive demand of the latter shall be obtained. The same is equally true of the liver and every other tissue and organ of the entire economy, and it is in this rigid way that conformity to type is provided for. The blood-plasma is a homogeneous mixture of all the so-called proximate principles. Some of the living elements of the animal body can only be nourished and grow at the expense of blood-plasma, or its equivalent incorporated in the egg. Other bioplasts, the hepatic, blood and lymphoid bioplasts, for example, live at the expense of the uncombined proximate principles; while still others must grow at the expense of the excremen- titious substances of the body, or their equivalents. The egg, together with its nutritive adjuncts in the case BIOGENESIS. 119 of mammalia, undoubtedly contains all these substances in proper combination to meet the nutritive demands of the specific bioplasts of the embryo, and in just the proper proportions to secure conformity to type. We know that the milk of a healthy mother contains all the essential ingredients in the proper combinations and relative proportions to meet the specific nutritive demands of the growing infant at her breast; and surely Nature would not be less diligent in caring for the embryo during all the allotted days of gestation. The laws of the physical universe, whether relating to questions of chemistry, of heat, of physiology or of embryology, are but rules of action, rigidly determined and governed by the combined and mutual relations of energy and matter - as must have been apparent when considering the laws of chemical affinity, cohesion and gravity, as explained in harmony with the Molecular Theory of Physics -a theory eminently consistent with all the facts and phenomena of nature. These ordinary forces or energies of the inorganic kingdom are rigid, definite and fixed in their spheres of acting and in the results accruing therefrom; surely vital energy is not less so in her sphere of acting and the results accruing therefrom. The pretended discov- ery of Dr. Heitzman was the result of an optical illu- sion, and has no real existence in fact, as any one can readily discover by the use of proper means and care in using such means to secure correct focal adjustment, and thus obviate " suitable conditions. " An article criti- cising this pretended discovery was furnished by me, and published in the Physio-Medical Journal in 1881, and this was the first time it had been adversely referred to in a public manner, so far as I have any knowledge of the matter. Subsequently a number of eminent micros- copists gave public testimony in support of my state- 120 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ment of facts. Having demonstrated beyond question, therefore, that no structure whatever obtains in Bio- plasm. proper, and that this matter is living matter -if so be that the Bios is still present-we feel assured that no kind of molecular motion could possibly pro- duce the phenomena characteristic of life energy; that the mere motion of the substance of Bioplasm could not effect the integration of pabulum to form more Bio- plasm, nor could such motion effect a still farther con- densation of this matter to form organic substance or structure, since the clashing of molecules - did such a thing occur-would tend to rarefy and not to condense the elements thus acted upon. We may exhaust the entire universe for good substantial evidence in support of the dynamic theory of physics and the physical theory of life, but all in vain. The facts are all the other wTay, and every effort to harmonize them with these theories, or to explain the phenomena of nature in harmony with such theories, leads only to inconsis- tencies, contradictions and confusions worse confounded. There is, therefore, no escape from the conclusion that Energij is Substantial, and consequently inconvertible. Heat energy is, therefore, substantial; occupies space, and if forced from one relative position in any quantity whatever by some condensing or integrative influence, it must find new quarters, effecting expansion - or what is virtually the same thing, increasing the total volume of the mass wherein it lodges in exact proportion to the quantity of heat thus displaced. Heat is expansive, disintegrative, and luminous. Magnetism may and does combine atoms to form mol- ecules, molecules to form homogeneous masses, and still acting as gravity to form worlds. Magnetism is inte- grative, but there is not one iota of evidence to show that it is either a generator of life or of exerting any BIOGENESIS. 121 of the peculiar functions of vital force. We are forced to conclude, therefore, that there is an integrative en- ergy which differs in many respects from either of the former, and is immeasurably superior to the latter in the diversity, beauty, functional powers and formative capacities which it manifests even in the lowest depths of the organic kingdom. This energy is likewise Sub- stantial, and is also triune in character, and may be sub- divided 'thus: 1. Vegetative energy. 2. Sentient energy. 3. Intellectual or Spiritual energy. It would be both interesting and instructive to inves- tigate these last two forms or subdivisions of vital en- ergy, if the nature and limits of this work would per- mit, but since such is not the case, we will confine our remarks mainly to questions relating to the vegetative system, only referring to the latter as occasion may de- mand in order to enforce the truths with which we are dealing more forcibly upon the mind. The vegetable world, which came into existence first, and which was necessary to supply the nutritive de- mands of the animal, possesses the first and lowest form of vital energy only; the animal world possesses the first and the second also; while man, ,the only living thing created in the Image of his Maker, and standing alone as the living representative of the crowning act of Creative Genius, is endowed with the attributes of a trinity of vital energies. There has not been created one single additional atom of either matter of energy since God breathed the breath of lives into Adam's nostrils, and he became a living soul, and yet we are asked to believe, by many would-be scientists, that vital energy is either a mere mode of motion, a property of the matter per se, or 122 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. else a real substantial something that had been all de- rived by direct descent and subdivision from the first earthly parent. The fact is, however, that w7e get our life energy from pre-existing life energy, just as we get our heat energy from pre-existing heat, our chemical energy from pre-existing chemical energy, and our ma- terial substance from pre-existing matter - notwithstand- ing the fact that this latter must have passed through the crucible of the vegetable sub-kingdom before we can use it. When the cow eats grass she gets all that the Living grass represents; and when she eats wheat she gets the starch, the gluten, the heat, the magnetism, and the vital energy then existing in the wheat. When we eat the cow we get all the material and all the "-imma- terial" substance therein contained. When we take a dose of sulphuric acid we get both its material sub- stance and its chemical energy - and it is the unsatis- fied portion or overplus of the latter that plays the mis- chief, and not the mere matter. When we take a dose of capsicum we get more than is merely represented by so much oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon - we get the very same vital energy which w7as concerned in integrating it, and it hastens the integrative process in us. "All life is not the same life," says the Apostle Paul, and this virtually means what Beale terms "a differ- ence in vital power." A very few such distinctive and specific forms of vital energy would if acting entirely independent of each other produce a few specific and simple forms of organic beings - microbes and such like bodies. By a union of two or more such forces, as we unite the letters of the alphabet in forming w7ords to express thought, an immense variety of form- ative products might be provided for, since two or more of these energies acting conjointly must of neces- BIOGENESIS. 123 sity produce results the algebraic sum of the combined influences. Nature is replete with evidence in support of this proposition, and Revelation says: "Work out your own soul's salvation with fear and trembling," conjointly with God, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." To those who believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, and who regard the Bible as a book of inspira- tion, let me say that it would be just as consistent w'ith the teachings of this Book to attribute the regenerating influence which worketh in us "to conform us to the image of His dear Son." to the mere properties of the matter of which our bodies are composed, as it is to at- tribute Natural Life to the mere properties of the Bio- plasm, since there is not even nearly so much difference naturally existing between the Bioplasm, per se, of the lowest fungus and that of the most intelligent human brain, as there is between any two men of even the same color of skin. Moreover, the Bioplasm is the same in material constitution whether living or dead,, active or dormant, growing or not, and hence whatever differences there may be found to exist must be due to the energy per se, and this leaves no room for any doubt as to the existence of such* an independent en- ergy as Vital Force. Ye must be born of the Spirit in order to become a living entity in the Spiritual King- dom ; and you must be born of animal life energy if you would gain the attributes of an animal. While having an abiding faith in the doctrines of the Christian religion, there is no one who has a higher re- gard for the truly conscientious agnostic or infidel, or who more utterly detests a hypocrite, let him pretend to whichever belief he may. To you who are honest in your doubts, then, I only wish to say that Nature and Revelation both testify to the same thing, and that tes- 124 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. timony is invariably in harmony with the views I am here advocating or promulgating, and two such truthful witnesses are better than one, in convincing the honest seeker after truth. Now, we know that many living things will maintain their vitality for months and even years, even under the most adverse environments ap- parently. We frequently hear of such circumstances as having occurred in the life history of frogs and other reptilia, and we are assured on the best of authority that a grain of wheat has been known to sprout and grow after having remained in a state of nutritive dor- mancy for a thousand years or more. It is also stated by men of undoubted honor and ve- racity that Rotifera, and some other forms of micro- scopic animalculm, may be heated in a dry oven to a point just a little short of actual burning, and then sub- jected to the most intense freezing mixture possible to produce, without even so much as destroying their vital integrity, since they quickly recover all their former vigor and vital activity on re-establishing their normal environments. Small-pox germs, as also those of scar- let fever, and even tubercle and syphilitic germs, may exist for long periods of time in a state of apparently suspended animation, and then suddenly or quickly spring into nutritive activity on being supplied with the proper environments necessary to secure such growth and multiplication. Boiling of hay and other organic infusions in hermetically sealed vessels to exclude the air, and maintaining them for several hours at this tem- perature, has been repeatedly practiced by biological investigators with a view to determine the truth or falsity of the doctrine of spontaneous generation. The fact that after every expedient known to science at that time in order to secure sterility was resorted to, yet ' ' life did appear inside in myriad quantity, led Bastian BIOGENESIS. 125 and others to conclude that it was spontaneously gener- ated. Tyndall, however, conclusively demonstrated sub- sequently that when the experiment was conducted in an atmosphere 'which under the high test of optical purity - the most delicate known test - was absolutely germless.' Here not a vestige of life appeared." Mr. Ballinger instituted a series of the most searching investigations in this direction, and found that many of the lower forms of life, both vegetable and animal, "could survive much higher temperatures than Dr. Bastian had applied to annihilate them." "Some germs almost refused to be annihilated - they were all but fire-proof." The vast majority of mankind are very much disposed to jump to conclusions upon insufficient premises, just as Dr. Bastian and many others did in the above in- stance ; and the entire superstructure of the physical theory of life rests upon just such a foundation as this, this being really its chief corner-stone. Agnostics should learn a lesson of meekness and hu- mility from the above experiments, and not assume that all others are ignorant of certain great spiritual truths simply because they imagine themselves in absolute possession of all things knowable in the domain of in- tellectual attainment, of which these fundamental truths constitute no part. These very experiments were first instituted in the supposed interests of the physical the- ory of life -Spontaneous Generation - but both Tyndall and Dallinger had a more exalted conception of the duty of the investigator, and their efforts were rewarded in the discovery of a great fundamental truth that is destined to bless mankind throughout time and eternity. These latter experiments prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the physical theory of life is absolutely false in every sense of the word, and that, therefore, Vital 126 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Energy - not being motion - must of necessity have a real, substantial, atomic existence (but not a molecular, and for the very same reason that heat and magnetism do not), and hence that Force and Matter are alike In- convertible and alike Indestructible. The doctrine of the conservation of energy is thus rendered a truism, just as certainly as the conservation of matter is, and without having to resort to the self-contradictory trans- mutation sophistry of the dynamic theory; and that too without being compelled to assign generative powers to the mere matter of the body, as is the case with this ancient hypothesis. Neither do we have to assign cre- ative powers to the energy itself, nor to any other spe- cial or specific energy; nor do we have to resort to the other extreme of illimitable attenuation of pre-exist- ing energy. In other words, it exists as such just as matter does, possesses its own specific properties just as matter does, occupies space just as matter does, and when caused to occupy a new place, space or position, it does so at the expense of (displacement of) other matter or substance, which must of absolute necessity cause other matter or substance to take up the position thus vacated, just as matter must operate. In a word, everything relative to such questions that may truth- fully be said of matter may also be said of substantia] energy - except that you must remember that these en- ergies are just as truly independent forms of energy as matter is independent one kind of another for its exist- ence as such, and that therefore heat energy cannot be affected by magnetic energy so as to form a new com- pound on the one hand, nor molecules of heat on the other hand. Neither can you have a union of any one or more of these energies with matter to form new compounds, but both vital and magnetic energy does act upon matter to form new combinations of matter, BIOGENESIS. 127 and you may thus have two or more elemental forms of matter together with all three forms of energy existing in the very same new compound, and if it is a living, organic compound, you do have them thus all present, But they Each Retain their own Distinct Identity as such Specific Forms of Substance - Properties and all - the oxy- gen remaining oxygen, hydrogen hydrogen, etc., and the heat remaining heat, the magnetic energy magnetic, and the vital energy vital, the combined physical result being the algebraic sum of the respective properties of the specific elements, each acting in its own independent sphere to produce the conjoint result, just as the letters of the alphabet do in the formation of a word, and words in the formation of a sentence. The same is substantially true with regard to the re- spective energies. If matter was not caused to move by the exertion of energy it would soon come to rest absolutely, and forever remain so. If there was no dis- integrative energy, magnetism would soon effect such a compact and rigid or frigid union of material substances as to forever forbid that any farther changes should oc- cur, and energy, while no less potential and no less ac- tive in holding matter in this embrace, would utterly cease to be manifest. If there was no vital energy nor magnetic energy to effect a disturbance in thermal equilibrium, heat would cease to be manifest for all time to come. It, like matter, would occupy space quietly and unresisted in precisely the same manner as would matter proper, and for the very same reason. If the substantial energies of the universe had a molecular ex- istence their substance could not gain access to the cav- ities of molecules, even if they could gain access to the intermolecular spaces -which they could not, in my opinion - and there could not therefore be any such thing as a disturbance of Equilibrium from any cause whatever. If heat could not be forced out of air by 128 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. compression, and through the walls of the containing vessel-which will not admit the passage of even the condensed molecules, then there is much more space un- occupied by any kind of substance whatever than there is thus occupied, otherwise no such condensation could be effected. The fact that heat will and does pass through the in- termolecular spaces of the steam-boiler, and many other containing vessels through which molecules cannot pos- sibly pass even under hundreds of pounds of pressure, proves that heat does exist substantially and in an atomic form. If a matter-vacuum could not be pro- duced, we might possibly be foolish enough to believe that heat is motion; while, on the other hand, if there could be produced a heat-vacuum - which there cannot - we might believe that heat had a molecular existence, or else that it was truly a mode of motion, and hence the heat-vacuum, because there, was present nothing to move. These, in connection with numerous other facts and unanswerable arguments - which will be given in a future work-convince me that vital energy, heat en- ergy, and all other forms of energy - if more than one other form exists-are all substantial and discretely atomic in character, and for this reason, and for no other, I make the distinction in the terms relative to the twTo classes of substances, calling the one material rather than "corporeal-substance''-for the sake of brevity, and the other substantial rather than "incor- poreal-substance" for the very same reason, and because it is just as truly substantial as is the former. It is a distinction without a difference as regards the substance per se, but it is a distinction with a difference that no accurate and concise writer would dispense with did he entertain the same views of energy, and energy as re- lated to matter as I do. R-8 BIOGENESIS. 129 And let me state in this connection, that all that was said above with regard to what would obtain in the universe of substance in the absence of either heat or magnetic energy, would apply with no less force of logic than it did in the line of argument above made use of, if substantial energy was corporeal, or if energy was a mode of motion. Taking it for granted, then, that this universe of ours is quite substantial and safe to inhabit, without much danger of being pelted hither and thither by molecular projections or atomic vibra- tions, we naturally conclude that neither 'boiling nor baking, tincturing nor triturating, nor in any other man- ner disintegrating or decomposing matter, renders any one of this great variety of substances any less sub- stantial than previously ; that we neither annihilate sub- stance nor generate force ; and that whenever we take food, drink, or drugs we get all there is therein con- tained both corporeal and incorporeal, and that without the matter there could be nothing for energy to act upon, hence it could NOT act, and without the energy present to act there could be nothing acted upon. If therefore there be present unsatisfied chemical affinities which can be gratified at the expense of any of the elements of the body, action will take place and new compounds of an inorganic character will result at the expense of the former compounds. If there be not a normal thermal equilibrium existing between the sub- stance taken as food, medicine or drink, and no other energy comes into operation to interfere with the re- sult, then the substance containing the greatest relative quantity of heat will, through the exertion of magnetic or chemical energy, part with such a proportion of its heat - the other substance receiving it-as will be necessary to establish a balance or an equilibrium be- tween the integrative energy or energies operating in 130 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the respective compounds - just as surely as water will seek its level. If boiling, and baking, and freezing, and thawing, and starving, and otherwise maltreating these lower forms of life - which even under the most favorable circum- stances retain their vital integrity for but a brief period of time - will not even destroy the composition of their little bodies, much less the vital energy with which they are endowed, surely we have no just cause to sus- pect that the higher forms of organic existences, and which naturally have a much longer lease of life, would succumb to such adverse influences any more readily. I do not mean to say by this statement that co-ordinate vitality can be maintained under such adverse condi- tions, since even manifest vitality ceases for many hours after these less complicated, and the very simple organ- isms have been thus treated, but so long as a particle of matter remains upon and through which life energy can operate, we know that life will show itself again in such previously existing organic unit. For instance, the muscles often retain their functional power of con- traction for many hours after co-ordinate vitality has ceased, and it is stated on reliable authority that the hair of the human body has been found to have grown quite several inches after the body has been laid away in the grave - a growth that must have required days and weeks of nutritive and formative activity to accom- plish. Destruction of the "physical basis of life - Bioplasm - no more implies the destruction of the vital integra- tive energy, or any other energy present, than it does of the material substances entering into the composition of Bioplasm, nor will such vital energy forsake its hab- itat just so long as there. is a particle of matter yet present in, through and upon which it can act. Any BIOGENESIS. 131 overplus of such vital energy formerly existing in such total mass of matter may and of necessity will be forced to seek new fields of action just in proportion to the degree to which the previous matter had been ren- dered incapable of being farther impressed by such en- ergy, or else such overplus of vital energy must exist in a state of absolute inertia so far as we can deter- mine. It is by virtue of this fact that incessant inter- change of a nutritive, formative and disintegrative char- acter is said to be essential to the maintenance of life, and this assumption is true in the main in so far as manifest life is concerned, just as it is equally true so far as manifest magnetic energy and heat energy is true. Let the chemical integrative energy cease in your furnace for the want of supply and instantly manifest chemical energy ceases also, and as soon as a thermal equilibrium - or what virtually amounts to the same thing, as soon as a balance is obtained between the var- ious existing degrees of force operating to maintain molecular forms and compounds - just that soon will manifest heat cease to exist as such. When we ingest beans, or beef-steak, or other natural food substance, we are adding to our bodies both cor- poreal and incorporeal substances precisely the same in all respects as that of which our bodies largely consist. The life energy which integrated the beef-steak is sub- stantial and hence indestructible, and is simply not man- ifest because the physical basis through which it alone can manifest itself is somewhat changed - having lost its susceptibility of being farther moulded from some cause or other. We render the material susceptible of being moulded again by disintegrating it, and as the vi- tal integrative energy has served its apprenticeship in muscular building and likes the business very much, it is not probable that it will attempt liver or kidney 132 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. building, since it doesn't like either of the substances used for pabulum by these organs in the first place, and would be sure to forget and spin out muscle even if it should conclude to change its diet. If it were a mere question of motion, the oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon atoms and molecules might possibly forget and make a wrong movement in the dance of life occasion- ally and cut a sorry figure in the cotillion, but being a question of work and grub they are compelled to stick to their own line of work or starve. I do not find myself in harmony with "the whole ten- dency of modern thought" even in this question of pab- ulum, and hence you need not think it remarkably strange should I refuse to believe that the vile concoc- tions, elaborated by the learned Chemists of the various pharmaceutical institutions of the land, are not so very much superior in disintegrative capacity, solubility, in nutritive properties or in vitalizing qualities or quanti- ties as to actually cause Nature-after these centuries of experience in this special line of work - to pro- foundly blush for shame, even if she does make a hog, a potato or a tomato occasionally for something more than mere amusement. It is entirely useless to boil water to thus destroy any kind of supposed disease germs that can possibly live, grow and multiply under such environments, since even if it were thus possible to kill them, you cannot get rid of their pabulum in this way, and it is to the latter that the water or other such fluid owes its dele- terious qualities - their pabulum consisting essentially of decomposing organic substances, including animal pto- maines. And it is one of the greatest wonders in the world to me that men of average intelligence do not have sufficient discriminative judgment to recognize this very palpable fact. They ransack both kingdoms of nature 133 BIOGENESIS. for "microbe killers'' to destroy the microscopic buz- zards of the land, and thus interfere with the conserva- tive operations of the laws of nature for the preserva- tion of the higher organisms in two directions; namely, preventing them from rendering things deleterious, harmless, and by the destruction of their bodies render- ing that which is organized and fitted for the nutrition of animal forms unfit for anything but a new crop of the same little buzzards to grow at the expense of. These little microbes would be far more beneficial as food, if they had previously exhausted their own sup- ply of pabulum measurably, than the concoctions above mentioned, and the smallest one that ever existed would tend to recuperate the vital energy of a debilitated man more than all the inorganic substances thus far admin- istered by the entire fraternity of poison givers as rem- edial agents or otherwise. When you eat a mess of boiled beans your brain and nervous system are recu- perated in both organic substance and in vital energy. Let these microbe seekers and Toxadministers eat beans for a few years - if necessary, and let the little microbes have a certificate to practice in their own field of pro- phylactic medication, and hold me personally and crim- inally responsible for all evil results following. To the pharmaceutists I would say: "Ye offer pol- luted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee ? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible."-Malachi, I, 7. To those who are such "cabbage heads" as to suppose that they can be nourished and energized at the expense of the inor- ganic kingdom directly, either by using such substances as food or medicine, let me say: "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread ? and your la- bour for that which satisfieth not ? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."-Isaiah, V, 2. 134 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. If, however, your real position in the scale of crea- tion be that of the toacbstool, then stick to inorganic nature - that is just where you really belong. But if you have even sentient energy in degree sufficient to afford the necessary amount of instinct to choose your food and medicine from the organic kingdom, which most animals - all but man in fact-do, then in the name of science don't degrade yourself to the level of the vegetable kingdom, which has neither sentient nor spiritual energy. When the Lord Jesus Christ said: "I am the bread of life," something more than pabu- lum for "cabbage heads" was involved in the expres- sion. He came not to destroy; was in fact no allo- pathic, homeopathic nor eclectic doctor; but He "came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly." Life is not nor can it be evolved from that in which it was not involved. It takes something more than a stone to evolve a mouse, and it takes something more than a dose of antifebrine to evolve intellectual energy, or even sentient energy, whether administered HOT or cold. Heat, though substantial, and very energetic in its special sphere of action, is not the thing. He specially came to administer in greater abundance, since the scientific object in view was not to expand the human family even a very little more - they were too much puffed up already - and nothing but an Al- mighty condensing energy could effect the displacement of this superabundance of heat energy which was work- ing their disintegration and organic ruin. See Malachi, IV, 1. Conformity to type was the effect desired.'and in the absence of the necessary integrative energy to ef- fect such result, we must in the very nature and con- stitution of things get the full disintegrative effect of heat, not having the life-force wherewithal to resist or- ganic disintegration. See Animal Heat, Chapter IV. BIOGENESIS. 135 A scientific statement of fact is just as good and effect- ual in elucidating occult questions and educating the mind, when obtained from one source as another, and if nothing but an Almighty squeeze will suffice to increase the mental powers of some men, rest assured the author of this work will not hesitate to pray for such Divine aid. We observe no diminution of vital energy as a result of the rapid growth and multiplication of Bioplasm, not- withstanding the fact that heat is thus evolved in the same relative degree, and soon dissipated or rendered latent in effecting the disintegration of the outer or de- vitalized portion of the cells of the body with which it comes in contact. We know that this could not be the case on the one hand if life is a mode of motion, and susceptible of being converted into "heat motion," nor could it be the case on the other hand if the vital en- ergy was thus attenuated. We are thus more and more impressed with the great and sublime truth that Infin- ite Harmony "in multitudes of parallel lines" exists in the two great witnesses - Nature and Revelation. We are taught by both that to give life more abund- antly on the one hand, is to contribute to the receiver that which he did not before possess in all its fullness and completeness. The vegetable must obtain its life energy from pre-existing life energy, just as it must ob- tain its material substance from pre-existing material substance. The animal must obtain both its vegetative energy and material substance from the organic king- dom. Their sentient energy, as also the Spiritual, must be obtained from their proper source of supply - whatever their nature may be. It is not the grosser but the more refined substances that are appropriated by the animal from the vegetable kingdom - those substances 136 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. that are susceptible of being conformed to type, are plastic, mouldable. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return; and the spirit to God who gave it." We are dealing with infinite harmony "in multitudes of parallel lines," and hence, if life energy is appropriated and lifted up, and subjected to the purposes and control of the higher life in the one case, then the law of har- mony of design, and unity of conception and plan, es- sentially demands and involves the same thing in the other case. And the very fact that matter is so lifted up and subjected to the purposes and control of the higher organism, and after having served its full pur- poses and functions in the economy, returns to its mother dust, involves the other conceptions also in har- mony with this same law. Vegetable remedies do not owe their therapeutical value entirely, or even chiefly to the material substance of which they are composed, but whatever of specific value they may have must be due to the substantial vi- tal energy which they possess in a latent form. The primary elements entering into their composition is so nearly universally the same that it would be very fool- ish for us to expect peculiar and specific characteristic differences in therapeutic results from materials and compositions the same. It is \ true, the organic composition does differ one from another, but the real molecular composition does not, and hence there can be no great difference in re- sult from this material effect, or rather cause, since they cannot perform the functions due to the operations of energy, but must subserve a nutritive purpose only. They cannot be used, or even obtain entrance through the walls of the alimentary canal previous to disinte- grative change, and this virtually reduces them all to the same state of fluid combination that obtains in the BIOGENESIS. 137 case of other nutrient substances, and this is the only real value they have outside of the latent vital and heat energy which they may possess. They do not contain precisely the same quantity of proximate principles in organic combination, and hence they must have dis- tinctive food values as related to the respective tissues and organs of the body, and where the composition of any substance is organically identical, or even approxi- mately so, to that of any special tissue or organ of our own bodies, we would naturally infer that the vital en- ergy which integrated the former could be made use of as an instrument in the hands of our own Potter-so to speak - in the special work of organic integration in such specific tissue or organ. Some substances contain a much larger proportion of latent heat relatively than others, and in the process of bioplastic and formative integration this heat is rendered sensible, and thus be- comes susceptible of being used in the work of disinte- gration in effecting the secretions and excretions. Now, inorganic substances cannot be used by the ani- mal kingdom as food, and hence even the latent heat they contain cannot contribute to the physiological pur- poses of the economy in the least possible degree, but on the contrary absolutely takes heat from the tissues themselves, in order to the establishment of a thermal equilibrium, and thus tends to reduce the disintegrative changes of the entire body to the same relative degree, and consequently not only lowers the temperature but diminishes or suppresses the secretions and excretions of the body. They possess neither food value, then, nor thermal value, and being destitute of vital integra- tive substance even, they possess no physiological, remedial, reparative, conservative, secretive, excretive, eliminative or other value whatsoever, except their chemical integrative value. If there be an abnormal 138 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. acidity of the contents of the stomach or alimentary canal, we prescribe alkalines because of their peculiar chemical value. And we expect to obtain a new com- pound or compounds - at the expense of pre-existing compounds. If we administer such agents for any other purpose whatever than for that of their chemical affini- ties, we manifest a lack of judgment and professional discretion that is lamentable to say the least. And if we give such agents for any other purpose than to neutralize, or otherwise render harmless substances ab- normally existing in or upon the economy to which we administer, we ought to be compelled by law to experi- ment upon ourselves with such agent or agents until we either succumb physically to such chemical influence or else learn to know their true relation to the human economy. The law of conformity to type is by no means confined to the organic kingdom, as is evident, for example, from the fact that if alcohol be brought in contact with Bioplasm from every possible source, the type of the new compound is universally the same. Why this difference in result between the operations of vital energy on the one hand and chemical energy on the other hand ? There is but one form .of chemical energy, however much it may vary in strength of affin- ity in different primary elements, and that energy is Magnetism. The difference in type of resultant chemi- cal compounds, therefore, must depend wholly upon a difference in either the relative quantities or in the quality, or both, of the primary elements entering into such new chemical product. Now, alcohol possessing a definite material and substantial constitution, and Bio- plasm being the same in all its ascertainable physical properties and chemical constitution, the product result- ing from the union of alcohol and Bioplasm must of necessity be universally the same. It is by virtue of BIOGENESIS. 139 this absolute certainty in the operations of chemical energy, and the essentially definite character of the re- sultant compounds, that renders chemistry positively a science. Chemistry is no more certain in its integrative results when dealing with alcohol and Bioplasm than it is when dealing with any other definite and specific elements, whether simple or compound, whether used in large or in small quantities, wdiether remedial or other- wise, since its primary operations are mutually between and upon atoms to unite them together to form mole- cules. Chemical affinity may be defined as that force or energy by the exercise of which atoms are united together to form molecules, and subsequently held in this embrace. Reasoning from analogy, or rather analogically, we should just as truly expect to obtain the same kind of formed product or organic structure as a result of formative change in Bioplasm in every instance if the integrative energy operating to produce such integra- ted products was absolutely one and the same in every sense of the word. The matter being the same, the re- sult w'ould essentially be the same if the energy did not differ in some manner. Bioplasm is universally the same, hence the difference in formative product or type must be due to a difference in vital integrative energy. The difference in the so-called remedial properties and food values of vegetable substances must owe their specific relations to the animal economy in part, at least, to this difference in vital energy also. We need not be greatly surprised, therefore, that Q. C. Smith, M. D., should have stated in a National Allo- pathic Convention: "Hence, medicinal substances, es- pecially inorganic medicines, e. g., mercury, arsenic, phosphorus, iron, etc., should not be administered con- tinuously for long periods of time, but exchanged for 140 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. vegetable remedies, or, better, all remedies be remitted from time to time * * *. Another notable character- istic and valuable therapeutic property of vegetable alteratives is, that they do not accumulate in the sys- tem, and thereby become poisons rather than medicines, as mineral alteratives are prone to do, especially if ad- ministered continwousZy for Zonf? periods of time, even in small medicinal doses." The true import of this statement will be made more apparent by the introduction of a brief quotation in this connection from a recent article from the pen of a somewhat prominent member of the Homeopathic school of medicine. He says in reference to the teachings of the Physio-Medical school of medicine, that they "Take the illogical view that anything which is poisonous in large quantities is proportionally poisonous in small quantities -even in the smallest possible quantities. And that because three grains of strychnine will kill, the one-millionth of a grain is also destructive in a pro- portionate degree. Now if this were true, then no pois- onous drugs should be used in any quantity whatever. But here conies a difficulty, one which clearly shows that this is not true. The air which we poor mortals breathe is a dose that we must take whether we will or no. According to chemistry (Atfield, page 23) it is composed of the following dreadful un physiomedical poisons : Oxygen, 20.61, Nitric acid. Nitrogen, 77.95, Ammonia. Carbonic acid, .04, Sulphuretted hydrogen. Carburetted hydrogen, Sulphurous acid. Nowt nitric acid, carburetted hydrogen, carbonic acid, sulphurous acid, sulphuretted hydrogen are w'ell known to be a bad lot of poisons, and when taken in large quantities fully capable of producing death. Therefore BIOGENESIS. 141 air ought to be ruled out by a rigid physio-medicalist. [Yes, most assuredly would a rigid Physio-Medicalist rule out such a combination of elements as you here as- sume the atmospheric air to be composed of, and a God who would construct such an assumed chemical combi- nation of elements, and compel us to inhale it, should be ruled out of all decent society, and be compelled to take up his abode with the damned. Just think of be- ing compelled to inspire the effluvia arising from rotten eggs and such like odoriferous compounds as a regular diet! ] Common salt also contains a very dangerous poison - Chlorine. But salt will continue to be used right along in defiance of the physio-medical law. [In harmony with such law, would be a much more truthful statement. ] Common soda, bi-carbonate of sodium, has as one of its elements that very bad poison, carbonic acid. I might go on at great length to give facts to show that poisons are only hurtful in excessive quanti- ties; and in fact, they are not hurtful but quite benefi- cial and even necessary to health in the small quanti- ties of homeopathy - as for instance common salt, with- out which it is conceded that the animal economy can- not be kept in its normal condition." The more erudite members of the medical profession may think it somewhat strange that I should notice such an apparent mass of absurdities and inconsistencies as the above proves to be in part on its very face, but after having eliminated the Malarious and Malodorous atmospheric compound resulting from his expiratory ef- fort, we shall find that he is really in harmony with the almost universal teachings of scientists (?) and educators generally. The first point that I wish to notice especially is, that all schools of medicine, except the Physio-Medical, hold and advocate the view that quantity alters quality, and 142 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY that, therefore, tl mineral alteratives are prone to" "be- come poisons rather than medicines" should they cumulate in the system." This doctrine is entertained by some of the most learned members of the medical profession, men of large experience and great discrimin- ative powers of mind, and hence it devolves upon us who reject this view to show wherein they are mis- taken, or upon what erroneous conception such doctrine is founded. I think we shall discover the fact that the real source of this prevailing doctrine is due to the sup- position that it is the material substance that does the acting, and that gives to the agent its special and pecu- liar remedial or poisonous relation to the economy of man, just as the case may be. From a dynamic stand- point of view this must be the supposition, as will have been fully apparent from what has already been stated. Let us enquire into the modus operandi of carbonic acid, sulphuric acid, chlorine, sodium, etc., and see if we cannot definitely ascertain to which they owe their de- structive nature and tendencies - to the chemical energy or to the material substances per se. I apprehend that the correct explanation to this will greatly attenuate the difficulty mentioned above, and which was supposed to clearly show that the Physio-Medical philosophy was not true. I The mutual affinities existing between the component atoms of an oxygen molecule in its elemental state, as also between the component atoms of a carbon molecule, are such as to persistently hold them in this primary embrace, even when intimately associated together me- chanically, as is apparent on every hand, and they can only be caused to combine chemically by first disturb- ing this atomic relationship by the incremation of sev- eral hundred degrees of heat. In other words, the pre- viously existing mutual attractions must be disturbed or BIOGENESIS. 143 greatly weakened before new combinations of atoms to form carbonic acid molecules can be effected. When this chemical integrative result has been obtained the mutual attractions between the oxygen and carbon atoms entering into the composition of a molecule of carbon dioxide is even stronger than before, so that the overplus of energy is not sufficient to hold the mole- cules in cohesive relationship, much less to offer induce- ments for decomposition and new combinations, even in the immediate presence of other substances in which potential affinities of much greater strength may exist. See Lecture I. In their primitive or elemental state oxygen and car- bon cannot act catalytically or otherwise upon each other so as to disintegrate existing molecules so that new combinations of atoms can be effected. They must therefore be disintegrated through the incremation of a sufficient degree of heat in order to the integration of carbon dioxide, and after such chemical combination is effected their affinitative desires are so completely satis- fied that there is nothing left in the way of an overplus of magnetic energy to act on the elements of the human economy or anything else. It is not the presence of the carbonic acid in the pulmonary alveoli that produces death by suffocation, but the absence of oxygen by vir- tue of displacement. This fact has been fully demon- strated under the microscope by Huxley and Martin, myself and others. Carbonic acid is not a poison, therefore, but its presence in the lungs in inspiration to the exclusion of oxygen is an evil, and hence the lungs normally reject or expire it in obedience to the Divine injunction, "Shun even the very appearance of evil." Oh, that man would ponder the teachings of Inspiration relative to the laws of Nature more fully, and render obedience to the injunctions therein contained, and do as 144 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. their lungs naturally are disposed to do - reject even the very appearance of evil! "A rigid physio-medical- ist" does rule out all air containing nitric acid, sulphur- ous and sulphuric acid, etc., and eliminates from his blood and expires from his lungs carbon dioxide, and thus it is that they shun the stupefying influence of sedatives and narcotics, and the tissue-rotting effects of "mineral alteratives" which are so much in vogue by the entire fraternity of Toxadministers. Sulphuric acid is a very unstable compound, having a very strong chemical desire or affinity for water, and when brought in contact with the tissues of the animal body it greedily takes hold of the water of organic composition and leaves the carbonaceous residue. First satisfy this magnetic or chemical desire and no such injurious result as above mentioned will follow when it is thus applied either to the surface or even taken in- ternally. Precisely the same material substances are present in the latter case as in the former, and the en- ergy is also precisely the same, and the only possible scientific reason that can be given for the difference in behavior is afforded by the result itself, namely ; there was an overplus of chemical energy primarily in both instances which did the acting, and thus the active energy became latent as regards our senses, but active still in maintaining the new atomic embrace. This same is essentially true of chloride of sodium, and of every other chemical compound, whether poison- ous or not. Uncombined, the chlorine has affinities potentially existing for certain elemental substances en- tering into the composition of the animal body which become active and very destructive of life when brought in actual contact with such organism, But when this chemical desire is fully satisfied by atomic union with sodium to form a molecule or molecules of R-9 BIOGENESIS. 145 chloride of sodium it absolutely ceases to be poisonous ; not because the chlorine is changed in any respect whatever, but because the chemical affinity, which alone is competent to act or influence other than mechani- cally, has become latent as regards the animal economy in maintaining the new atomic embrace. Some criti- cally disposed individual may insist that if Magnetism or Chemical manifestation of this energy be considered as the one and only actuating impulse by and through the operations of which every chemical union is effec- ted, then the result should be universally the same also, regardless of the name or nature of the "mineral alter- ative" administered. Well, it must be admitted that such is really the case from a strictly therapeutical point of view, and hence all the various mineral pois- ons made use of by the different schools of medicine actually sustain the very same definite therapeutical re- lationship to the human organism, all their doctrines and teachings to the contrary notwithstanding. The only penalty ever pronounced by the Creator of all things for a violation of "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," or natural law in the natural world, was the penalty of death; namely, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Yes, a single molecule of any unstable mineral substance having chemical affin- ities for any component element of the human body will, when brought in contact with such tissue-elements, combine to form new molecular compounds at the ex- pense of the old or pre-existing compounds; and the only important practical result to be considered from a medical standpoint is. the death and disorganization or decomposition of such tissues and structures. To the soap-maker the resultant products of such primary dis- integration and subsequent chemical integration may prove of some practical interest, but to the physician 146 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the loss of functual elements primarily, and how to get rid of the new compound secondarily, is all that can specially concern him professionally. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." We may rest assured that chemical affinity will do the acting in every instance (since matter per se is absolutely inert) whatever the quantities given may be, or the specific products resulting therefrom. No, my Toxadministrative friends, your theorizing is worse than, unscientific, since it is chemical affinity that does the acting, and it gets away down below the one- millionth or even the one-seven-millionth part of a grain of sulphate of strychnea in manifesting its mutual atomic attractions. Yes, it performs its primary capers on and mutually between atoms, and if you ever hope to render poisonous agents sanative you will be compelled to try your skill as attenuationists or dividers on the atom itself, or else do as the Physio-Medicalist does - render them harmless before administering them by ef fecting such chemical unions as will fully satisfy any chemical desire they may possess in their previous state for any of the constituent elements of our bodies, and failing this reject them as the lungs "Shun the very appearance of evil.'' Of course this proposition does not forbid the use of such proper agents as will render an acid state of the contents of the alimentary canal neutral. And after having effected this result in part, don't hesitate to re- peat the dose for fear that cumulative or quantitative influences will render the stuff poisonous. A neutral compound will follow each dose so long as there re- mains acid elements to combine with the alkali, "and don't you forget it." Neither do your mineral altera- tives accumulate as such, and thereby become poisonous, but they accumulate as non-poisonous neutral com- BIOGENESIS. 147 pounds, derived from the chemical union of such min- eral alteratives on the one hand, and the constituent el- ements of the animal economy in which they effect Al- terations on the other hand; and the only trouble with Q. C. Smith, and the entire fraternity of Toxadministers is, they have, by virtue of erroneous teachings and pre- conceived notions and opinions, been rendered unable to detect the changes thus being effected in the economy be each individual dose of their "alteratives," until the mass of new resultant compounds is such as to interfere mechanically with the performance of function. The real cumulative effect is the conjoint result of each dose administered in its immediate destruction of functional elements in forming such new compounds, together with the superadded disturbance due to the presence of such new compounds. The inevitable result is a reduction of the normal functional power of any tissue, structure, or organ thus affected in precisely the same relative de- gree to the extent of such chemical action. It is only after cumulative repetitions of such destructive action, and cumulative additions of the resultant products have taken place, that the functional disturbance is sufficiently profound to render the dangerous character and destruc- tive tendencies of these poisons apparent to these other wise intelligent men. Not one of these inorganic substances can be used for the purposes of nutrition, and hence, whatever influence they may have upon the economy of man, whether good or bad, must be due to the magnetic energy operating in and through them. The magnetic energy may act catalytically, as does perfectly clean platinum upon the mechanically mixed gases - oxygen and hydrogen - and thus bring about chemical interchanges in the tissue- elements of a very obnoxious or destructive character. It is quite probable that mercury and some of the other 148 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. dense minerals act in this way, but the vast majority of the inorganic substances enter into chemical 'composi- tion with the component elements of the tissues, as above stated, and thus effect the destruction of pre- viously existing compounds and the substitution of new ones instead thereof. But, however they may act, and whatever the result may be, they cannot be used as pabulum by any kind of animal Bioplasm either in their former state or subsequent to such chemical change; nor can they impart any one or more of their owe spe- cific properties to the tissue-elements with which they come in contact without entering into chemical relation- ship with them, since their respective properties are but a part of the substance per se. They all tend ultimately to lower the temperature of the body in two directions ; namely, by the incremation of more heat taken from the body, in the effort to es- tablish a thermal equilibrium, and secondly, and much more profoundly, by destroying the tissue-elements di- rectly concerned in the process of heat evolution. They thus tend also to increase the relative density of the remaining fluids, semi-fluids and solids of the body, and thereby interfering in every conceivable manner in rel- ative proportionate degree with the nutritive, secretive, excretive, and other functional processes of the body. It is when such profound disturbances as thus result in regular synchronous order, after the use of such abominable agents have been '•administered continuously for long periods of time," that the poison dispenser first discovers that his- "mineral alteratives" are actually alterative in nature and tendencies, and that the altera- tions effected are really detrimental in character. We marvel that such blindness should exist in this enlightened day and age of the world; and are led to ask, Will they never learn the most palpable fact that BIOGENESIS. 149 Quantity does not and cannot possibly change the Qual- ity of any substance; and that the first dose acted just as the last dose did, and that it is the sum total of their synchronous action that constitutes the cumulative result ? Qua. qua. qua. repetition or cumulation does not alter quality here, nor does the value of the second Qua change the value of the first Qua in the least; and hence we would naturally be led to say that by such repetitions we do but get the aggregate effect or value of the distinctive integral parts, in regular successive order as they were added. The result is nil as they now stand; but assuming that certain affinities for other letters of the alphabet exist unsatisfied, as in the case of your "mineral alteratives," we will add these and see if a new product does not result giving them a differ- ent value. This world is a triune mass, made by a Trinity, and there is not existing in all its completeness a single thing in this universe that is not triune in character. Qua-ntity, Qua-lity, and Qua-ck make this proposition complete, and to be true it must be com- plete. Moreover, it illustrates the fact that a single compound may by union with different elements of the body give very different resultant products, notwith- standing the fact that the primary integrative action was precisely the same in kind. The point that I especially wish to indelibly impress upon the mind is, that it is not the matter that acts, except merely by its presence as a foreign body and mechanical obstruction, but the Energy or Energies existing in such matter that al- ways, under any and all circumstances, do the acting, and the material result is but a substantial witness that such action has taken place. Having metaphorically administered one of these "mineral alteratives," we will try and trace its thera- 150 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. peutical action and results down to a point that can be apprehended by any one who is not so blinded by prejudice and preconceived notions and opinions as to render him incompetent to discriminate between the plainest truths of nature and the most glaring errors and inconsistent teachings of men. Independent of their chemical union with the-tissue- elements, then, these agents take heat from the econ- omy which they can never return, except at the ex- pense of new combinations of a more dense character than that preceding the latter, and each molecule and molecular space takes its own relative proportion of such heat just as quickly as it can be obtained from the source of supply, without waiting an instant on the pleasure of the prescriber or the patient to do so. They interfere thus with the nutritive process by ren- dering the blood-plasma, the walls of the vessels and of the cells more dense and less permeable to the fluids. They interfere with the secretions and excretions in like manner by lowering the heat evolving capacities, at the same time rendering disintegration more difficult to be accomplished. They not only thus lower the nutri- tive powers of the tissues not directly destroyed by their chemical action, and when this double-distilled de- structive influence has been carried to such a degree of intensity as to render vital processes nearly impossible of being longer continued co-ordinately or even other- wise, then it is that the Toxadministers fancy that a change has come over the dreams of these ''mineral alteratives," transforming them into demons of destruc- tion, at the very time when they have expended their full and complete destructive energies in forming new combinations, and have absolutely ceased to be poison- ous, and only exist as non-nutrient neutral mechanical obstructions. BIOGENESIS. 151 In the name of medical science, how long must the world yet continue to suffer and die prematurely through the blindness of those who, from erroneous doctrines and teachings, have been rendered wholly incompetent to measure degrees of injury due to changes effected by these abominable poisons, or even to detect the cumula- tive effects until the grim messenger of death affords them an objective lesson in contradistinction between life-saving and life-destroying measures so very pro- nounced that it would seem that the most obtuse intel- lect could ere this have grasped the fact ? Every single dose of these "mineral alteratives" effects its legiti- mate chemical changes at the expense of the tissue-ele- ments with which it conies'in contact, just in precisely the same manner as does the alkali when brought in contact with the acid; and a second dose can no more unite chemically with the tissue first affected than can the alkali unite with the acid whose affinities were previously satisfied by such chemical union. Hence each additional dose must of necessity invade new tissue in its destructive operations, and it is this repetition of destructive change that is cumulative. As regards the vegetable alteratives, they do accumu- late in the system, otherwise they would be of no pos- sible benefit. They do not accumulate, however, as such vegetable alteratives, but as superadded vital energy, heat energy, and animal Bioplasm and subsequent formed material or organic structure; hence the possi- bility of administering them for long periods of time without hampering the economy by the presence of either poisonous or non-poisonous substances foreign to anything normally existing as a part' of the economy proper. The vegetable remedies, and I mean remedies, not poisons, actually do supply the Bioplasm of our bodies with the elements of nutrition, in addition to 152 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. their other remedial contributions, as I have conclusively demonstrated under the microscope time and again. And they evidently owe their specific tendency to man- ifest their influence more especially upon some particu- lar organ or tissue to this fact of their nutritive value, in connection with that other fact that the vital integra- tive energy of such vegetable remedy must be approxi- mately the same as that of the tissue to which it con- tributes vitally and nutritively. A few examples will illustrate my meaning more clearly. For instance, Marsh mallow is mucilaginous in character, or rather its disintegrated product is, and it resembles the disin- tegrated product of the mucus epithelia very closely in physical properties, in functional attributes, and in its real organic constitution. It is quite soothing to mucus clad surfaces, and its influence is mainly expended upon such structures. Its organic constitution being so nearly allied to that of the mucus epithelia would naturally lead us to infer that it possesses specific nutritive char- acters and vital integrative endowments eminently adapt- ing it to the demands of such Bioplasm. Oily substances possess a relatively large specific heat capacity, and we know from both 'clinical experience and microscopical observation that those remedies, rich in the essential oils, are nutritive in character, stimulating in effect as regards bioplastic growth, and disintegrative in sequence. That is to say, the nutritive and vital ac- tivity of Bioplasm is increased, the heat thus evolved is proportionately augmented in quantity, and this addi- tional evolution of heat necessarily effects increased dis- integrative change in the outer and hence older portion of the formed material of the cells, thus increasing the amount of both the secretions and excretions, and thereby there is superinduced augmented activity of both the process of waste and repair in perfect har- BIOGENESIS. 153 mony with the laws of physiology, thus preserving the tissue-elements in a vigorous, elastic, and newness of es- tate. Anyone who has ever witnessed the effects of heat and cold upon Bioplasm under the microscope will fully appreciate the force of these statements ; and if he has ever witnessed the growth of living matter at the ex- pense of these oils, especially the oil of capsicum, and the resinoid of cimicifuga, as I have done, there can be left no question of doubt in his mind as to the truth of these great therapeutical facts. If it be granted that the Vital energy of the economy be thus renewed also at the expense of both food and remedies, then the fal- lacy of giving chemical concoctions as food and as med- icine, whether naturally or artificially produced, will be clearly apparent to even the most obtuse mind. Prof. Comings, in commenting on some experiments upon living matter with various drugs, as made by Dr. E. W. Ellis and myself under the microscope, stated: "We are more convinced than ever of the life-giving influence of capsicum and its universal administration as a curative agent. What else have we that will act so naturally as an assistant of the 'vis vitae?'" Now, capsi- cum could not have life-giving qualities, and hence could not assist the vis vitae, did it not possess vital integra- tive energy - in a latent state it may be - and nutritive characters rendering it susceptible of being transformed into our own living matter, thus increasing both the bios and the plasm of our bodies at its expense. Capsi- cum, therefore, represents just so much nutrient matter in a form which may be quickly assimilated by the Bioplasm of the economy, and just so much vital inte- grative energy which may be diverted to the work of animalization, and thus there is a more rapid growth, formative, and disintegrative change superinduced by its 154 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. administration. The capsicum can only act upon the tissue-elements by a surrender of its heat energy in part, and its vital energy in part or in totality, and to do this it must first be structurally disintegrated, and subsequently integrated into animal Bioplasm and its formed product. It yields up its material substance to the purposes of nutrition; its heat energy and vital en- ergy to the purposes of integration and disintegration, but it could not yield these up without the surrender- ing of its structural existence to the purposes of nutri- tion. Did the capsicum act upon the Bioplasm either chemically or vitally, or upon any other part of the animal economy, it would indeed be cumulative in ef- fects either as a new chemical compound (as in the case of the "mineral alteratives'-), or as a constantly increasing mass of capsicum at the expense of such or- ganism. We are too much disposed to regard our rem- edies as being present in the various tissue-elements upon which they are supposed to act in precisely the form in which we give them, when nothing could well be much farther from the actual truth. And even if they were so present they would simply prove deleteri- ous as foreign bodies and mechanical obstructions, if this was the sum total of their action. Another experiment made at the time above referred to was presented to us by F. L. Stone, M. D., then of Indianapolis, and was labelled "sample F. E." hence we were left in total ignorance of the nature or composi- tion of the fluid substance. In conducting oure experi- ments with this agent wTe were, therefore, free from bias or preconceived notions and opinions. We first applied the agent in the form in which we received it, the result being that the bioplasts instantly assumed the spherical form wThen contact was secured, the outer por- tion becoming more opaque and granular, and they re- BIOGENESIS. 155 mained in this state so long as under observation - for over two hours. The result was the same on the Bio- plasm of human blood, pus and mucus corpuscles, as on the Bioplasm from the frog, the horse, etc. Under the influence of the agent after the alcohol had been eliminated by the addition of boiling water the bioplasts became remarkably active, and the manner in which they became active is the question of para- mount importance just here. The agent proved to be a fluid extract of Cimicifuga, and all know how this agent tends to assume a milky appearance when water is added to such a preparation of it. Well, these little granular particles which give the "naked-eye" appear- ance just mentioned, were rapidly taken into the bio plasts and transformed into their own substance, the whole process being plainly visible to us under the magnifying power used-800 and 1100 diameters. We thus see that Cimicifuga does not act upon the Bio- plasm. but that the Bioplasm acts upon the nutritive elements of which the agent consists, and that in this way the Bioplasm is influenced to grow more rapidly and to perform its specific functions with proportion- ately greater energy. They contribute whatever heat and vital energy they may possess to the Bioplasm of which they become an integral part, and in this wTay. and in no other, is the vital capacity of the organism enhanced at the expense of the agent; in this way the vis vitae is increased, since it is now conceded by all scientists that life can only come from pre-existing life. If it should be insisted, however, by the less informed professional brother, that vital energy does not come from the same source that we obtain our material pab- ulum for physical growth and renewal, then from whence do we obtain this energy, and especially so as regards the excretory bioplasts, which under certain cir- 156 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. cumstances are discharged from the body in a state of vital activity in such large numbers, as in catarrhal in flammations, for example ? In this latter state of affairs there is a rapid increase of the living or germinal matter at the expense of the pabulum flowing to the part, and since it must be con- ceded that whatever of increase there may be in the bioplastic material substance, essentially implies a pro- portionate increase in the vital energy with which such Bioplasm is endowed, it matters not whence the life energy comes, nor what its nature may be-whether motion, heat, electricity, chemical affinity, or a specific and peculiar form of energy which can only manifest itself in this specific kind of compound, or whatsoever it may be, we know that it can only come through the nutritive process. And this forever excludes the "min- eral alteratives" from the domain of vitalizing agents - even if vitality be regarded as a mere property of the matter per se. It matters not whence we obtain the heat of our bodies, whether from the food we eat, the fluids we drink, the air we breathe, or from whatso- ever the source it may be, nor whither this heat goeth after it has served its purpose in the economy, we know that we cannot generate heat on the one hand, nor re- tain the heat permanently in our bodies on the other hand, since it must constantly escape in and with the excretions of the body which only could have been dis- integrated and rendered susceptible of being eliminated through its agency. In this connection I desire to briefly notice a state- ment made by George Watt some years since, because it not only affords evidence of a widely prevailing be- lief in regard to the supposed nutrient characters of mineral substances, but also shows the general charac- ter of the line of argument made use of in support of this doctrine. He says: BIOGENESIS. 157 "1. Can the animal appropriate mineral pabulum directly from the inorganic mineral, or must the mineral food the animal system assimilates come through the vegetable ? 2. Is the chloride of sodium the animal takes from the mineral ever vitalized, or does it remain simply mineral in solution ? 3. Must the lime we need to nourish the osseous system come only through the vegetable, or can we appropriate lime, iron, etc., directly from the mineral kingdom ? "As to the assimilation of lime we appointed a com- mittee of hens on the subject, and, as wTe literally di- gested their report, we shall endeavor to give the reader the advantage of it. A lot of fine hens were kept in a small lot, and, though they appeared healthy and gave a liberal supply of eggs, the shells were so thin that it was almost impossible to handle them without break- ing. All of the eggs had thin shells. Without change of run we added a liberal supply of marble-dust to their food, which was otherwise unchanged. Improve- ment wras rapid, and in two weeks all the shells were normal. On a smaller scale, this experiment has been repeatedly tested with similar results, demonstrating, we think, that hens can assimilate carbonate of lime di- rectly from the mineral kingdom." It will be noticed that in the above statement, the hens were evidently in a healthy state and gave a liberal supply of eggs-the latter having very thin shells in the first instance, and that the improvement which was observed to take place subsequent to a more liberal supply of lime salts was in the egg shells, and not in the hens or the supply of eggs. We notice also that the writer uses the terms "appropriate" and "assimilate" as synonymous. vThen a reference to any standard dictionary would' have shown that they are of very different import. He claims to have "literally digested their report," and as 158 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. this report had to do with the shells essentially, and not with the contents of the shells, nor with the hens that laid them, we feel impelled by the exigencies of the case to transfer our investigations to the man himself. If he succeeded in literally digesting these shells, then his digestive organs served him more faithfully than his cerebrum did. It was the eggs that appropriated the marble dust, and not the hens. The salts of lime were simply dissolved and held in solution by the nutri- ent fluids at the expense of which the tissue-elements of the hens were being nourished, and in the nutritive and formative processes taking place in the rudimentary eggs, and those of older growth but not yet fully de- veloped, the lime salts were simply precipitated in reg- ular successive order in the most external fibrous mem- brane of the egg at the precise point at which bioplas- tic growth and formative change was then taking place. I have often seen eggs in which the shells showed an uneven deposition of lime salts, some showing a rela- tively greater thickness of lime in the small end, others in the larger end. and yet others midway between the two ends. In the first instance I naturally infer that an abundance of lime was present in the nutrient fluids in the early period of development, but somewhat re- duced in quantity later on. In the second case the reverse of this obtained, the supply of lime being aug- mented at a time when bioplastic growth and formative change were approximately near or had passed the stage of greatest activity, and when mechanical pressure was tending to bring about a rapid diminution of sup- ply of pabulum, and hence of bioplastic growth, and thus to rapidly " narrow-off'' the stocking at this end - so to speak. These lime salts were not even appropri- ated to the structural purposes of the hens, much less were they assimilated by either the living matter of BIOGENESIS. 159 either the hens or that of the eggs developing in their bodies. The presence of the mineral salts in the bony system of animals and man is to be explained in the same manner, these salts simply being precipitated in the or- ganic stroma or matrix after the latter has become fully formed, and hence first farthest distant from, or midway between any two masses of Bioplasm. It would be just as plausible and just as consistent with the facts to assert that the petrefaction of the dead animal body, which occurs under certain environments, is due to the mineral salts having been "assimilated" by such dead body, as it is to assert that the bone salts, or the lime salts of the egg shell, are assimilated. These ele- ments are present by virtue of physical causes, notwith- standing the fact that the time of their deposition and the place to which they are assigned are in the living subject remotely determined by Bioplasm. The pabulum, in order to gain access to the living matter of the tissue-elements, must be in a fluid form, i. e., in a state of minute division, otherwise it could not pass through the meshes of the tissues which con- stitute the outside sentinels to the enclosed Bioplasm. Now, this fluid in being transformed into Bioplasm un- dergoes condensation at the expense of an equivalent volume of heat, which heat is rendered latent in effect- ing disintegration of the waste elements, or else escapes with the return current, and this condensation is again intensified by formative change in the outer part of the Bioplasm itself, as already fully explained elsewhere, and thus precipitation results in consequence of this change in the consistency of the fluids, together with the rejection of the carbonic acid gas held in solution in the pabulum, and hence these salts are found to have existed first at a point equi-distant from any two bio- 160 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. plasts, because that point represents the precise locality at which Bioplasm first experienced formative change. These salts are. therefore, "appropriated"' to the pur- poses of bone development, but they are always an after-consideration, and do not enter into the organic constitution of either Bioplasm or its formative pro- ducts. See Beale "On Bioplasm." I obtained pure bone salts by incineration and ap- pointed a committee of bioplasts to determine the ques- tion as to whether or not they could assimilate such mineral substances. They manifested no serious objec- tion to the presence of these salts, but actually took them into their substance by the process of intussus- ception, but they utterly failed to assimilate them. The same was equally true with reference to the "medicinal salts of iron." They could be seen moving from one part of the bioplastic mass to another, but ultimately they were all discharged without having been changed in the least perceptible manner whatever. I concluded, therefore, that these elements could not be assimilated, however freely they may be appropriated to the after- purposes of the economy. And the mere fact that Hy- drochloric acid will dissolve out the bone salts, leaving the organic matrix intact, should have rendered us very skeptical as to the assimilability of even those inor- ganic elements essential to the complete organic pro- cess. The doctor states with reference to iron, that it "is given, not to increase the quantity of it in the red cor- puscles already present, but to furnish an essential in- gredient for making new corpuscles." I only wish to state in this connection, that red corpuscles are derived from white blood corpuscles by formative change, and that it was blood bioplasts we experimented upon, and these bioplasts rejected the iron as wholly non-assimila- R-10 BIOGENESIS. 161 ble in character, and we naturally infer that compus mentus brain Bioplasm would do the same thing nor- mally- or in harmony with the laws of nature. We tested the influence of hydrastis, sanguinaria, sol- idago, helonias, etc., on Bioplasm, and found that the changes resulting therefrom were very much alike in most respects, causing the bioplasts to assume, not a spherical form, as was the cause when phytolacca rad. was used, but a shape more nearly that of the red blood corpuscles characteristic of the kind of blood then being- experimented with, fusiform in the case of frog's blood, disk-like in human blood. They preserved such shape permanently thereafter so long as under observation, and sooner or later formative change took place in their outer substance, thus elevating them to the dignity of cells. These agents therefore diminish the rate of growth, but do not destroy the life or derange the bio- plastic substance, since the granular contents of these new cells in the case of the frog's blood could still be seen moving as vigorously as before. The formed ma- terial resulting therefrom could not be distinguished from that normally existing in those found in the blood previously existing, and hence we inferred that their in- fluence would prove most advantageous when the cir- cumstances are such that growth is active and long continued and consecpiently formative change is held in abeyance, as occurs in catarrhal inflammations, in which the vessels of the part have become embryonal, and me- chanical pressure cannot be brought to bear because of anatomical conformations. As to what does the acting in this class of cases, I will simply present my views, and the line of argument that has led me to adopt such views, and leave the reader at liberty to endorse or re- ject them as his better judgment may dictate. I believe these agents are used as pabulum, just as 162 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY the former class of agents were found to be, and that the vital energy thus obtained and diverted to our pur- poses is strongly integrative in character, and naturally possessing less specific heat capacity than those rich in the essential oils, and hence devoid of that degree of disintegrative energy, they tend to effect more rapid and profound condensation than even the natural food substances do. Certain it is that they must be resolved into that state in which they can gain access to the Bioplasm of the mucus epithelia or other tissue-ele- ments to be influenced by them in order to obtain their beneficial effects. Their therapeutical influence is de sired just in precisely the class of difficulties above in dicated, and they could only effect changes in the ex- cretory products of such mucus epithelia in their struc-. tural state - thus virtually accomplishing no beneficial results even if harm did not accrue therefrom. Sentient energy may very properly be classified thus in the lower animals: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Feeling or tactile sense, and that remarkable sense of nutritive and remedial demand - that sense of relation- ship to and dependence upon their physical environ- ment-which enables them to select the very agent that possesses just the essential qualities necessary to meet the then existing demand of the economy. Call this sixth sense what you will, it is no less a special sense than either of the other five, nor is it any less remarkable in its mysteriousness than they are. More- over, they are indeed and in truth subordinate to, or rather servants of this sixth sense, enabling the individ- ual to seek out and find the proper agent when to be had. Say what we may, this sixth sense is vital in character, bioplastic in locality, and hence nutritive or vitally substantial in demand. Numerous instances of the wonderful manifestations of this sixth sense might BIOGENESIS. 163 be presented here, but the reader's own observation will afford him sufficient evidence of the truth of the propo- sition. To this sixth sense there is another added to the genus Homo; and this Seventh sense is very closely related to the sixth in one respect at least ; namely, it bears the same relationship to our Spiritual environ- ment that the sixth does to our physical environment. We can refuse to gratify the demands of the sixth sense if we will it, but the penalty is suffering, disease, star- vation and death ; and the same is equally true of the seventh sense as regards the Spiritual environment. But as Seven always points to the coming or the prom- ise of the Redeemer, when found in Revelations, and since there is such a bitter opposition on the part of agnostics to the introduction of this class of evidence in support of scientific teachings, I will offer nothing farther on that special sense. Has anyone ever suspected that these special senses were merely modes of motions ? Oh yes, this is in di- rect harmony with the tendency of modern thought; and this leads me to suggest: What a wonderful op- portunity is here ottered for some bright, young, ener- getic evolutionist to gain the applause and everlasting gratitude of the blind, the deaf, and even the hungry and starving poor of the whole world. Just think of it! Apply an ice pack or something of the kind to their spinal columns, and thus convert the motion of hunger and thirst into heat, and then absorb it; or bet- ter still, convert this sixth sense into the motion of sight, and thus restore the blind to sight and render the starving satisfied; convert the motion of smell into hearing and thus abolish objectionable smelling commit- tees from the land and restore the deaf. "It must here be borne in mind [however] that the light-rays are also heat-rays; that the self-same ray, falling upon the 164 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. nerve of vision, produces the impression of light; while impinging upon other nerves of the body, it produces the impression of heat."-Heat a Mode of Motion, Tyn- dall, p. 309. That is to say, the heat is identically the same in both instances, the substances of which the respective tissues are composed remain unchanged in character in thus translating the impressions received to the con- scious center; and hence it is here in this region of the anatomy he will have to seek to effect these changes, if he wTould gain the encomiums of the -world. It is evident, therefore, that there is a difference in vital power, as stated by Dr. Beale ; that this power is unchangeable in nature and function, in formative powTer and nutritive capacities; that vital energy may be co- ordinated so as to produce results the algebraic sum of the specific influences, both as regards the cell, and as regards organs and systems, as also the body as a whole; that one form of energy can not be converted into an- other form of energy; that both vital and chemical en- ergy are essentially integrative in character, and can act in no other way ; that heat is disintegrative in char- acter, and can not become integrative; and finally that there is a supreme architect, so to speak, which super- vises the construction of the living body, and orders all its operations after completed. In the language of Prof. Huxley: "Strange possibilities lie dormant in that semi-fluid globule. Let a moderate supply of warmth reach its watery cradle and the plastic matter undergoes changes so rapid and yet so steady and pur- pose-like in their succession that one can only compare them to those operated by a skilled modeler upon a formless lump of clay, as with an invisible trowel the mass is divided and sub-divided into smaller and smaller portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation of gran- BIOGENESIS. 165 ules not too large to build withal the finest fabrics of the nascent organism. And, then, it is as if a delicate finger traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal column, and moulded the contour of the body ; pinching up the head at one end, the tail at the other, and fash- ioning flank and limb into due proportions in so artistic a way that, after watching the process hour after hour, one is almost involuntarily possessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to vision than an achromatic would show the hidden artist, with his plan before him, striving with skillful manipulation to perform his work." -Lay Sermons, p. 261. Who knows but that Paul had a better instrument than that here mentioned, that enabled him to grasp the bio- logical truth that: "All life is not the same life. There is one kind of life of men, another life of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds," thus inculcating the fact that the term Vitality or Life is a generic term, of which there are specific forms, and that each peculiar organism possesses its own potter or controlling energy ? CHAPTER III. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. There is no more comprehensive question in the en- tire domain of physiology, or one of greater practical importance to the medical profession in general, than that which relates to the source of the Extra-Vascular Circulation, and the phenomena connected therewith. In the transactions of the American Society of Micro- scopists in 1884, was published a monograph on this subject from my pen, in which the following fundamen- tal propositions were formulated as a basis for what I might have to present at that time: ' ' The conversion of pabulum into Bioplasm is the pri- mary and chief source or cause of the extra-vascular circu- lations, as also that of the evolution of animal heat. " Second: The conversion of Bioplasm into solid or nearly solid formed material contributes in a lesser but no less important degree to the same dual result. " Third: The nutritive demand will be found to harmon- ize absolutely with the relative size, number, and nutritive activity of the germinal matter of any tissue, structure or organ of the body. "Fourth: Any agent or class of agents that tends to de- stroy or injuriously affect the substance of Bioplasm, or to thicken the serum of the blood or the walls of the vessels, and especially of the cells, is essentially detrimental to the nutritive interests of the economy, as also that of the motor, secretory and excretory functions." These propositions were the outgrowth of years of faithful and laborious investigation and research, and subsequent thought and investigation in this direction THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 167 only confirm me in a belief in the fundamental verity of these propositions. Prior to the appearance of the above mentioned monograph there had been no effort made, to the best of my knowledge and belief, to ex- plain how or by what peculiar process the alimentary substances are caused to penetrate the walls of the ca- nal, in order to gain access to the circulating fluids within the blood vessels and the lacteals; much less to explain how the nutritive substances find their way through the walls of the vessels, and of the cells to the living nucleus within, which only is susceptible of being nourished ; nor had we previously been told how the waste matter of the various tissues not having direct communication with the outside world gains access to the blood current in order to be finally eliminated from the body. The above paper was necessarily somewhat imperfect, owing, in part at least, to the limits assigned it, and con- sequently did not receive the attention that the subject justly merits. I trust we may be able to present the matter in such a manner in the following pages aS to command the attention of all unprejudiced minds, and that the cause of scientific progress as related to medi- cine may thereby be advanced. Dr. N. S. Davis, M. D., L. L. D., in an "Introductory Lecture delivered in the Post Graduate Medical School of Chicago, January 6, 1891," on "The Basis of Scien- tific Medicine and the Proper Methods of Investigation," says: "Very much of our scientific and experimental work is done in fragments, and necessarily results in the development of isolated facts and partial views, fill- ing the pages of our literature with ever-changing and often contradictory inductions. For example, during the last two decades of time it has been claimed that abnormal temperature or pyrexia is the chief pathologi- 168 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. cal factor in the general fevers; and by logical infer- ence that antipyretics constitute the chief remedies. Hence, as often as the pharmaceutical laboratories de- veloped a new, complex, artificial compound of the coal- tar series, and the experimental therapeutist proved it capable of reducing the temperature of the body, it was applied with the greatest freedom for the control of the pyrexia of all general fevers. The two isolated facts of high temperature and the antipyretic property of the remedy were the sole guides of the physician, and in many instances to the ultimate detriment of his patients. That complete knowledge of the processes of disease mentioned by Dr. Broadbent, requires not only the fact of high temperature or pyrexia, but also the processes by which it is produced in each variety of fever. Physiology has taught us that in the living, healthy animal body there are in constant operation processes by which heat is produced, and other processes by which it is dissipated, and that the natural temperature is the balance or average result. Consequently, abnor- mally high temperature must result either from a dimi- nution of the processes of heat dissipation, or from an increase of those of heat production, or from an un- equal alteration of both. It follows that one remedial agent, when properly used, will act as an antipyretic by increasing heat dissipation, and another by diminishing the heat production; and the true scientific basis for choice of remedies in a given case of pyrexia is a clear knowledge of the modus operandi of the remedial agents, and an equally clear appreciation of the processes on which the abnormal temperature depends. "Another serious obstacle to scientific progress con- sists in the frequent formulation of inductions, or more properly assumptions, for practical guidance, founded on an inadequate number of facts, and sometimes on mere THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 169 analogies. Thus, when in the progress of organic and physiological chemistry it had been, fully demonstrated that the chief proximate elements of our food could be divided into two classes, one of which was composed essentially of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, and the other of these three with the addition of nitrogen, the first were called hydro-carbonaceous and the latter ni- trogenous foods. And as the organized elements of the animal tissues were composed of the same four ele- ments, it was assumed that the nitrogenous elements of food were appropriated to the growth and repair of such tissues; and as oxygen disappeared through the air-cells of the lungs and was replaced largely by car bonic acid, as in combustion out of the body, it was as- sumed with equal positiveness that the hydro-carbon ace- ous food elements united with oxygen in the living body, resulting in the formation of carbonic acid and water and the evolution of heat, and hence were called respiratory foods. The only facts clearly demonstrated by experimental investigation were that the oils, starch, sugar and gum in our food were hydro-carbons, and that the albumen, fibrin, casein, gluten, etc., were nitrogenous, on the one side; and on the other, that the living animal structures were nitrogenous, with a consumption of oxygen and liberation of carbonic acid and heat. The inductions from these facts, that the carbonaceous food elements only were converted into carbonic acid, water and heat; and that the nitrogenous were converted into tissues, were simply theoretical assumptions, without the sup- port of a single well-devised series of experiments for their demonstration, while many accurately observed facts militate against their correctness. These theoreti- cal assumptions were not limited to the food elements I have named, all of which are the products of vegetable 170 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. or animal growth, but wTere extended to many other substances of entirely different origin, merely on ac- count of analogous chemical composition. For example, the chemist readily demonstrated that all the varieties of alcohol were composed of oxygen, hydrogen and car- bon, and consequently were chemically pure hydro-car- bons ; and as the ethylic or common alcohol was being largely used in fermented and distilled drinks, it was directly assumed that it united with oxygen in the liv- ing system, resulting in the production of carbonic acid, water and heat; and was placed in the front ranks of respiratory foods. These simple theoretical assump- tions, plausibly illustrated by may suppositious chemi- cal formulae, have occupied a prominent position on the pages of both medical and general literature from the days of Baron Liebig to the present time. And yet, all the carefully devised and patiently executed experi- ments of the chemico-physiologists of Europe and Amer- ica have only proved that the hyro-carbons derived from vegetable and animal growth undergo molecular or metabolic changes in passing through the digestive organs before appearing as natural elements of the blood, while those derived from fermentation or retro- grade processes undergo no such molecular changes in the digestive organs, but are rapidly imbibed and ap- pear unchanged in the blood, thereby demonstrating that mere analogy of chemical composition can afford no safe basis for the inference that the same analogy will apply to their behavior when taken into the living body. I may add that these numerous experimental re- searches, aided by all the modern instruments of per- cision, have failed to develop any evidence that the presence of the alcoholic class of hydro-carbons in the living system is productive of either carbonic acid, wTater, heat or any other kind of force, but the reverse. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 171 Indeed, the plain tendency of present experimental researches is towards demonstrating the fact that the vegetable kingdom only can assimilate and grow from inorganic matter and the products of retrograde or destructive processes, while the animal kingdom assimilates and appropriates to itself only the products of vegetable and animal growth." There is, perhaps, no man in the ranks of the domi- nant school of medicine, either in this country or in Europe, who stands higher as a scientist and thinker than Dr. N. S. Davis; and hence I trust that the reader will ponder well the language thus made use of by him as recorded in the above quotation. I have two good reasons for making this urgent request ; namely, there is such a manifest disposition on the part of two schools of medicine, at least, to accept nothing of a doctrinal character from any other source than through the chan- nels of the so-called "regular" school of medicine, and this too, regardless of the fact as to the nature and force of the arguments presented pro and con in sup- port of it. I belong to one of these two schools and Dr. N. S. Davis belongs to the other. I do not know just how or when he came to entertain such radical views, or whether or not he arrived at these conclusions from original research and investigation, or as a re- sult of having perused the various articles from my pen, treating of these very subjects, as they appeared from time to time in the pages of the Physio-Medical Journal and elsewhere some eight or ten years since. Let this be as it may, it is truly gratifying to me to know that a man of his towering intellect and exalted standing amongst the profession, has thus fearlessly es- poused the cause of true medical science, and boldly and fearlessly declares the rudiments of the same to the world. It may not be a pleasant pill to swallow, but it is nevertheless true that some of our own breth- 172 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ren have freely imbibed the doctrine of the chemico- vitalists, with all its absurdities and incongruities, and then out-Heroded Herod in promulgating or rather ad- vocating the same, as witness their efforts in behalf of the "reticular structure," which they could easily have proven to not exist both theoretically and by actual demonstration with the microscope. But no, it came to them with the sanction of German authority, and they were satisfied to accept it as true without a single ef- fort to determine the truth or falsity of the proposition for themselves, or to even listen to the warnings of a brother physician of the same school who first criticised this doctrine in 1880; and who was the first to criticise it at all. Then there are a larger number of this same school of medicine who have boldly and eagerly swallowed the entire series of the coal-tar compounds, with a view to reduce fevers, without ever stopping for a moment to as- certain wdiether or not they were competent to do this in harmony with the laws of physiology, and hence with the best interests of the patient. I doubt if some of these great imbibers even know that the modus operandi of the generation of animal heat, and the manner of its physiological dissipation, has been fully discussed through the columns of the above named journal; it did not come through the proper channels to command their attention. Again, there are those who would not hesitate to offer one a public insult, should he show a disposition to doubt the doctrine of the " degredation of Bioplasm" as advocated by the regulars some forty years since, and still adhered to by Beale and some others; and especially would he thus expose himself should he advocate such a doctrine as that which may be found in the closing paragraph of the above quota- tion, and which, since it is absolutely true, completely THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 173 overthrows the vegetable germ theory of disease, to- gether with all its therapeutical deductions and the practice based upon the same. Under existing circumstances. I can truly say that I am glad that £the truth] in regard to this matter has, even at this late date, and in this rudimentary form, found its way from the pages of the Physio-Medical Journal into channel, which alone can render it acceptable to a certain class of indolent, speculative souls of a "liberal" turn of mind. Oh, that we could all fully realize the glorious truth that we need not accept the dictum of any living man as authoritative, since the great book of Nature is luminous with evidence of the fundamental verity of our scientific pretensions, and only awaits the wand of critical research and investiga- tion to yield them up in richest plenitude. There is not a single chapter, page, paragraph or sentence of this vast volume of uncontaminated and unmixed truth, no part so large, none so small, [but that its burden of testimony is awaiting our pleasure to bestow its radi- ancy as an added jewel in the crown of scientific prin- ciples. Let us accept no mere human dictum then, but get to work in earnest with a determination to learn the "God's truth of the whole matter" as it is in Na- ture ; and if at any time we come to a point where we feel doubtful as to the true interpretation of her prag- matic statements, let us not be afraid or ashamed to consult that other great witness of "God's truth of the whole matter for the parallel teaching, with a well- founded hope that the dark places will be made lumi- nous. The second point that I wish to specially call the attention of the reader to is, that it is simply im- possible for any candid mind to recognize a single fun- damental truth in Nature relating to the subject of medicine in any one of its many aspects, without cans- 174 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ing an expression of doubt, on the part of such a one, as to the scientific basis of a poisonous medication. The very expression of such a doubt on the part of one who has been educated from his youth to regard ' ' the most virulent poisons as our best remedies," and then prejudiced by a lifetime of training to believe such a monstrous absurdity, is, or at least should be, sufficient evidence of the intrinsic rottenness of the whole theory upon which a poisonous practice is based, to cause one who had been better educated to weigh well all the facts before accepting anything they may have to offer. If, as Dr. Q. C. Smith says, the inorganic elements are liable to become poisonous, and therefore advises the use of vegetable remedies, would it not be well for these poor, credulous P.-M.'s to "look a leedle out" before endorsing and prescribing every coal-tar and other new compound that may happen to be placed upon the market ? Of all men in this world Physio-Medicalists have the greatest doctrinal cause for rejoicing that the Micro- scope was ever invented and brought to its present state of perfection, and if more of them would make use of it as a means of research and investigation, and trust less to their imaginative powers of mind and pre- conceived notions and opinions-the legitimate offspring of a sickly credulity - their own professional success would be greatly enhanced and the cause they pretend to love would receive such a glorious impetus in its on- ward and ever upward march in the direction of true scientific progress that the combined forces of her oppo- nents could not retard it. We have learned in the two previous lectures that heat is absolutely essential to the nutritive process, not only in effecting the disintegration of the food-elements that are taken into the stomach of the fully-formed ani- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 175 mal organism, but at the other end of the journey of life - the embryotic - to effect the disintegration of the nutritive substances with which nature has supplied these little bioplasts. Not only so, but all vegetative nature is dormant and apparently lifeless during the cold and bleak months of winter. This lifeless state is only apparent, however, since the sunshine and rains of spring stimulate the little bioplasts again to nutritive activity. They must have both the food-elements nec- essary to their nutritive demands and capacities, and the proper amount of heat to disintegrate these ele- ments, in order that they may grow and multiply. A grain of corn or of wheat or other plant may be pre- served for a long period of time, even in the presence of an abundant supply of either of these two essentials, but without the other, and no growth can take place. The same is true, as I now verily believe, of every bio- plast in the human body, whether naked or enclosed in a cell-wall, whether normal or abnormal, of intrinsic or extrinsic origin - they must have both the necessary amount of heat and the proper kind of pabulum in order that they may grow. I do not believe it possible for any kind of bioplasm to grow at the expense of its own formed products, even though it be in absolute contact with such formed material, and even though all the other environments be normal and perfect. I know that this is directly contrary to my former teachings in regard to this subject as the legitimate result of a too credulous disposition on my own part, and hence I have good cause to warn us to accept no man's dictum as a safe guide until we carefully weigh the pros and cons. There are two good theoretical reasons for not enter- taining such a view longer; namely, vital energy is inte- grative, not disintegrative; and secondly, even in the pres- ence of the proper amount and degree of heat they do 176 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. not and cannot grow and increase in size under the most favorable circumstances otherwise unless freely supplied with the proper kind of pabulum from some extrinsic source. Failing a sufficiency of such proper pabulum they decrease in the same relative degree, if cut off entirely they die, if a balance between supply of pabulum and the bioplasm to thus be nourished at the expense of such pabulum is obtained and maintained, they remain the same in size - growing at the expense of the pabulum on the one hand, and just as constantly and in the same proportionate degree undergoing form- ative change on the other hand ; and this latter is pre- vented from increasing beyond the normal demands of the system by just as constantly being disintegrated by the heat evolved in the two former processes. If, how- ever, pabulum be supplied in excess of the actual de- mands necessary to maintain the equilibrium above mentioned, and which constitutes the normal status of such cell, then the bioplasm ceases to undergo forma- tive change\until it has so increased at the expense of the pabulum thus supplied it that the quantity of bio- plasm shall equal in nutritive capacity the supply of pabulum, thus again establishing an equilibrium in har- mony with the new order of things. The heat evolved in. this latter case is wholly due to the conversion of fluid pabulum into semi-fluid bioplasm, and is in part at least economized in disintegrating the formed material constituting the cell-wall. As soon as this latter result has been fully effected, and there can be no new cells produced ' until the limiting membrane has been com- pletely disintegrated, the heat is all dissipated as mani- fest heat. This is what is properly termed "a return to the embryonal state," and this is the first time that the real factors in the whole proces were ever stated in print - the first time that the true modus operand! of a R-11 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 177 return to the embryonal state was ever vouchsafed to the general public, but I trust that they may ultimately find their way into the channels whence every good and perfect professional gift must apparently come as an original discovery in order to meet the approbation of the dominant school of medicine. Suppose the function of the cutaneous bioplasts be suspended by the depressing influence of cold, and that the excrementitious matters of the blood, and which con- stitute the proper and indispensable pabulum for these and the renal bioplasts, be diverted to the kidneys thus to be eliminated from the body; what, I ask, will be the clinical and histological facts in the case ? * Briefly we may state that the cutaneous bioplasts be- come reduced in size respectively, the formed material proportionately increased in thickness at the expense of the former, and the disintegrative changes less active, proportionate to the diminution of the heat-evolving process. The renal bioplasts, on the contrary, take on increased nutritive activity proportionate to the in- creased access of pabulum, and continue thus to grow, and finally to multiply, until their numbers and nutri- tive capacity are equal to the supply of pabulum, or un- til their own volume is such as to superinduce mechan- ical pressure upon the blood vessels, and thus to bring into action a two-fold influence tending to establish an equilibrium between supply and demand, and ultimately to create such a disturbance in nutritive supply as to lead to death and fatty disintegration of the bioplasts situated farthest from the source of nutrient supply; namely, those most centrally located within the tubules. See Lecture on Inflammation. You will observe that the bioplasm has no power by which to determine how much or how little pabulum it * See lecture on Inflammation. 178 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. will convert into its own substance only in so far as its volume or quantity per se is a determinative influence, and in the case now before us this is a constantly changing quantity. The very fact, therefore, that the rate of growth is wholly dependent upon the quantity of supply of proper pabulum, and that they can but re- spond to such determining influence, and that they never increase at the expense of their own formed products, but just the reverse of this, when there is a disturbance in the equilibrium in which the bioplastic capacity for pabulum actually exceeds the supply, ought to convince any sane mind that they actually have no power to use their own formative products as pabulum under any circumstances whatever. We also notice that in case of Nephritis, whatever the primary or exciting cause may have been, there is at first a largely augmented quantity of the solid con- stituents of the urine, which is due to the rapid disinte- gration of the formed material of the renal epithelia, and that so soon as these actually disappear from the urine the temperature of the whole body is proportion ately augmented - none of the heat thus evolved being economized now in the process of disintegration, at least in this locality. Just so soon, however, as fatty casts begin to show themselves, and a little subsequent to this, the temperature will be found to decline very per- ceptibly, and permanently so if the blood be diverted to its normal channels by stimulating the cutaneous bio- plasts to increased nutritive activity. Now, please notice that whatever the degree of dimin- ution of nutritive activity in the cutaneous bioplasts, there is a relative increase in the nutritive activity of its complement - the renal bioplast, and that too as a result of a law of supply and demand that is as fixed and definite as anything can well be, so that even here THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 179 in an abnormal state of affairs there is provision made for an equilibrium between the supply of pabulum on the one hand and demand on the other, even if this de- mand must be transferred from one organ to another. We may destroy this demand by killing the renal bio- plasts if we feel so disposed, but it is better to leave that kind of work to fools and legalized fool-killers. Suppose, however, that the excrementitious substances are increased in the blood by virtue of increased re- gressive change, and that the eliminative bioplasts of both skin and kidneys are in a state of normal activity at the time of the occurrence of, or more properly at the inception of such regressive changes, then both the renal and the cutaneous bioplasts would necessarily take on increased nutritive activity, and thus again a balance between supply and demand would be obtained and maintained. As this regressive change would almost essentially be gradual in augmentation, so also the exag- gerated nutritive activity would be in exact degree pro- portionate to such augmentation in supply. It follows, therefore, that if our first proposition be true, namely, "The conversion of pabulum into bioplasm is the pri- mary and chief source or cause of the extra-vascular circulation, as also of the evolution of animal heat," there will be a relatively greater degree of attractive energy exerted in the case now under consideration than in the case in which there was no increase of re- gressive products, but merely a diversion of the cutane- ous proportion of the pabulum - so to speak - to the kidneys. In other wTords, in the case in which the cuta- neous function was diminished or suspended, there would not and could not be any greater attractive energy exerted upon the blood-mass than that previously exist- ing, since the attraction is directly and specifically due to the conversion of PABULUM INTO BIOPLASM, 180 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. and hence the degree of attraction must be absolutely in ratio proportionate to the amount of pabulum being supplied, all things else being equal. In the case in which there is an actual increase of pabulum over and above the normal, on the other hand, there is and of necessity must be a proportionate increased attraction of these extra-vascular bioplasts upon the blood-mass, and this attraction will be in degree proportionate to the amount of pabulum which is actually being converted into such bioplasm, just as in the other case. The quantity of heat evolved will likewise be in de- gree proportionate to the amount of pabulum thus being transformed into bioplasm, nevertheless the temperature of the body may not be so great in the latter case as in the former, since the heat in this instance is being eliminated through two sources of activity, while in the former case it is only passing off in the urine directly, and even this ceases to be an outlet as soon as the tubules becomes filled and distended with their accumu- lating products. We must not forget the most important fact that the great mass of the tissue-elements-all ex- cept the blood-corpuscles and lymphoid particles - are outside the lumina of the vessels, and that the vast ma- jority of these are normally enclosed in a cell-wall - each the product of formative change in the respective bioplast which inhabits it. Another fact of very great importance to be remembered is, every bioplast in the entire economy of man, except those in the lumina of the vessels themselves, gets its nutritive supply either directly or indirectly from the contents of the blood- vessels. In other words, every individual bioplast of the entire economy of man, without a single exception, and under every and all conditions of environment, must of necessity obtain its pabulum from a source other than that which constitutes its immediate en- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 181 vironment normally. That is to say, there is in every instance an intervening formed material existing be- tween the source of nutrient supply and the bioplasm to be nourished at the expense of such pabulum. The evidence in support of this proposition is absolutely conclusive, and will be furnished in part as we proceed. In the meantime, we see that the proposition involves the further statement that, therefore, every bioplast in the body, and outside the lumina of the vessels, exerts an attractive energy upon the blood-mass in degree precisely proportionate to its size and nutritive activity ; and its size and nutritive activity depends wholly upon the quantity and freedom of access of proper pabulum be with which it may supplied. The thicker and more dense the intervening substan- ces may be that exist between any single bioplast and its proper nutrient materials, will necessarily require a greater degree of energy to obtain the same quantita- tive results than would be the case were it otherwise. But this is a matter of but little moment-important as it is - as compared with the result following in the wake of an overly viscid, thick or dense blood-plasma or other nutritive substance. The more heat the mole- cules of a substance contain the more fluid such sub- stance wTill be; and the more fluid such substance is the more readily it can pass through any intervening materials; the more heat a substance contains, the greater the degree of change in volume in converting the same into bioplasm, and consequently the greater the relative attractive energy thus exerted, and the larger the relative amount of heat evolved in the pro- cess. Simple as this whole* process is, it is yet a many sided question from a physiological, pathological, and clinical point of view, and, therefore, demands our most careful and earnest consideration as medical men. 182 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Suppose we take it for granted that there is normally exerted an attractive energy upon the blood-mass, tend- ing to draw it out of its natural channels, through the wralls of the vessels, equivalent to the gravitative energy of say one pound for each cubic inch of tissue-elements in the entire body. Or we will put it in this form; there is an attractive energy of five pounds exerted upon the entire blood-mass by the bioplasm of the body, in the normal state of things, which tends to draw the plasma out through the walls of the vessels and in through the walls of the cells to the living matter which alone is the theater of nutritive activity. What, we ask, then, will be the effect, general and specifically, if the quantity of bioplasm be increased two-fold, four- fold, or in any other proportion whatever in some spec- ial tissue or organ of the body ? The answer is self-evident; the attractive energy will be increased in this special locality in the same propor- tionate degree; and if the bioplasm of two or more different kinds of tissue lives at the expense of such special pabulum, the bioplasts of the tissue or organ not thus affected will suffer a proportionate decrease in quantity, with a like increase of formed material at the expense of such bioplasm, UNLESS the pabulum suita- ble to their nutritive demands is increased in quantity in the same relative degree. Such an exaggerated nutri- tive activity as here assumed could not possibly occur in the absence of either an actual increase of the whole amount of such special pabulum normally existing in the body, or else as the specific result of a diversion of such pabulum in part or totally from one of its normal courses to another, as in the case of the skin and kid- neys, for example. Without such exciting causative in- fluence as just mentioned, the attractions previously ex- isting would mutually counteract any such tendency; THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 183 and right here let me state that when such a state of things once comes to exist, the natural tendency would just as certainly be to perpetuate it, and for the very same reason assigned on the other hand, were it not for the mechanical pressure ultimately brought to bear in many cases which tends to divert the blood strongly to its former channels in the one case, and to render it impossible for more blood to enter the organ in the other class of cases; the action is the same in both cases, however, as regards the organ specially affected, and the specific result in such organs is virtually the same also. We see this tendency to persist, after such an in- crease in the bioplasm of a part has taken place in those tissues which cannot exert a sufficient mechanical influence to overcome the strong attractive energy man- ifest in such locality, well marked in the so-called ca- tarrhal inflammations. The proposition, however, that I wish to impress more especially on the mind of the reader just now is, that the attractive energy exerted upon the blood-mass of any special part of the body, at any given time, all things else being equal, is exactly proportionate to the amount of bioplasm in such part, together with the rel- ative nutritive activity of such bioplasm; and that this latter depends wfliolly upon the freedom of access of such pabulum. It follows, therefore, that the relative nutritive activity of the various tissues, structures and organs of the entire economy will be in degree propor- tionate to the relative vascular supply of such part, all things else being equal. And not only so, but, coeterus paribus, disintegrative change will likewise be propor- tionately more active also, since the heat thus evolved will be in degree proportionate to the nutritive activity of such part, and it must be remembered that this heat 184 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. is evolved in the act of converting pabulum into bio- plasm and the latter into formed material, and hence that this heat is evolved within and not without the cell, so that it must necessarily produce its first disin- tegrative impression upon the outer portion of the wall of the respective cells in which it is primarilv evolved. The less the quantity of bioplasm in any individual cell the less the nutritive activity, the less the quantity of heat evolved, and the less the disintegrative products - whether these products be the so-called secretions, the excretions, or whatsoever their nature may be; and vice versa. That this proposition is absolutely true is proven by the most incontestible clinical evidence, as also by every known fact relating to the entire process of both assimilation and disassimilation. And what is more, it leaves no scientific basis as a foundation for a poisonous therapeutics, other than that which pertains to the office of the legalized executioner, and without the excuse which obtains in behalf of the latter. From a purely theoretical point bf view, where would we naturally expect to find the greatest vascularity, comparatively speaking? Most assuredly in those tis- sues and organs which are directly and specifically con- cerned in the work of secretion and excretion, if there is any truth in the fundamental doctrines upon which the theory of the extra-vascular circulation is based. I have some most beautiful injected specimens from the human subject in which all these relations are clearly seen under the microscope; and what is remarkable, and especially wTorthy of note, is that even the mucus epithelial-clad surfaces are actually found to be far more richly supplied wTith blood vessels - capillaries - than any one of the deeper situated tissues, not except- ing even the adipose tissues. Nay more, I have a transverse section of the vagina of a seven-months THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 185 old human foetus, in which all the tissues intervening between the canal and the walls of the pelvis are in- cluded, and I verily believe that the mucus structures proper are as richly supplied with capillaries as all the other tissues combined. Nevertheless this is one of the least active secretory structures of the entire body, especially at this early period of existence. When we thus examine the kidneys, the liver, the skin, the gastric, and other glands of the digestive tract, and compare their capillary vascular supply with that of those tissues and organs which are not directly concerned in the so-called vegetative functions of the body-such as the muscles, the bones, cartilages, nervous system, etc.,-we find the very same relative disparity as that observed in the case just mentioned. It is quite evident, therefore, that the nutritive, the formative, and the disintegrative activity in the first mentioned tissues and organs of the body is rela- tively and actually much greater than it is in those tissues and organs last mentioned. Now notice closely! These first named tissues and organs all get their nutrient supply directly from the blood-mass, just as is the case with the others mentioned; but the first mentioned tissues and organs differ from the second in this exceedingly important and significant respect; namely : They Discharge Their Disintegrated Products Into the Older World - so to speak - while the latter, whose assimilative and disassimilative activity is very slight, comparatively speaking, must have their waste products eliminated ultimately through the agency of some one or more of the first mentioned organs or structures, and hence must be drawn back into the blood-current before final elimination. It is a self-evident fact that every particle of both food and drink that enters into the composition of the 186 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. body must primarily have been derived from the outside world. Let us take it for granted, then, that the mus- cular, nervous and other such tissues and structures will consume, on an average, two pounds of food and drink combined - and this is a liberal estimate in my judgment - then they actually have the necessary amount of attractive energy to draw this quantity of plasmatic substance through the walls of the capillaries with which they are supplied, and through the formed material constituting the wall of each individual cell, into immediate contact with the living bioplasm to be nourished. The very energy required to draw this or any other quantity of fluid out of the lumina of the vessels would act just as forcibly at a different azimuth upon substances outside the vessels, otherwise the con- tents wTould be reduced in quantity from day to day in the same relative degree. It will not do to attribute this outflow of pabulum from the lumina of the vessels to the force of the car- diac contractions, since such an assumption would render it utterly impossible for new materials to find access to the lumina of the vessels to replace that which had been withdrawn, and thus the vascular contents would soon be entirely depleted or driven out, and no possible means of replenishing them would exist. All fluids must necessarily move in the direction of least resist- ance, and most assuredly the direction of least resist- ance of the blood-mass would be the rounds of the intra-vascular current, if no extraneous influence was operating to render the resistance less through the walls of the arterial side of the capillary system than it is through the lumina themselves. Moreover, such an assumption would just as completely fail to account for the marvelously wise preservative and conservative bal- ance between supply and demand which we have already THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 187 discussed to some considerable extent. It might quite seem plausible to suppose that the heart's contractions would be all-sufficient to force the blood plasma through the delicate walls of the capillaries without any extrinsic influence whatever; but it would be most unphilosophical to suppose that it could thus act upon the blood-mass and not at the same time just as forcibly resist the inflowing of materials to replace that which was driven out. Even granting the possibility of this utter impos- sibility, it yet remains a fact that no possible energy but an intrinsic energy can draw the pabulum through the wall of the cell to the living matter within, and which only of all things created can be nourished and grow and produce formed material or organic structure. We know that the conversion of a fluid into a semi- fluid, at the expense of an equivalent amount of heat as an ever-essential concomitant, will necessarily tend to produce a vacuum, whether it be within the organic cell or elsewhere; and the only possible way of escaping such a result is for some extrinsic matter to flow in and occupy the space thus made vacant. Should the conversion of pabulum into bioplasm even cease for a moment, then formative change instantly takes place in the outer and older portion of such mass or masses of bioplasm, and the condensation thus resulting within the cell or cells of such part involves the same result as above, unless more fluid flows in to fill the space otherwise left vacant. What is true of the cell as re- gards the tendency to the formation of a vacuum, is equally true of the lumina of the vessels whence they obtain their supply of pabulum; and hence, here too there must necessarily be an inflowing of fluids to take the place of that which has been withdrawn from them, otherwise they would be quickly deprived of their con- tents, providing it were ever practically possible to find them with contents. PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. 188 The vessels can only obtain the necessary materials with which to replenish such loss from two distinct sources; namely, from the alimentary canal on the one hand, and from the tissues and organs wdiose w7aste products are not discharged directly into the lumina of some canal which communicates with the outside world. If, then, the two pounds of mixed substances which we granted per day to the muscular, nervous, and other such structures, must be eliminated through the agency of other organs, as we know that they must; and since they must find their way first back into the lumina of the vessels before they can be eliminated, the energy here exerted on the one hand to draw the pabulum out of the vessels would be just precisely sufficient to draw the waste products of these same tissues back into the blood on the other hand-another marvelously wise provision of nature to establish and maintain an equili- brium or balance between the various processes of assimilation and disassimilation. Now notice again, This Leaves All the Other Tissues and Organs of the Body to Exert Their Entire Energy First upon the Blood-Mass, and Continuing the Pull - so to Speak-upon the Contents of the ALIMENTARY CANAL to Draw Them into the Blood Vessels. Any agent or class of agents that tends to kill or in- juriously affect any one or more of these two classes of bioplasm must also affect the absorptive powers of the entire economy in the same relative degree; and here is another wonderful provision of nature to preserve a balance between supply and demand, and none of which can be accounted for upon any other hypothesis than that of the source of the EXTRA-VASCULAR CIR- CULATION, as first promulgated by me, and here more fully elucidated. There is another remarkable difference between the THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 189 cells of these two classes of tissue-elements, and one that has strangely been entirely overlooked by all other microscopists. It is this ; the bioplasts or nuclei of the cells of the muscular, bone, cartilage, nervous, and all other structures which perform an animal function - so called - in contradistinction to those that perform a vegetative function, are invariably found in the center of the cell, or in other words surrounded on all sides by an equal quantity of formed material constituting their respective cell-walls. Thus far my observations are in harmony with those of other investigators ; but when it comes to a critical analysis of the cells of the secretory and excretory structures or those which per- form a vegetative function, such is not the case, the un- iversal teaching of all other microscopical investigators to the contrary notwithstanding. The germinal matter of every such cell will invariably be found resting directly upon its basement membrane, and without one particle of its own formed material in- tervening between the two. The same is true of the serous membranes also, a fact which seems to have been recognized by Rindfleisch, as shown in his work on "Pathological Histology,'- p. 258. He states in sub- stance : "In these cells the connection of the nuclei, that is, of the protoplasm with the homogeneous plate (formed material of cell), is not yet completely severed, but the moment of separation is evidently very near at hand. Upon one of the cells, or more properly bio- plasts, the formed material has already tipped over to the opposite side; upon a second, the nucleus is only held fast yet to the formed material or cell-wall by a thin thread of protoplasm; a third shows us the simul- taneous increase of the nuclei by division.-' He is here treating of inflammation of serous membranes, and in my rendering of his statement I have given the true 190 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. import of his own words. It is very evident that these nuclei could not grow and multiply away from the source of their nutrient supply, nor could they increase in size without a displacement of their formed products either by disintegration or separation of such products bodily. Had one looked directly down upon the surface of such a membrane in its normal state with his micro- scope, he would have seen the nuclei apparently occu- pying the very center of their respective formed pro- ducts, and would thus almost certainly have been led to an erroneous conclusion. Rindfleisch seems to have been so fully imbued with this false conception of the actual relative position of the nuclei of these and other thus allied cells, as to have utterly failed to at- tach any importance to his wonderful discovery. And his statement seems to have not even attracted the notice of other writers on this subject. I have critically examined sections of nearly if not quite all of the various secretory and excretory struc- tures of the human body, and in every instance I found the nuclei resting directly upon the specific basement membrane when the sections examined had been cut in the direction necessary to reveal the true relations of cell and basement membrane ; namely, transversal to the latter. See Kidney Chart. These relative positions of the nuclei of the two classes of cells (the secretory, excretory and basement membrane on the one hand, and the bone, muscle, nerve and other such cells on the other hand) are not only susceptible of actual ocular demonstration, but a fact of both theoretical and scientific necessity; and are due to or dependent upon the relative arrangement of the vas- cular supply, respectively. Theoretically and practically, a muscle could not contract, with any degree of energy at least, if the cells were situated upon a basement THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 191 membrane with a view to draw their nutrient supply from such a one-sided source, or for any other purpose whatever - the result would be virtually the same. The bioplasm nearest the source of such nutrient sup- ply would be the first to come in contact with the same, and it would, therefore, be the theater of constant nutritive activity on the one azimuth, and at the oppo- site point (that most distant from the nutrient supply), it would just as constantly undergo formative change normally; and thus a one-sided position of the bioplasm would be perpetuated so long as a normal or restricted nutrient supply was maintained. This would be an un- fortunate state of affairs in the case of the muscles es- pecially; but it is just precisely what is theoretically, scientifically, physiologically and practically demanded in the case of the secretory and excretory cells, whether situated upon a basement membrane or not. All such cells are thus situated, however, except those of the liver, and even these may be said to be thus situated if we may be allowed to call the wall of the vessel upon which each liver cell respectively rests its basement membrane. Were' these cells situated otherwise, or. more properly, were the nuclei surrounded on all sides by their own formed products, then the natural tendency would be that the formed material would undergo disintegration on every side also; and this would inevitably lead to the separation of the entire cell - nucleus and all - from its attachment to the basement membrane, thus leaving the latter entirely denuded of its epithelial lin- ing, and which alone is competent to perform the spe- cific physiological function characteristic of such tissue or organ. Moreover, " The cell is the morphological unit of organization ; the physiological source of specialized func- tion," and hence there could be no possible restoration 192 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of function, since every cell at its origin is a mass of naked living matter, which thus having been lost would utterly prevent the rehabilitation of the tubules or other basement membrane with its normal epithelial lining. The interstices of all tissues are constantly occupied wTith fluids during life; and where the cells of a struc- ture are so situated that they can only draw their nutri- ent supply from one particular side or azimuth, they must by virtue of the laws of nutrition already spoken of have their germinal matter resting immediately upon the basement membrane, which latter is always in im- mediate contact with, if not a specific support for the blood vessels. The reverse of this would be and is true of those cells which obtain their nutrient supply from all sides or every azimuth of the field of view - so to speak. This is precisely the case with reference to the muscle, bone, nerve, cartilage, and other such cells, and hence they all possess centrally located bio- plasts. Just the opposite of this is the case with the other class of cells, and their nuclei are in absolute contact with their respective basement membranes, and this point of contact is precisely the point of their greatest diameter, whatever the shape of the formed material of such individual cell may be. We are now prepared to fully appreciate a fact of paramount importance, especially as regards the specific question which constitutes the theme of this chapter; namely, the "vital affinity" or selective capacity of these eliminative bioplasts-if I may so call them with- out being misconstrued - by which they can take into themselves and convert into their own substance that which constitutes their own proper and indispensable pab- ulum, and reject all other substances which may be pres- ent either in the blood or in the interspaces of the sur- rounding tissue-elements. The bioplasm of these cells R-12 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 193 so nearly in contact with the fluids occupying the lumina of the capillaries and the interspaces, nothing but a delicate membrane intervening between the two, they have only to take into themselves and convert those elements which constitute their proper pabulum into their own substance, and any remaining elements, such as they cannot use as pabulum, are simply carried away in the return circulation, or else appropriated by the bioplasm of the tissue-elements of such part, and which do not come under the category of secreting and excreting cells. Did the nucleus occupy an absolutely central position in these cells, as Histologists invariably represent them as doing, then the whole tendency wTould be for the mixed contents of the blood-mass to flow into the center of the cell both in the process of converting pabulum into bioplasm and the latter into formed material, and soon - very soon-an accumulation of such elements as were in no wise adapted to the nutritive demands or even capacities of such bio- blasm would take place, and thus the physiological purpose of the cell as also its vital existence would in deed be of short duration, and when cast off no living matter left to regenerate a new cell. I say such would be the inevitable result in the case of this class of cells, had they such a constitution as here indicated, since there is not, and in the very nature of things could not be any actuating influence operating at an opposite point to cause such fluids to pass on through the substance of the cell into the return circulation, as is the case with the muscles, etc.-every muscular fibre, for example, being completely surrounded by a network of capillaries. Those who have a good microscope, and who know7 how to use it, can very easily determine the fact as to the real position of these bioplasts or nuclei, if they 194 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. will but observe the precautions above indicated in se- lecting sections which have been cut in the proper di- rections. To those who are not so fortunate as to pos- sess such an instrument, I have this to say : Bioplasm instantly converts fluid pabulum (it can convert no kind of matter other than fluid) into its own substance on simply coming in contact with it, just as absorbent paper instantly takes into its meshes water when brought into direct contact with it. The bioplasm farthest away from the source of this pabulum is neces- sarily the very last to come in contact with the same, however freely such pabulum may be supplied, just as is the case with the absorbent paper and the water; and the paper will be wetted just to .the extent of its capacity to absorb water on the one hand, and on the other hand in degree proportionate to the supply of water with which to satisfy its absorptive powers - so to speak - precisely as the bioplasm will be nourished and grow at the expense of pabulum, on the one hand in proportion to its own capacity, and on the other hand to the extent or freedom of supply of its proper and indispensable pabulum. It would be just as philosophical, and just as true to Nature to expect to find a centrally wetted spot in the absorbent paper proportionate in size to the quantity of water used, as it is to describe and expect to find the nucleus in the center of this class of cells. Anyone who will carefully investigate this subject with a con- scientious effort to ascertain the actual truth of the matter will be fully convinced of the facts as I have stated them here, and will also realize the fundamental importance of a correct conception of this whole matter from a purely practical standpoint of view. This will be much more apparent, however, when we come to dis- cuss the subject of inflammation, especially so as re- gards Nephritis. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 195 Yea Verily, '"The cell is the morphological unit of organization; the Physiological source of Specialized function," and bioplasm is the proximate cause, the phy- siological source, of both the 'cells and their functional manifestations ; and the so-called "selective affinities," or " vital affinity " as some term it, is nothing more nor less than their own individual or respective nutritive capaci- ties whereby the bioplasts are respectively enabled to as- similate certain substances and reject all others. And this brings us to a question of double import relative to this matter. That is, that every variety of tissue and structure of the entire body thus far specifically men- tioned, must possess the necessary means of not only se- curing its own proper supply of pabulum from the gen- eral blood-mass, but also of getting rid of its own waste matters together with any other matters which may have escaped through the walls of the capillaries with that which constitutes their proper pabulum. Each and every parenchymatous island of the entire body, there- fore is supplied with a commodious return circulation of its own, so that not only is there provision made whereby an equilibrium between supply and demand can be perfectly maintained, but the eliminative capac- ity of each individual part is just as perfectly balanced so as to prevent any possible accumulation of disinte- grated products and other substances which may happen to be present normally. The waste necessarily being equal to repair, it follows that those tissues and organs which perform an animal function, and which do not, therefore, discharge their waste products into the outer world, will theoretically be more abundantly supplied with venous return channels relatively than those which perform a distinctively vegetative function ; and so we find it in actual fact on investigation. While this ar- rangement is absolutely necessary to the functional ca- 196 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. pacity and the assimilative and disassimilative balance or equilibrium of such part, it is most unfortunate that such an arrangement must exist so long as there exists those who are so foolish and insanely credulous as to submit to a poisonous system of medication under the idiotic belief that poisons will cure and not kill. Taking it for granted that the tissue elements thus far mentioned are competent to draw into the vessels materials equal in volume to that drawn out in the pro- cess of nutritive and formative change, then we would have an overplus of attractive energy as a special reserve force, to draw the nutritive and waste sub- stances into the lumina of the vessels, equal to that exerted by the white-blood corpuscles, the lymphoid particles, the bioplasm or lymph globules of the lymph- atic glands, the augminated and solitary glands of the bowels-in a certain sense - the contractile energy of the intestinal walls, and the peculiar influence of the lungs. All the living germinal elements here named, as also the bioplasm of the liver cells, are utterly incompe- tent to convert the fully elaborated blood-plasma into their own substance, but must live and grow at the ex- pense of the digested food-substances on the one hand, and the waste products of the non-vegetative functional elements on the other hand. These elements are all in more or less complete structural continuity - so to speak --with the venous side of the circulation; they are in absolute functional continuity with the lumina of the veins, and consequently draw their nutrient supply in- differently from the body at large or from the alimen- tary canal, just as the case may be. The arrangement and position of the cardiac and venous valves are such as to absolutely forbid that the general tissue-elements should exert their attractive energy in any other than the direction in which the blood current naturally flows ; THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 197 namely, out of the arterial capillaries and back into the venous circulation again. The valves would in- stantly check any tendency of the blood to flow in an opposite direction, whether the energy exerted was primarily within the general tissues or in the course of the venous channels themselves. The venous valves were, no doubt, thus placed for this very purpose. Hence, any attractive energy that may be made must be from the arterial blood-mass to the tissues, and from the tissues back to the blood-mass on the venous side of the circulation, and in precisely the direc- tion in which the blood is actually flowing. Surely no one who possesses any knowledge whatever of philos- ophy, or even of mechanics, can doubt the truth of the statements here made; and yet the acceptance of this fact consistently involves the acceptance of every other fact and argument thus far offered in support of the Extra-Vascular Circulation theory here advanced. Sure- ly this theory is founded in fact then, or else the Creator must have made a profoundly egregious mistake in putting these valves in the veins at all. The absorption of the food-elements from the alimentary canal, and their transformation into bioplasm, take place on the venous side of the circulation ; and I shall soon show that the subsequent disintegration and transforma- tion of these latter into the fully elaborated blood- plasma take place much more slowly in the arterial side of the circulation, and herein will be found another wonderful provision to secure an equilibrium between demand on the part of the general tissue-elements and their supply. Whatsoever is lost in volume by the general nutritive process from the arterial side of the circulation is, therefore, restored to the venous current from the two sources already mentioned, and thus a quantitative balance is provided for here also. 198 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Prof. Dalton states that "The blood of the portal system, containing albuminose, sugar, and molecular fat, is carried at once to the liver, where it traverses the capillary vessels of this organ before reaching the vena cava and the right side of the heart. The chyle, on the other hand, containing also a large proportion of fatty ingredients, passes by the thoracic duct directly to the left sub-clavian vein and is there mingled with the re- turning current of the venous blood. But all these sub- stances, after entering the circulation and coming in contact with the organic ingredients of the blood, are modified in such a way as no longer to be recognizable under their or- iginal form. This change takes place very rapidly with the albuminose and the sugar, both of which are taken up in greatest proportion by the blood vessels and are carried at once through the hepatic capillaries. The albuminose passes, in all probability, into the condition of ordinary albumen, while the sugar rapidly becomes decomposed, or transformed, and loses its characteristic properties; so that, on arriving at the entrance of the general circulation, both these newly absorbed ingredients have become already assimilated to those 'which previously existed in the blood. The fatty matters also, which reach the blood on the right side of the heart both by the portal and hepatic veins, and by the thoracic duct and sub clavian vein, undergo a transformation while passing through the lungs by which their distinctive characters are destroyed, and they are no longer visible as oleagi- nous molecules. This alteration is so complete, during the early part of digestion, or when the proportion of fat in the food is small, that all the oleaginous matter disappears in the lungs and none of it is to be detected in the blood of the general circulation. * * * In this manner the nu- tritive elements of the food, prepared for absorption by the digestive process, are taken up into the circulation THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 199 under the different forms of albuminose, sugar, and chyle, and accumulate as such, at certain times, in the blood. But these conditions are temporary and transi- tional. The nutritive materials soon pass by transforma- tion into other forms, and become assimilated to the pre-ex- isting elements of the circulating fluid. In this way they accomplish finally the object of digestion, and replenish the blood by a supply of new materials from without." - Human Physiology, pp. 199, 200. With regard to sugar, he says - p. 339: "The pro- portion of sugar in the blood, however, constantly dimin- ishes as it recedes from the point of its origin, since the saccharine blood coming from the liver is diluted with that of the inferior vena cava, and this mixture again with that of the superior vena cava, before reaching the right cavities of the heart. Beyond the pulmonary circulation, under ordinary circumstances, it has disap- peared altogether, so that no sugar is to be found, as a rule, in the blood of the general circulation." The above is a very clear and forcible statement of facts of experimental observation in the main, and, hence, we must attribute the transformation of these food-elements into new forms to* one or the other of two agencies; namely, to a combustion process taking place wholly and essentially in the lungs, or else to the nutritive activity of the bioplasm in functional contin- uity with the venous circulation. If the former propo- sition be accepted, then there can be no possible trans- formation of the sugar and fat into the products of combustion short of the lungs, since venous blood has not the atmospheric element necessary to such chemical change. This is rather hard on the statement of fact that-"The proportion of sugar [and fat] in the blood, however, constantly diminishes as it recedes from the point of its origin," which is in the alimentary canal, 200 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. and not in the liver as stated. And since "Beyond the pulmonary circulation, under ordinary circumstances, it has [they have] disappeared altogether," it is very evi- dent that the chemical interchange must take place wholly and entirely in the lungs, and nowhere else. And since the chemical transformation is, and of neces- sity must be, very rapid, the heat evolving powers of the lungs are very great during and for a short time subsequent to the ingestion of a meal, and then the car- bonaceous elements of the blood being used up, the fire goes out, the temperature falls to that of the surround- ing elements, there being no farther use for oxygen the respirations cease also, and a state of complete uncon- sciousness supervenes, lasting until another meal - or longer. The experimental evidence conclusively estab- lishes the fact that the elements of combustion are found in the lungs and nowhere else in the body under circumstances in which such union could possiblv take place; and since they have already kindled the fire here in this special locality, and so completely succeeded in burning up the combustible substances as to leave nothing to burn anywhere else, we will forsake the teachings of Malachi, therefore, on the one hand, or else the combustion dogma of the Chemical school on the other hand, for a more convenient season. See Lec- ture on Animal Heat. Any one who has ever seen bioplasm under the microscope, and has observed it undergoing more or less rapid increase in size, at the expense of the pabu- lum with which it was supplied, can readily compre- hend why the digested elements should "constantly diminish" in quantity, as such distinctive elements of the food, as they recede from the point of their origin, and that the bioplasm just as constantly, and in the same relative degree should increase proportionately, provid- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 201 ing these food-elements are actually destined for food and not for fuel. The difference in volume between the fluid pabulum, on the one hand, and the resulting bio- plasm, on the other hand, would be a measure of the quantity of heat evolved, as also of the ' amount of at- tractive energy exerted thus far and at such time in drawing the former into the lumina of the vessels. If, however, he should expect to discover the relative in- crease of bioplasm wholly within the lumina of the vessels per se he would be somewhat disappointed, since the LIVER especially takes a peculiarly active part in this process at this particular time. Its nutri- tive, formative, and disintegrative changes are much more active at this time than at any other period of the twenty-four hours ; and essentially so, too, for the very excellent reason that its own pecul- iar or proper form of pabulum is being supplied in much greater quantity than at any other period, its nutritive activity is therefore proportionately increased, all things else being equal; and hence the evolution of heat is augmented proportionately also, and this heat must produce its equivalent increase in disintegrative energy upon the formed material of the hepatic cells, thus providing for an increased secretion and con- sequent flow of bile into the intestinal canal at the pre- cise time when it is most needed-and by its discharge from the liver favoring the absorptive process by trans- position and displacement. And here again we have an- other marvelous display of Creative wisdom, another perfect arrangement to secure and maintain a balance or equilibrium between supply and demand. The white blood corpuscles, lymphoid particles, lymph globules, ductless glands, and perhaps the vascular bio- plasts take up any remaining digestive substances not appropriated by the liver, and quickly transform them 202 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. into their own substance, and thus in a comparatively short space of time, the transformation of these ele- ments into such bioplasm is complete. If we will but stop and consider the relatively large venous capillary supply to the liver, and again in the lungs where all the venous blood of the entire body must ultimately pass through on its rounds of the circulation; and of the time consumed in the circulation through the liver especially, and that the white blood corpuscles do ac- tually accumulate in the veins in far the greatest rela- tive numbers, I think we will have no difficulty in thus accounting for the disappearance of the food-ele- ments as such previous to their reaching the arterial side of the circulation. The very fact that the food-elements are taken into the venous circulation and normally entirely disappear as such before reaching the left side of the heart, is evidence of the fact that these bioplasts above men- tioned are the active agents in transforming them into new compounds. Those who have espoused the physical theory of life have endeavored to explain the phenomena of the extra- vascular circulation upon purely chemical principles (if their self-contradictory and meagre efforts in this direc- tion may be called such), but there are too many facts which controvert such a hypothesis to admit of its ac- ceptance, and there are many facts that fully demon- strate the utter falsity of the proposition. When chem- ical union takes place the elements thus combined lose their individual identity and gain new characteristics as a corporate body, while in the process of nutrition the pabulum is changed, the bioplasm remaining precisely the same in both its physical properties and chemical composition. Moreover, bioplasm is not, neither indeed can it be, a chemical product, as is conclusively proven THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 203 by all the facts of biology and histology. See Lecture II. All the elements of the entire body primarily come from the food we eat, and hence, if chemical affinities exist unsatisfied in the digested products, union should take place in the alimentary canal; and if not here, then surely in the lungs. This might in a measure af- ford an explanation of this part of the extra-vascular circulation - plus a great many absurdities and contra- dictions- but this is only a small fraction of the extra- vascular circulation, as we have already seen, since we find that the tissues of man are the subjects of disinte- gration as well as integration the subjects of waste as well as of repair - and hence that certain effete ele- ments must be got rid of through the operation of life- force. And, as before stated, it is a remarkable fact, the clinical importance of which cannot be over-esti- mated, that those tissues and organs which undergo most rapid waste and repair, which perform a secretory or an excretory function, are the very ones that com- municate with, and discharge their waste products into, the outside world. These are the tissues which are most richly supplied with arterial blood-vessels, and in which the bioplasm is most active in nutritive change, and is greatest in relative quantity, and consequently it is here in these tissues that the greatest amount of en- ergy is exerted in the way of securing and maintaining the extra-vascular circulation. The waste products of those tissues and structures which do not communicate with the outside world through the medium of excretory dues - for instance, muscle, bone, nerve, cartilage, etc. - are exceedingly slight in quantity, comparatively speaking, and are sim- ply designed for the purpose of maintaining the organ- ism in a state of purity, vigor and strength. Now it is 204 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. a matter of almost absolute certainty that all these re- gressive products, which must find their way back into the lumina of the vessels before final elimination, do constitute just so much pabulum for the venous bio- plasts already named, and that they can be appropriated by no other living matter of the entire body. In harmony with these statements, therefore, we should find an increase in the relative number of white blood corpuscles, and such other bioplasts as are allied to these in nutritive function, in all cases in which there is increased waste of those tissues which do not discharge their regressive elements into the outside world. And the same thing should prove equally true in cases in which an increased eliminative burden is im- posed upon them, as in a case of pregnancy, for ex- ample. Now, it is a well-known fact that in the case of frogs and other hibernating animals, in the spring of the year, when the muscles have become fatty-degenerated and greatly atrophied, the white blood corpuscles are exceedingly numerous, notwithstanding that they have constantly undergone disintegrative change on the other hand, and thus yielded up a portion of their substance as pabulum for the nervous and other tissues necessary to the continuance of co-ordinate vitality.' They grew at the expense of the fatty, albuminous and glycogenic elements thus furnished by the regressive changes tak- ing place in such tissues, and were then disintegrated, thus forming new compounds suited to the nutritive de- mands of the nerve-structures, etc., just as is the case in the process of fully elaborating the food-elements after disintegration has been effected in the alimentary canal. In the emaciation of fevers, of tuberculosis and other long-continued cases of sickness, and especially in cases THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 205 of the so-called Leucocythsamia, the number of white cor- puscles in the blood is greatly increased, with a simultaneous diminution of the red corpuscles. And here again we have a display of that Infinite wisdom by and through which provision is made in order to maintain a balance between supply aud demand. Just notice carefully: "In this disease the number of white corpuscles in the blood is greatly increased, with a simultaneous diminu- tion of the red, brought about by chronic exhausting diseases, exposure to cold and wet, or serious acute affections - such as typhus fever, pneumonia, puerperal fever, affections of the lymphatic glands or of the spleen. * * * The increase of the colorless corpuscles of the blood, which is the prominent character of this affection, does not seem in any case to have existed or occurred by itself. Other morbid states precede, co-exist or suc- ceed the augmentation of the colorless, the most fre- quent of which is the enlargement of the spleen, an en- largement so constant that its existence, if not other- wise accounted for, would at once indicate that leucocy- thaemia prevailed, and would suggest a microscopic ex- amination of the blood. The liver is also frequently enlarged, but not to so remarkable a degree as the spleen. Affections of the lymphatic glands also predom- inate in some cases, when the elements of the lymphatic glands prevail in the blood, which is then characterized by innumerable round granulated nuclei, generally pro- vided with nucleoli, of the size of the usual nuclei of the lymphatic glands. * * * 77/e disease generally runs a chronic course, - and a high degree of emaciation accom- panies it. * * * It is not till towards the fatal termi- nation that any fever sets in, which then assumes the hectic type."-" Encyclopcedic Index of Medicine and Sur- gery," Birmingham. Oh the blind stupidity and intellectual impotency of 206 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. those who advocate and endorse the chemical theory of life! Why can they not realize the simple axiomatic fact that nothing, no not even bioplasm, can grow or increase in quantity without something at the expense of which to grow and increase ? Can they not see the nutritive relationship existing between the bioplasm of the blood, liver, spleen, lymphatic, and other bioplasts of the venous side of the circulation on the one hand, and the products of "a high degree of emaciation'' on the other hand? Can they not appreciate the fact that about all the heat evolved in the nutrition of these bioplasts on the one hand, is economized or rendered latent in the process of disintegration on the other hand? Are they yet totally ignorant of the fact that no kind of animal bioplasm, not even that of the venous side of the circulation, much less that of the arterial side, can live without a due supply of oxygen, and that, therefore, the less the amount of the latter kind of bioplasm especially, the less the demand for oxygen, and consequently for oxygen-carriers ? I know that this is rather severe on the combustion theory of heat, particularly if such a process must take place in the lungs - as it must if at all - but it is better that this absurd theory suiter, than that the Bioplasm Die. Are they aware that white blood corpuscles undergo transformation into red cor- puscles under proper nutritive restrictions, and that this is in harmony with a universal law relating to this mat- ter, so that bioplasm freely supplied with pabulum grows and multiplies rapidly, but does not undergo for- mative change under such circumstances; that if the pabulum be now greatly reduced relatively the bioplasm just as certainly undergoes disintegrative change, but if there be a proper balance obtained between the two they grow7 on the one hand at the expense of the pab- ulum, and just as constantly undergo formative change THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 207 on the other, and that this latter, in the case of the red corpuscles as elsewhere, is prevented from accumu- lating injuriously by the disintegrative energy of heat? In accordance with this statement we should find on careful investigation that the nutrititive activity of any given part or any special kind of bioplasm will be de- termined by the quantity and facility of access of proper pabulum on the one hand, and the relative quantity of such bioplasm to be nourished on the other. I do not want to be disgustingly prolix, nevertheless It IS a Universal Law governing the Nutritive changes of Living Matter that when the Access of Pabulum Is Unre- stricted They Grow and Multiply Rapidly; If the Nutritive Supply be materially Restricted They do not multiply, but while they Grow, at the expense of the former they just as constantly lose by formative change in their outer part, and this latter is prevented from accumulating injuriously by disintegration and final elimination. If, however, the nu- trient supply be wholly cut off from any given part, the living matter, as also the formed material, soon un- dergoes fatty or other regressive metamorphosis. Should the nutritive supply be greatly reduced rela- tively, however, but not entirely cut off. then a propor- tionate quantity of the bioplasm will undergo disinte- grative change, and a balance between supply and de- mand will be thus secured, and should this supply re- main permanent formative change will supervene and thus preserve this equilibrium. Vital force can only integrate bioplasm, then, at the expense of proper pabulum, and any change in the quantity of the latter must necessarily produce its equivalent effect upon the bioplasm itself. This fact is beautifully exemplified in cases in which an initial lesion of cells has occurred, as for instance, a fatty granular disintegration of a limited number of bone 208 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. corpuscles, or in which an injury has been sustained whereby a loss of vitality and of structural integrity of a circumscribed part of the economy is superinduced. It is a self-evident fact that such a part is no longer competent to be nourished ; no longer capable of per- forming its functions; that it is in fact a dead and disturbing - although perfectly passive - element, and ought to be got rid of and new structure developed in its stead. The bioplasm of the contiguous elements takes on increased nutritive activity - not in consequence of a stimulus or "irritant applied to it" - but simply as the inevitable result of an increased access of pabu- lum to the living matter of such part. The number and capacity of the blood-vessels distributed to any given part is proportionate to the physiological demands of such part, and while it must be admitted that tfiese remain the same in numbers, and are but slightly in- creased in caliber, we find nevertheless, that there is a more abundant supply of pabulum for the elements just spoken of, for the bioplasm of the injured tissues has lost its vitality, and consequently has ceased to be the theater of nutritive activity, and this nutrient matter still flowing as freely as ever to the parts is now ap- propriated by the living matter contiguous thereto. These bioplasts are thereby *caused to grow more rap- idly, the increased evolution of heat soon disintegrates the formed material of their cell-walls, and they thus return to the embryonal condition. As they increase in numbers their attractive energy increases also, and thus an increased afflux of pabulum is provided for. and the heat now dvolved goes to disintegrate the dead mass, which is removed through the agency of the blood, vascular, and other venous eliminative bioplasts. The circumferential bioplasts draw their nutrient sup- ply, therefore, from that which was being regularly dis- R-13 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 209 tributed to them by virtue of their anatomical position, from that which formerly passed by them on its way to the bioplasm of the now dead tissues, and i*n part as a result of their own increased attractive energy, and a diminished resistance to the flow of pabulum through the now embryonal walls of the capillaries. But all these sources of supply would not be sufficient to compensate for the increase of germinal elements over and above that normally existing in the parts thus involved, and which increase is so absolutely essential to the repair of the lesion, hence formative change must supervene at such time as a balance between supply and demand has been obtained, and at a point where the greatest resistance to the flow of pabulum exists. Upon the whole, then, we are forced to conclude that the constantly augmenting volume of bioplasm exerts a just as constantly increasing attractive energy, thus leading to a more rapid transudation of fluid pabulum through the walls of the vessels, a more rapid circula- tion through these latter as a secondary consequence, until finally the limit of capacity has been reached. The bioplasm is thus enabled to increase so as to even- tually equal, or even exceed in many instances, the vol- ume of the* original structure, when, by virtue of the mechanical pressure which they ultimately exert on the now embryonal blood-vessels and their relative propor- tionate increase over the available pabulum, a formative change is determined, and thus the reparative process is completed. I can conceive of no greater display of creative wis- dom than is made manifest in the physiological arrange- ment and anatomical conformation whereby the nutri- tion, growth and multiplication, formative change, disin- tegration and elimination, and finally the functional action of BIOPLASM, is determined and controlled. 210 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Nor can I conceive of anything more absurdly errone- ous, or more dangerously pernicious, than to thwart the vis vitce in -the accomplishing of these processes by the use of poisons or otherwise. In the case of leucocythaemia, for instance, it is evi- dent that the use of any agent that tends to destroy or even diminish the quantity or nutritive activity of the white blood corpuscles, and other such eliminative bio- plasts, otherwise than by correcting the primary condi- tions upon which their increased nutrient supply was and is dependent, will be to leave a mass of effete mat- ter in the substance of the tissues to still farther ob- struct them in the performance of their specific func- tions and render a curable disease, in many instances, as I know from actual observation, absolutely fatal, as it now is in "regular" practice. It seems to me that an American dude ought to pos- sess sufficient sense to know better than to kill the very elements to which he must look as the primary source of every and all his charms. The disease does not "consist in a too rapid increase of the living or germinal elements, of an addition to rather than a sub- traction from a part," as Dr. Beale asserts, but just the reverse; "and, hence, if in many morbid cases in- creased destruction [of the living or germinal matter] could [NOT] be brought about, the diseased state would cease."-Disease of Kidneys. Having thus forcibly shown that the Nutritive Capac- ity of this class of bioplasts is such as enables them to appropriate the so-called proximate principles - the fatty, albuminose, and the glycogenic elements, and knowing that having once learned their capacities in this direction, as well as in every other direction, that we have learned it for all time and under every and all possible circumstances, since this capacity is absolutely THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 211 fixed, definite, limited to just this kind of pabulum and no other, and eternally immutable, we know just what elements transform the digested products into bioplasm, and what subsequently undergo disintegration into the fully elaborated pabulum for the higher forms of bio- plasm- so to speak. Now, during the process of digestion the elaborative bioplasts, if I may so call them, are richly supplied with pabulum suitable to their specific nutritive capaci- ties, and hence they grow and multiply rapidly in har- mony with the Law so freely emphasized. This sup- ply, however, is not constant, but periodical, and hence the time soon comes when there is a very marked re- duction in the amount of pabulum suitable to their nu- tritive capacities, by virtue of the suspension of this particular source of supply, thus leaving them wholly dependent upon the regressive products of the muscu- lar, nervous, bony, cartilaginous, and other such tissues for the supply of pabulum for the time being. The in- evitable consequence is that- while they all grew and multiplied rapidly in the first instance, the greater number of them now undergo disintegration, or solution if you please, and thus furnish pabulum for the higher order of bioplasm. This process of solution is not so rapid as their growth and multiplication was, but is constant, regular, and persistent, by virtue of several in- fluences acting conjointly to produce such an effect. In the first place the digested products, although quickly removed from the alimentary canal in the main, still ex- ist in greatly reduced quantity to be much more slowly absorbed into the circulation. Then again, the white corpuscles of the blood, as also the lymphoid elements, are being constantly transported in greater or less num- bers into the arterial side of the circulation, away from the source of their nutrient supply, where they undergo 212 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. disintegration, thus supplying the above mentioned bio- plasts with pabulum. In this way a balance between demand and supply of pabulum to these bioplasts is provided for and constantly maintained so long as a nor- mal state of the economy exists. And thus we see that these venous bioplasts exert an intrinsic energy within the lumina of the vessels while actively increasing in size and numbers, and also tend to increase the outward flow of blood-plasma through the walls of the arterial capillaries after the nutritious elements of the meal have been fully converted into their own substance, and dis- integrative change supervenes. The amount of energy thus exerted will be in degree proportionate to the dif- ference in density between the pabulum on the one hand and that of the bioplasm into which it is con- verted, and on the other hand the difference in density of the latter and its resultant product - the blood- plasma. The profound nutritive disturbances which are so eminently characteristic in typhoid fever, and the re- markable inefficiency of sanative agents to accomplish much if any curative influence, and the comparatively little harm effected in these cases by the "regular" nonsensical use of poisons, are thus rendered clear to us if we have fully comprehended the facts and arguments presented in this lecture. The animal ptomaines taken into the alimentary canal in the food or drink, and which are the real cause of the typhoid lesions - and not the little vegetable germs or microscopic buzzards which live and grow at the expense of these ptomaines whether in or out of the body - kill great numbers of these bioplasts in functional continuity with the venous circulation, and thus the liver, the spleen, the lym- phatic glands, the lymph and the blood corpuscles, the epithelia of the pulmonary air cells, and all such bio- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 213 plasts will suffer in all their functional attributes in de- gree proportionate to the amount of such loss of vital integrity. The source of the pabulum for the nutrition of the higher forms of bioplasm will thus be propor- tionately diminished, and the entire bodily nutrition will thereby be affected injuriously to the same degree ; the general and specific sources of extra-vascular circula- tion will be proportionately diminished, the regressive changes still continuing, in a modified degree, however, and thus absorption both from the alimentary canal and the tissues in general is greatly diminished or entirely suspended. Cornil and Ranvier state in their work on Pathologi- cal Histology : "In the hard patches it is easy with the naked eye to see the process of ulceration by mortification of a more or less extensive portion of an isolated follicle or a Peyer's patch." There is, therefore, an initial lesion of the elements concerned in the absorption and transformation of the food substances first into bioplasm and subsequently into pabulum for the higher forms of bioplasm, which must be due to some active poison, since it is not the result of nutritive disturbances, but does result in such dis- turbances. The death of these elements, in other words, is not the effect of nutritive disturbances, but the cause of such disturbances. The above named eminent Pathologists classify "Les- ions of Nutrition of Elements and of Tissues " thus : "A. Lesions occasioned by death of the elements and of the tissues. " B. Lesions occasioned by insufficient nutrition of the elements (atrophy)." They state that "death supervenes under two condi- tion : 1st, from arrest of circulation; 2d, as a conse- quence of initial lesion of cells," 214 PHYSIOLOGY ! ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Tanner's fast of forty days, with no evil conse- quences following so far as we have any knowledge, is proof of two things at least; namely, that these duct- less glands, as also the other bioplasts belonging to this great nutritive subdivision, can and do live at the expense of the increased regressive products, when their direct supply from the alimentary canal is entirely suspended; and that they undergo disintegrative change, on the other hand, and thus supply the general tissues with a modicum of pabulum for a considerable period of time at least. And secondly, as a deduction from the first; that the death of these elements did not and does not result from any possible nutritive disturbances whatever in cases of typhoid fever, and was, therefore, directly due to the destructive effect of some poisonous substance taken into the alimentary canal with the food or drink as the case may be. Atrophy of these ductless glands as a result of insuf- ficient nutrition of the elements does take place in the aged as a natural and inevitable result of the gen- eral fibroid changes which are characteristic of this class of individuals, as also of the inebriate. But this change is perfectly natural, and is another evidence of that wise provision whereby Nature is ever striving successfully to preserve a balance between supply and demand. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" was no idle or puerile statement, but a scientific proposition so deep, a truth so profound, that it has remained an unsolved mystery during all the intervening centuries from the time it was first spoken until now. It simply means work or starve, and work or starve it is. If we have not the muscle, nervous, or other animal function- ing bioplasts in quantity in old age that we had when younger, we do not need so much pabulum for their THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 215 nutritive supply, and unless an equilibrium was super- induced somehow or other, a burden -would be imposed upon organs incompetent to bear it under existing cir- cumstances, hence the blessing "Cursed is the Earth for Thy Sake " proclaims His Love. I am dealing with infinite progression "in multitudes of parallel lines " ; and, hence, if the Creator of man gives me a hint of the Philosophy of Nutrition occa- sionally, and the creature can't, I trust the reader will not feel too greatly offended. Now, while the death of these elements, in cases of typhoid fever, is most unfortunate, yet it is a fact, for which we should be devoutly thankful, that thus they are prevented from absorbing more of the same poison- ous substances into the general circulation, there to work incalculable injury to the economy at large. It also has the gratifying preservative effect, or prophy- lactic influence, of preventing the absorption of poison- ous agents given with the best of intentions, but with the very worst of judgment. Even sanative agents given by the mouth are in like manner rejected ; and we all are, therefore, compelled to "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord," in this one of the most des- perate of professional straits - the boastings of many to the contrary notwithstanding. The very best service anyone can render in this class of cases, is to seek out, find and eliminate every source of poisoning to which the patient is subjected, and give the bioplasm of his entire body a free field and unrestrained action. Don't fret about the sensible heat, let it perform its disintegrative work freely upon the formed elements, and thus become latent in effecting a restoration of the secretions and excretions. Give plenty of water as a menstruum to hold these disintegrated products in solution, and trust the Lord. 216 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. The contractions and expansions of the lungs and chest-walls, act not to diminish or increase the volume of blood in the pulmonary vessels directly, but act spe- cifically upon the air-cells, to expel carbon dioxide and vapor, on the one hand, and to admit oxygen gas on the other hand. Whatever the venous blood thus loses in volume is replaced in quantity and substance from the regressive products of the economy at large ; and whatever the arterial blood gains in volume from the oxygen, just as certainly tends to increase the extra-vas- cular circulation of the arterial side. The latter is not consumed as fuel or as a supporter of combustion in the lungs, and if not here, then nowhere else in the economy, seeing that the fat and sugar are not found normally in the arterial current, and when abnormally present, they are eliminated as such, or else ultimately consumed as food, just as Tanner's fat was during his fast. It is evident, therefore, that the carbonic acid gas which is exhaled from the lungs is not due to a com- bustion process, and hence its presence will have to be accounted for in some other manner. For an explana- tion of this matter the reader is referred to next chap- ter. Another very strong proof of the correctness of my theory of both the extra-vascular circulation, and that of animal heat, is furnished by the physiological hyper- trophy of the gravid uterus, and its atrophy subsequent to the birth of the child. When conception takes place the twelve little apostles soon begin to draw on the maternal vascular supply for the necessary pabulum at the expense of which to grow and multiply. The uter- ine vessels are alone directly concerned in furnishing this supply, and the natural consequence is that the uterine bioplasts take on increased nutritive activity in THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 217 proportion to the relatively increased arterial and capil lary circulation in the part. And as this is being con- stantly and gradually augmented in proportion to the relative and actual increase of the total quantity of bio- plasm in both the foetus and the maternal organs di- rectly concerned, the force and velocity of the blood- current will be proportionately augmented by the in- creasing bioplastic attractive energy. As this process depends almost entirely upon the superadded attractive energy of the bioplasm present, and as this increase is essentially limited by the amount and nutritive capacity of the then existing bioplasm at any stage of the pro- cess, formative change pari pasu with the growth of uterine bioplasm is provided for in harmony with the law7 already enunciated. It- would hardly do to attribute this increased circula- tion in the part, and the increased nutritive activity of the part, and the increased evolution of heat in the parts, to the process involved in the formation of Tyn- dall rust; notwithstanding the fact that eventually the mass within the cavity of the womb, as also the hyper- trophic elements of the womb itself, must be eliminated from the body of the mother. There was some exciting cause for the increased circulation to the part, and all the subsequent phenomena up to the birth of the child was due to this increased circulation. Bioplasm was the only real functionally active element introduced, and during the embryonal period of development disintegra- tion was absolutely held in abeyance. Hence, in the absence of Tyndall rust, whence came the heat, and also the attractive energy by and through which the circulation was increased ? When the amount of bioplasm to be nourished has come to equal the main vascular capacity to supply the demand, then formative change in the foetus preserves 218 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. this balance until finally the child is expelled; after which regressive or atrophic change supervenes in the uterine structures, and the question is - Why ? Is it because the attractive energy due to the formation of Tyndall nzs£ has been greatly diminished ? or is it due to the expulsion of the child which constituted such a pronounced theater of nutritive activity, and consequent nutritive demand on the maternal vessels ? Surely there did exist a strong nutritive sympathy between mother and child even wdiile in utero ! CHAPTER IV. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION.- CONTINUED. ANIMAL HEAT.- The question of the modus operandi of the extra-vascular circulation is so intimately related to that of the evolution of animal heat that it is impos- sible to treat them separately. The attention of the reader is again invited to the fundamental propositions found at the beginning of the previous lecture. In each of these propositions he must remember that what is said of the nutritive activity is also, and essentially, true with reference to the evolution of heat. The nutritive process, strictly speaking, essentially consists in the conversion of pabulum into bioplasm. In the case of the amoeba, the white blood corpuscle, the mucus corpuscle, etc., this process may be carefully watched for hours and even days under the microscope. And it will be observed that the naked germinal matter is actually increasing in size, and by subsequent divi- sion, in numbers, at the expense of the pabulum with which it is surrounded. Precisely the same thing hap- pens during the earlier period of embryotic life in man and animals. The masses of germinal matter grow and divide until their numbers have so greatly increased as to lead to a demand for nutritive materials in excess of the supply. Formative change is thus induced, and what before was naked bioplasm now gets the form and character of cells, fibres, membranes, vessels, etc. We thus have as concomitant phenomena with the growth of bioplasm the conversion of the latter into formed material, and ultimately the disintegration of the formed material into the elements of secretion and excretion, 220 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. and thus a balance between supply and demand is ob- tained and maintained under the normal state of things. For instance: The liver is primarily composed wholly of embryonal matter, but nutritive disturbances-brought about in the manner already indicated - lead to forma- tive changes, so that in the fully formed organ 'we have cells, vessels, nerves, bile ducts and connective tissue substance. The liver cells - which are, strictly speak- ing, the true functional elements of the organ - consist of an outer formed or organized material enclosing a nucleus or germinal spot 'within. The formed material is a product of the death of bioplasm, or at least a product of change taking place in the outermost portion of the germinal matter, so that it ceases to manifest any of the vital attributes characteristic of matter liv ing, and has no more power to convert pabulum into its own substance than would be the case were it already reduced to its ultimate components. The living matter or nucleus which has resisted the process of condensa- tion is alone the theater of nutritive activity, is alone capable of being nourished-of converting the nutri- ent elements of the blood into its own substance. In a fully organized body, then, pabulum is converted into bio- plasm ; bioplasm, on the other hand, undergoes conden- sation into solid or nearly solid formed material; and the latter is prevented from accumulating beyond the demands of the economy by being just as constantly disintegrated in its outer and consequently older part into the fluid and salts of the bile in the case of the liver. As previously stated in a former chapter, the cardiac impulse causes the nutrient elements to circulate through the vascular system, but the question of paramount im- portance, from a physiological and practical point of view, is, how or by what means is the pabulum caused THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 221 to permeate the walls of the vessels and of the cells in order that it may reach the bioplasm or nuclei in the very center of these cells-which in many instances are distant twenty or more times the diameter of any one cell from a blood vessel. This is notably the case in cartilage, which, as a rule, is wholly devoid of vessels; nevertheless the nutritive process is as perfectly car- ried on here as elsewhere, and under certain circum- stances the nutritive changes are so greatly aug- mented as to constitute the process a veritable inflam- mation- the tissue returning to its embryonal state. I am able to fully prove the fact that in every instance - without a single exception - every parti- cle of bioplasm of the human economy has, in the normal state, some intervening formed material between it and its proper and indispensable nutrient supply ; and hence it follows as a logical sequence, that the nu- trient matter of the entire economy must necessarily be fluid in character in order that it may pass through the walls of the vessels and of the cells, or other interven- ing formed material, and so we invariably find it. Not only so. but the very fact that vital energy is an integrative energy, and is therefore incompetent to dis- intregate the products of either vital or chemical in- tegration, renders it necessary that all pabulum for all kinds of bioplasm should be fluid. It is a self-evident fact, then, and I challenge the world to furnish a single well-attested instance to the contrary, that pabulum is always and essentially fluid in character. Bioplasm is universally the same in all its ascertainable physical and chemical properties -and is always semi-fluid in character. Formed material, or organic structure proper, is just as universally solid or nearly solid in constitu- tion. The product of the disintegration of the latter is for 222 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the most part fluid and semi-fluid, but some of the waste elements, having undergone new combinations during the disintegrative process, are eliminated in the form of solids. It follows, therefore, that in the conversion of fluid pabulum into semi-fluid bioplasm, and likewise of the latter into solid formed material, a considerable reduc- tion in volume must take place. It matters not how this reduction in volume is effected, so far as the ques- tion just now under consideration is concerned, whether it is the result of vital or of chemical activity, we know that it positively and essentially does take place. We know also that no such reduction could possibly occur without one of three results following as an inevitable consequence; namely, either a corresponding collapse of the cell-wall and proportionately of the entire body, or a veritable vacuum will be formed in each and every cell which is the recipient of pabulum - if there could be any such, otherwise more fluid pabulum would rush in to fill up or rather to prevent the creation of such a vacant space even for a moment of time. Should either of the first two assumptions be admitted, then the very first effort at nutrition would instantly and forever arrest any farther effort in the same direction, since in either event there would be nothing present at the expense of which the bioplasm could grow or be nourished. We are forced, then, by the very exigencies of the case, to admit that Condensation in volume is the prox- imate cause of the extra-vascular or intra-cellular circu- lation of nutrient matter; and I shall conclusively prove in future pages that it is also the true source of the evolution of caloric. We shall see, therefore, that con- densation is competent to effect not only the incessant interchange of nutrient elements between the blood and THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION 223 the germinal matter of the tissues so long as this mat- ter maintains its vital integrity as such, but that heat is also evolved as a product, or more properly result of such condensation. If the mere conversion of fluid pabulum into semi- fluid bioplasm was the sum-total of the condensing pro- cess, then a suspension of the nutrient process for a single moment would permanently put an end to nutri- tion, but under existing circumstances a suspension of nutrition instantly leads to a corresponding increased formative change, thus exerting just as great attractive force upon the fluid pabulum as would be the case if the same degree of condensation was or had been ef- fected by bioplastic growth. A double provision is thus made to meet the demands of a possible changing en- vironment, such as might occur naturally by virtue of the correlation of things. It seems to me that there can be no question as to the fact that, Every Manifes- tation of Heat, whether as a result of chemical combi- nation, mechanical influence, electrical change, or vital integrative activity, is the ultimate result of Condensa- tion in volume. Granting for the present that this proposition is true, the only question remaining to be answered is, is this reduction in volume effected by and through the instrumentality of a peculiar and unique energy, different and distinct from all other known en- ergies- Vital Energy--or is it the result of chemical affinities, electrical phenomena, or mechanical influence ? The Bioplastic theory of animal heat, if I may so call it, was promulgated by me in published form in the year 1882; and has been endorsed and advocated by the better informed and more progressive members of the Physio-Medical school of medicine generally. Never- theless, a numerous class of this same school still ad- heres to the old and utterly absurd combustion theory of 224 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. animal heat - preferring to endorse and be governed by the zpse dixit of so-called authority rather than submit to the self-inflicted task of original research and inves- tigation. In other words they would rather be incon- sistent than to be industrious ; rather believe an absurd- ity on the authority of some sectarian bigot than to ex- ert their own intellectual faculties in the search after truth - unless they are specially induced to the latter course by the tender of a money inducement. They have buried their little talent away in a napkin, and the time will come when there shall be a reckoning. This work is being written wholly in the interest of the truth, and hence the author has no pet theories of his own to support or to bias him in his judgment, nor shall he be prevented from exposing the false sophistry of others in trying to eliminate error. In so doing no offense is intended ; nevertheless, if some over sensitive brother shall take offense because of the truth, I shall not allow it to disturb my equanimity in the least. The following language was made use of by me in the August number of the P. M. Journal, 1882: "The chemical or combustion theory of animal heat has been urged upon us so energetically and persistently as to have gained wide credence. Nevertheless, those who are its most earnest advocates confess that it is preg- nant with inconsistencies and enshrouded in doubt and uncertainty. One of its supporters will gravely insist that the elements of the food become oxidized, thus giving rise to a definite degree of heat. Another states that it is not so much in the growth as in the disin- tegration of tissues that oxidation of the elements takes place. A third contends that both propositions are true, and a fourth, while admitting both to be true, as a rule, positively asserts' that the temperature of the body is often greatly increased at a time when oxidation R-14 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 225 is wholly at fault. Indeed no two authors are fully agreed upon the subject, thus plainly showing that the chemical theory is at best a mere matter of specula- tion. ' ' A want of confidence in their first born has given birth to the friction or mechanical dogma-the conver- sion of molar motion into heat motion, the correlation of forces, a doctrine even more erroneous, if possible, than the first. * * * With a view to determine the truth or falsity of the doctrine of the correlation of forces, I tried the experiment of converting molar motion into heat motion by vigorously hammering a block of soft iron. And, although cold when the experiment began, the iron, as also the experimenter, soon became much heated, and at the close of the process the iron was of a dull red color. Those witnessing the result of my labor pointed with seeming satisfaction at the glowing iron, kindly informing me that ' there is your motion.' The metal was permitted to cool and then subjected to a repetition of the hammering process, but without obtaining the same result as before. I then re- heated it in the forge, and after having allowed it to cool, repeated the experiment and with the same results. A very large muscular blacksmith then tried the exper- iment with even more pronounced results, both positive and negative, than before." This statement was made the basis for a rather se- vere criticism on the part of one of our brightest prac- titioners, and he seems to have rejected my theory of animal heat mainly because of my supposed ignorance of the more occult changes taking place in the iron per se in the above experiments, hence I think it best to introduce the substance of this criticism here in order that it may not become a stumbling-block in the way of others. 226 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. The gentleman referred to substantially says: "Since the dawn of science to the present time, two theories have been offered in answer to the question, ' What is heat?' The one is called the material theory, and the other the mechanical or dynamical theory of heat. Each in turn has had its champions and advocates, and each in turn has been accepted by the world at large as the correct theory of heat. The first mentioned of these propositions is the one which my friend has made a new application of in giving us his ideas as to how the temperature of the animal is maintained at the uniform rate so necessary for its existence. * * * The con- clusions of my friend appear to be based upon the ex- periment referred to on page 237, August number of the Journal, and in order that I may do him no injus- tice nor misrepresent him, I quote both the theory and the experiment in full as I find them in the number of the Journal referred to." He here quotes the funda- mental proposition underlying my theory of the evolu- tion of heat in general, as also the experiment above recorded, and then states: "The conclusions of the doc- tor are very natural and have been arrived at by quite a number of experimenters at different ages of the world. But I am surprised that this generally careful observer should have become so infatuated with this apparent vindication of his pet theory that he failed entirely to notice a condition present in all unhammered soft iron, and second a condition which is present in all soft iron which has been subjected to frequent and long- continued blows or jars. [What have conditions of the mass to do with the conversion of one mode of motion into another, I should like to know ? ] In the first place we have a fibrous arrangement of the metal, while in the second we have a crystalline arrangement, together with a more or less of a shelly, scaly or spongy condi- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 227 tion; conditions that will very materially impair the value of the experiment if lost sight of. It is well to remember that the experiment of Prof. Redding can only be successfully performed by using the best grades of soft iron, and that even in these the shelly or scaly condition is produced to a greater or less degree by the process of condensation ; and in all subsequent hammer- ing this of itself will very much impair the value of the experiment for scientific purposes." How utterly erroneous such a conclusion is. But to continue, he says: "I am at a loss to account for an oversight on the part of my friend which has, it seems to me, greatly impaired the value of his experiment as establishing a scientific discovery. He failed to notice the arrange- ment of the particles of the piece of iron, both before and after it was subjected to his process of condensa- tion. He has not told us that the arrangement of the particles had.been very materially interfered with, and that in addition to the scales on the surface, the inter- ior of the block had assumed a very different arrange- ment of its particles, which had a tendency to cause it to be ' spongy ' and assume a crystalline appearance, in which case the second hammering had much the same effect as it would have had had he expended his force in pounding a bundle of wires or upon a block of wood which had been pounded until it was all fuzzy and spongy. Then may not, in fact is not, the necessity for heating in a forge made necessary in order to cause a re-arrangement of the particles of the block of iron in- stead of being necessary in order that heat may be ab- sorbed ? It is a fact that the block must be heated to a 'welding heat,' and this alone convinces me that there is some discrepancy in the theory of the doctor. For at the heat referred to, the original fibrous condition of all 'wrought' iron is restored." 228 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. This is sufficient to place the gentleman's objections to my theory before you, and to show the flimsy pre- text upon which he bases his friendly criticism. That it required but little thought and less scientific investi- tion to convince him that there was some discrepancy in my theory is very evident from his own statements just quoted. The real question was: Is the molar motion in the first instance converted into heat motion, as taught by the dynamic theory of heat ? And if so, then what becomes of the molar motion in the second instance, seeing that it was not realized as heat ? The conservation of energy, which is a well recognized and unquestionable fact, forbids, that it should be lost as energy, and the dynamic theory therefore demands that it appear as a different mode of motion. The condi- tions of matter are an important consideration from a substantial standpoint of reasoning, but are of no material importance whatever from the dynamic stand- point. The question is into what kind or mode of motion was this molar motion converted in the last part of the experiment ? Are we to suppose that the ham- mering process in the first part of the experiment had so disarranged the elements of the mass of iron as to for- bid that they should be competent to take on or ex- ecute the peculiar mode of motion called heat motion, and that the former relation of such elements must first be restored before they can again be caused to execute such mode of motion ? It would seem so from the gist of his statements,. as also from the fundamental basis of the dynamic theory of heat. Nevertheless, heating the mass in the forge, is in accordance with this theory causing them to execute this very mode of motion which the hammering process had rendered them in- competent to do. It seems to me "that there is some discrepancy in the theory of the doctor" who seemed THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 229 so astonished that I had not told him what he pretends to have already known so well. Did the first ham- mering excite heat motion in the mass of iron ? Or did it quench or diminish such motion ? If the first be true, then did the hammering, or did the heat motion produce the change in the structure of the iron ? Evi- dently not the former, since it was converted into the latter mode of motion. Then why re-heat in the forge ? If the molar motion was converted into heat motion, then is it not more in consonance with the dictates of common sense to suppose that the reason we cannot convert any more molar motion into heat motion is simply because all the molar motion has been thus transformed into heat motion, and that this latter has been dissipated by impartation to surrounding sub- stances ? If, on the other hand, it be claimed that the molar motion quenched the molecular projections or atomic vibrations or both, then what becomes of the Law of the conservation of energy ? Neither my would-be critic, nor any other advocate of the dynamic hypothesis, is competent to inform us how or why this change in the arrangement of the particles of iron is superinduced by the hammering process, and any attempt on their part to do so would only eventu- ate in exposing the fallacy and inconsistencies of the theory. Prof. Tyndall, who is said to be the highest living authority on questions of physics, states that we have every reason to conclude that Heat and Electricity are both modes of motion; and he says-"We know, experimentally, that from electricity we can obtain heat, while from heat, as in the case of our thermo-pile, we can obtain electricity." Of course, if he has every reason for concluding that heat and electricity are both modes of motion, it is very evident that they would be 230 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. susceptible of conversion one into the other; and hence if there is every reason for such a conclusion, this dis- cussion is a useless expenditure of time, since if it be true that heat, electricity, vital energy, and all other manifestations of energy are mere modes of motion, then they are not and cannot be substantial and incon- vertible. Energy is either the one or the other, either substantial or a mere mode of motion ; there is no mid- dle ground. If substantial, then my theory of animal heat is true; if a mode of motion, then it is false. Let us ascertain just how much weight we can safely repose in Prof. Tyndall's every reason for concluding this, that, or the other proposition to be true. In con- tinuation, he says: "But although we have, or think we have, tolerably clear ideas of the character of the motion of heat, our ideas as to the precise nature of the change which this motion must undergo in order to ap- pear as electricity are still very defective." On turning back to the page on which the thermo-pile experiment is recorded, we find the following language made use of by him: "You doubtless would de disposed, and rightly disposed, to seek the origin of this distant man- ifestation of power [the movement of the galvanometer needle] in the heat originally communicated to the pile. But how does it act? Neither you nor I can completely answer this question, for nobody fully knows what oc- curs at the warmed face of the pile." Now I insist that this lamentable confession of ignor- ance on his part with reference to the very phenomena of which he says we have every reason to conclude we have, or think we have, tolerably dear ideas, etc., is no evidence whatever that all men are in a like state of intellectual stupidity. On the contrary, every phenom- enon connected therewith, and the scientific reason thereof, as well as the fundamental principles involved THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 231 therein, are susceptible of easy explanation in accord- ance with the theory of molecular conformation here ad- vanced, and will be furnished shortly. Just so long as the dynamic theory of heat, light, electricity, chemical affinity, life, etc., is adhered to, however, just that long will its votaries be compelled to confess their ignorance of the laws and phenomena of nature. Just so long as heat and other forms of energy are regarded as modes of motion, just that long will those who adhere to this doctrine be in that state of mind in which Prof. Tyn- dall confessed himself, when he said: "Authority caused me for weeks to depart from the truth, and to seek counsel among delusions." Most assuredly we can obtain heat from electricity, just as we can obtain juice from a lemon or an orange by squeezing it. But we can no more obtain electricity from heat than we can obtain blood from a turnip. Every experiment recorded in support of the dynamic theory of heat and electricity, are just so many separ- ate and distinct evidences in proof of the unsoundness of the doctrine, and, hence, they go to show that their ideas are indeed "still very defective" with reference to this whole matter. It is perfectly marvelous to what proportions this ridiculous absurdity has grown. Light, heat, elec- tricity, life, mind, memory, thought, reason, even disease in- all its various forms are thought to be modes of mo- tion, and soon, if this fearful motion does not cease, matter itself will be said to be a mode of motion, and thus there will be nothing left to be moved. I suppose physicists will admit that a mass of living germinal matter is the possessor of a greater or less quantity of heat, and since both heat and life energy are said to be modes of motion, it would be interesting, as well as instructive, to be informed as to how the 232 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. primary elements of which bioplasm is composed can be caused to execute these different and distinct modes of motion at one and the same instant of time, without engendering a new mode of motion-disease - the alge- braic sum of their combined influence. It is stated by Tyndall, ( Sound, p. 358): "The most cogent proof of that theory [the dynamic] being based upon the fact (?) that by adding light to light we may produce dark- ness, just as we can produce silence by adding sound to sound.'' Granting that this most cogent proof of that theory has some shadow of truth in it (but which it has not however), may not the actuating impulses by and through which heat motion, and life motion, are engen- dered in bioplasm, so solicit the atoms of the living matter as to produce a motion the algebraic sum of the combined influences, and thus engender disease-mo- tion, or, should these influences be equal and opposite, engender death ? Helmholtz says : " It is evident that at each point in the mass of air [or bioplasm], at each instant of time, there can be only one single degree of condensation, and that the particles of air [or bioplasm] can be mov- ing with only one single determinate kind of motion [either heat motion, vital motion, light motion, electrical motion, or some other specific mode of motion], having only one single determinate amount of velocity, and passing in only one single determinate direction."- Sensation of Tone, p. Jf). No wonder that these eminent writers have bodily swallowed Thomson's theory of life, since a single par- ticle of matter cannot possibly execute two modes of motion at one and the same instant of time, and since living matter has a temperature of about F., they must either assume that heat is life, or else for- sake the dynamic hypothesis entirely. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 233 The universal teachings of Physicists, Chemists and Chemico-Vitalists is, that molecules have entering into their composition a definite number of atoms. Prof. Tyndall figures the atoms of an aqueous molecule as spherical in form, and three in number, and so related to each other as to constitute the molecules triangular in shape. It is quite evident, indeed, that he could not obviate this result, since the union of three spher- ical bodies by aggregation so as to form a single body must necessarily produce an irregular triangle. See Plate II, Figures 1 and 2, as copied from his work on heat, p. 108 ; also Figure 3, as copied from his work on heat, p. 142. We need not be astonished, therefore, that the advo- cates of the dynamic hypothesis should ignore the property of mobility when discussing the modus operand! of generating sonorous waves, for a man, even though a fool, must know that a mass of triangular or other ir- regular shaped bodies, whose component parts are spheres, will, under existing circumstances, so interlock with each other as to utterly prevent the possibility of mobility. It looks like the advocates of this theory ought to be content with having thus effectually theo- retically destroyed the property of mobility, and not criticise the views of others because they did not see proper to introduce conditions of matter brought about by hammering, the causes of which conditions these ad- vocates have not the remotest conception. They would better show their honesty of purpose if they would devote all their spare time to a reconciliation, if possible, of the inconsistencies and discrepancies of their own pet the- ories. Anyone who will examine the work just referred to, will find that the first two figures mentioned were absolutely essential to the exigencies of the dynamic hypothesis under the then existing circumstances ; but 234 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. unfortunately for both the theory and their reputations, the hypothesis does not let them rest here, for if these atoms were left at rest in actual contact, as Figures 1 and 2 represent them, not only would the property of fluidity and gaseousness, as also that of elasticity and compressibility, be destroyed, but one of their forms of heat - atomic vibrations - would be also annihilated. A second figure has, therefore, been executed by the astute Professor, in which he represents the three spherical atoms as being separated by an intervening space of several 'times their own diameter, and uniting them together into the form of a molecule, three spiral- ly-coiled etherial luminiferous steel-springs are figured - which see. Of course, they do not intend to inculcate the idea that these spirally-coiled steel-springs have an existence in fact; but they are simply figured in obedi- ence to the exigencies of the dynamic hypothesis - as will be fully demonstrated very shortly. Following is the substance of what he really intends to teach : "This luminiferous ether fills stellar space; it makes the universe a whole, and renders possible the intercom- munication of light and energy between star and star. But the subtle substance penetrates farther ; it sur- rounds the very atoms of solid and liquid substances." - Heat, p. 304. Now, if it be admitted that atoms of matter are really separated in any degree whatever by the interposition of an ethereal substance, which by the way has neither been seen, felt, tasted nor smelled, it is very evident that molecules, as such, do not have an existence in fact, and that, therefore, Figures 1 and 2 are false in concep- tion and misleading in nature and tendencies. For if atoms are thus suspended, like the particles of floating matter in the atmospheric air, they are simply inde- pendent bodies without molecular conformation. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 235 Granting for the present, howerer, that molecules are constituted as represented in Figures 1 and 2, and that heat is a mode of motion, then it follows that there must be some kind of substance susceptible of being moved ; some kind of actuating influence by which such movement is excited ; and this motion must be peculiar in character and specific in direction. Now, Bacon says: "Heat is a motion, expansive, re- strained, and acting in its strife upon the smaller particles of bodies. But the expansion is thus modi- fied; while it expands all ways (in all directions) it has at the same time an inclination upwards." Tyndall substantially states on page 141 - Heat a Mode of Motion - that that form of heat by wThich tem- perature is determined and expansion is effected is a translatory or projectile motion of molecules - mole- cules flying through space. We thus see that these authors are agreed that this kind of heat at least is a motion of the smaller - not the smallest "particles of bodies." They both have reference to the molecules, then, not to the atoms. It may be well to state here that a motion cannot act upon the atoms and molecules of the bodies, as he would lead us to infer from his (Bacon's) language, but the motion of these bodies is the result of an inpulse given them by some actuating influence. A motion cannot exist without the existence of a moving body, nor can an effect be the cause of itself, or a cause the effect of itself, or an action the result of itself, hence it is foolishness to state that heat motion, or any other kind of motion, acts in its strife upon the smaller or other particles of bodies. In ac- cordance with the laws of analogy, and with the dic- tates of common sense, matter cannot move, or change its status in any sense, unless animated by some actuat- ing influence ; and hence, if heat is a motion expansive 236 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. in its nature and tendencies, there must be an actuating impulse adequate to produce the peculiar mode of mo- tion thus denominated. If the reader will now atten- tively and critically examine Figures 1 and 2, he will observe that the atoms are represented as being com- posed of hemispheres ; and the object of this will be apparent from the following quotation : ' 'Polar forces - forces emanating from distinct atomic points, and acting in distinct directions, give to crystals their symmetry ; and the overcoming of these forces, while it necessitates a consumption of heat [motion], may also be accom- panied by a diminution of volume."-Heat a Mode, of Motion, p. 186. On page 180, he says: "Now the atoms of bodies, though we cannot suppose them to be in contact, exert enormous attractions. It would require an almost incredible amount of ordinary mechanical force to augment the distance intervening between the atoms of any solid or liquid, so as to increase its volume in any sensible degree." Again, he says - page 192 - "I affirm that the force of gravity, as exerted near the earth, is almost a vanishing quantity, in com- parison with these molecular forces. The distances which separate the atoms before combination are so small as to be utterly immeasurable; still, it is in pass- ing over these distances that they acquire a velocity sufficient to cause them to clash with the tremendous energy here indicated." This language is clear, explicit and forcible, and indi- cates that an enormous attractive energy exists between the atoms of bodies, and by transmission between the molecules also. If then, heat is motion, "expansive, restrained, and acting in its strife upon the smaller par- ticles of bodies," it must be a motion of something dif- ferent from that upon which it acts, since motion per se can act upon nothing, seeing that motion is a nonentity, THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 237 and from nothing nothing comes. Again, if heat is a mode of motion expansive, it cannot be a mode of mo- tion restrained; since to be realized as heat, the pecu- liar mode of motion constituting heat must occur, and any restraining influence, whether the hammering pro- cess, or that due to the enormous attraction existing naturally between atoms and molecules, or whatsoever the influence may be that is interposed to counteract such expansive motion, simply limits the amount of such motion or heat in the same relative proportionate degree. It is important that the reader have this fact forcibly impressed upon his mind; namely, that if heat is a mode of motion expansive in its nature, the more of such motion there is in any given case, the greater the quantity of heat in such case, and hence any re- straining influence whatever that is competent to limit the motion either in amplitude or velocity must neces- sarily limit the quantity of heat in the same relative degree. There is no escape from this conclusion, how- ever fatal it may prove to be to the dynamic hypothe- sis, unless, indeed, it be admitted that the peculiar mode of motion denominated heat be wholly confined to the luminiferous ether, and even then they would have to reconstruct their entire theory of heat, and thus confess that in hammering a mass of iron we actually bring the luminiferous ether from out the meshes of the interior of the mass to the surface where its motions may be- come manifest. Re heating it in the forge would then virtually be re-filling the interspaces of the iron with luminiferous ether, or heat, or whatever you are dis- posed to call it. But to continue ; no one questions the fact, I believe, but that the heat is expansive in nature and tendencies, and hence, it follows as a logical se- quence, that if it be a motion-expansive - the greater the amplitude of such moving particles, the greater the 238 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. quantity of heat generated. I say "generated" because motion cannot have, or ever have had, any existence in fact previous to the time of the occurrence of the speci- fic motion in question. We are told that the amplitude of the vibrating air particles - in the case of sonorous waves - is a measure of the intensity of the sound, or to be more explicit, "The intensity of the sound is pro- portional to the square of the amplitude of the vibrat- ing particles." We are also informed by the same au- thor, (Tyndall), that in the case of a falling mass "The heat generated is proportional to the hight through w'hich the body falls," proportional to the square of the distance or amplitude, if I may use the expression. He just as explicitly declares elsewhere that the intensity of sound, light, and heat "varies inversely as the square of the distance " and hence we conclude that if heat is a mode of motion - expansive in character - the greater the distance over which the molecules fly, the greater the quantity of heat thus made manifest in, through, and by such substance. Indeed it could not possibly be otherwise in viewT of the fundamental proposition that this peculiar mode of motion is heat. The restraining influence, then, is no part of the pe- culiar mode of motion, called heat, is not, in fact, motion at all, but is diametrically opposed to the development of motion, and hence of heat, and consequently the mass of iron should have had its temperature lowered in the first and second part of the experiment so wonderfully criticised, in order not to put these great physicists to an open shame ; but Nature regardeth no man. If heat is a motion expansive, we can readily conceive of various means, in addition to the hammering process, by which it might be restrained, or even reduced in in- tensity, by limiting the amplitude of the molecular pro- jections, especially so in view of the enormous attrac- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 239 tions existing between the atoms and molecules of mat- ter and which tend to prevent expansion. Now, in the language of Prof. Tyndall, "Suppose the points marked A to be mutually attractive, and those marked R mutually repellent, and that the position of the triangles as shown in the figure (1) corresponds to the maximum density of water. Then the retreat of the poles R from each other, and the approach of the poles A towards each other, causing each molecule to rotate, will produce an encroachment of the molecules upon the circumjacent space. This is shown in an ex- agerated form in Figure 2." I close the book at page 108, lest the beauty and har- I mony of all that has gone before, and what is immedi- ately to follow, should be irretrievably spoiled by his farther statement in this connection. Now7 turn to page 91 of the same work, and read: ' ' What, we ask, is the internal mechanism by which expansion is effected ? Here, again, w7e must help our- selves to conceptions of the invisible by reference to the visible. An experiment will make the matter clear. Over a ring burner, and at some distance above the flame, I hold a bladder containing but a little air. Turn- ing it briskly round so as to avoid scorching, all parts of the bladder are heated by the ascending current. The air within the bladder shares the heat of its en- velope ; it swells in consequence; and now the bladder, which a moment ago was flaccid, is tightly stretched. In a way usual to the human mind the expansion of at- mospheric air, thus illustrated, was transferred from the world of the senses to the region of atoms and mole- cules." If by heating the contents of the bladder is meant that the mutually repellent poles of the molecules are stimulated to do what one would naturally infer they 240 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. would do without being stimulated, unless prevented by some extrinsic influence, then we can comprehend how expansion is effected by the outward swing of these poles. That it is not the motion of heat that causes this repellent or expansive motion is evident from two facts, first, the energy by which the motion - the ex- pansive motion, the heat motion -is produced cannot be the cause of itself, but is "polar force;" and secondly, ' ' The molecules do separate when the external pres- sure is lessened or removed, but the constituent atoms do not."-Tyndall on Heat, p. 471. It is evident, there- fore, that heating, hammering, etc., tends to remove the external pressure so as to permit this repellent energy to get in its expansive heat motion. It is also evident, I think, that the bladder experiment is strangely at variance with the fundamental doctrines of the dynamic hypothesis, and shows how nature often compels men, unwittingly it may be, to adopt the language of her own teaching. In accordance with the view of molecu- lar conformation promulgated by me, however, the ex- periment is a fairly good illustration of the manner in which the expansion of molecules, and their inclination upwards, is effected. The increase in volume of the contained gas due to the absorption of heat, or lumini- ferous' ether, if you prefer, is analagous to an increase in volume by the addition of a lighter gas. In the one case the inflation is caused by the incremation of an incorporeal substance, in the other case by the addition of gaseous molecules containing a relatively large amount of heat. If we substitute for the bladder a hol- low sphere whose walls are endowed with elastic prop- erties- India rubber, for example - and have its cavity filled with some light gas at the beginning of the ex- periment, and then increase the volume of this gas either by the incremation of more heat substance, or by R-15 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 241 the addition of more gas, the representation of the in- visible by reference to the visible would be rendered nearly complete. Moreover, by hammering, or other- wise increasing the "external pressure," we would be able to render manifest that which was before hid away in the cavity of the bladder - or molecule. The very reverse of this would necessarily be true in harmony with the dynamic theory of heat, since, "when, instead of a motionless atom [molecule], we have a vi- brating one, we must make room not only for the atom [molecule] itself, but also for the distance over which its motion stretches." p. 93. "According to our pres- ent theory, this expansion of the bladder is produced by the shooting of atomic projectiles against its interior surface. "All the impressions, then, which we derive from heated air or vapour are, according to this hypothesis, due to the impact of gaseous molecules." P. 18. We see, therefore, that an increase in amplitude or space over which the atoms and molecules are translated or projected is absolutely an essential requisite to the phe- nomenon of increased heat motion by and through which expansion is effected. On the other hand, any limitation of the space over which these movements may take place, whether by mechanical pressure, chemical or vital integrative energy - in which a reduction in vol- ume takes place - or in whatsoever manner condensa- tion may be effected, the logical result will be a loss of such motion, and hence of dynamic heat-whatever the result may be as regards real, substantial heat. In view of the dynamic hypothesis, then, it is simply marvelous how, or by what means, these vibrating physicists are enabled to exactly reverse their own doctrines and teach- ings ; to exactly reverse the very conditions by and through which the supposed motorial phenomena called PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. 242 heat is made manifest, in order to have the condensed portion of a sonorous wave hot, and the rarefied or ex- panded portion cold. It is true, the inspiration for thus representing the thermal condition of a sonorous wave was derived from the results obtained by experimenting with a fire syringe. But they should have remembered the old adage: "Children who play with the fire are sure to get burned," and have let the syringe alone. Now, Figure 2 certainly shows a motion, expansive, acting on the smaller particles of bodies (molecules), as compared with Figure 1; and if the latter was a mass of soft iron placed upon an anvil preparatory for the hammering process, then surely the molecules w'ould separate when the external pressure was lessened or removed by the upward motion of the hammer, "but their constituent atoms do not," just as Tyndall states. And while the motion would be expansive in all direc- tions, it would naturally have an inclination upwards, or at least the upper repellant polar points would, since the anvil would prevent them from inclining downwards successfully. Surely this representation and explana- tion of heat as a mode of motion, expansive, with an inclination upwards, is just about perfect, and must carry conviction to the minds of everyone who is strongly disposed to endorse and advocate Allopathic doctrines and absurdities - as quite a good many Phy- sio-Medicalists seem to be. Moreover, the very fact that the hammering process not only evolves heat, but is said to produce crystallization of the iron at the same time, and that Figures 1 and 2 were executed by Tyn- dall ' to show the manner in which crystallization is effected, is proof positive to one who is strongly pre- possessed in favor of the dynamic hypothesis, that heat is a mode of motion, expansive, with an inclination up- wards, and likewise crystallization also. The mere FACT THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 243 that the hammering process produces condensation, not rarefaction ; produces fibrillation, not crystallization ; pro- duces an inclination downwards, not upwards ; produces heat, not refrigeration - the conversion of water into ice, which the Figures were designed to represent [see Tyndall on heat, p. 109], has but little weight with those who are "in harmony with the whole tendency of modern [foreign] thought." The fact is, we should "Let not the vine of feeling twine itself around a decaying stem, lest the fall of the stem should endanger the life of the vine," of the whole tendency of modern thought. See Tyndall, p. Ill, "Heat a Mode of Motion." If. then, this expansive mode of motion of the mole- cules is really a refrigerative process, and not heat mo- tion at all - and it must be confessed that naturally rarefaction is always accompanied with a diminution of sensible heat, and vice versa, - we must look farther for the peculiar mode of motion called heat. "The molecules do separate when the the external pressure is lessened or removed, but their constituent atoms do not. The reason of this stability is that two forces, the one attractive and the other repulsive, are in operation between every two atoms; and the position of every atom is determined by the equilibrium of these two forces. When the atoms approach too near each other, repulsion predominates and drives them apart; when they recede to too great a distance, attraction predominates and draws them together. The point at which attraction and repulsion are equal to each other other is the atom's position of equilibrium. If not ab- solutely cold-and there is no such thing as absolute coldness in our corner of nature - the atoms are always in a state of vibration, their vibration being executed to and fro across their positions of equilibrium." - Tyndall on Heat, p. JfTi.. 244 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Well, this transfers our operations to Figure 3, which see. From the language here made use of we necessarily infer, that if the atoms should part company as do the molecules when the external pressure is lim- ited or removed, then absolute cold-273° below zero Centigrade - would supervene. Hence, we see, that Fig- ures 1 and 2 represent a refrigerative process, and my arguments on that score are apparently very reprehensi- ble, and only designed to mislead the student. Well we shall see. You no doubt remember the "enormous attractive en- ergy exerted between the atoms of a molecule," and which "would require an almost incredible amount of ordinary mechanical force - such as the clashing of atoms, - to augment the distance intervening between the atoms of any solid or liquid, so as to increase its volume in any sensible degree." He has forgotten the repellent energy by which expansion may be appreci- ably effected. Well, this necessitates the creation of a repulsive force of "enormous" stupenduosity to antagonize the enormous attractive force, and the "position of every atom is determined by the equilibrium of these two forces," or rather would be if the dynamic hypothesis would permit such to be the case, since the result would be the algebraic sum of the two influences, which would be nil if the forces were equal and opposite-as indicated by the language made use of. Unless the atoms of matter possess an inherent property, force, or energy by and through the exercise of which they are enabled to resist the natural tendency to come to a state of rest at a point where these two forces are absolutely equal - admitting the existence of such forces - then there is no escape from the inevitable conclusion that such atomic vibrations could, under no circumstances exist THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 245 but for a brief period, and then be due to some extrin- sic influence - such as the hammering process - thus tending to increase the tendency to move in the one di- rection by a superadded energy. I say, this is the Nat- ural tendency ; but the Dynamic tendency is a very dif- ferent thing from things Natural. If you hitch two en- gines of equal power to opposite ends of a car, and ap- ply this power, the Natural tendency is for both the engines and the car to move in neither direction, and the visible effect is nil. The Dynamic tendency, how- ever, is to cause the car to push first one engine in the direction in which it is trying to move, and then push the other, and thus cause the car to vibrate to and fro. That this is truly the dynamic tendency, is evident from the following statement: "The prongs (of a tuning fork) always vibrate in op- posite directions, one producing a condensation where the other produces a rarefaction, a destruction of sound being the consequence." - Tyndall on Sound, p. 371. Looking at this statement through a pair of Nature's spectacles, one would be inclined to use the English language more properly and say : ' ' The prongs always vibrate in opposite directions, one tending to produce a condensation where the other tends to produce a rare- faction, a failure to generate sound being the conse quence."-Redding, " The Molecular Theory of Physics." Of course this would spoil the undulatory theory of sound, since it would leave the air neither rarefied nor condensed, and both conditions are essential to have sound pulses in harmony with this humbug. It would prevent the Bug from Humming in this way, the dev- ilish tuning-fork would nevertheless generate sound. The quotation shows, however, the manner in which the dynamic theory is able to generate vibrations in spite of two equal and opposing forces; namely, by simply 246 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Lying. Is this statement unwarranted, or too harsh ? Let us see! "If not absolutely cold * * * the atoms are always in a state of vibration," etc., and hence it is these vibrations that constitute heat and prevent the negative state. Is this the conclusion that the language warrants us in drawing ? Most assuredly it is. Now notice every word of the following state- ment, and the true import of the same, especially those words and sentences which I have taken the liberty of italicising. "Starting, for example, from the true zero, the conventional centegrade zero would be 273° ; and reckoning from the true zero, we have the fundamental but extremly simple law that the pressure of a perfect gas is proportional to the absolute temperature. But the pressure depends wholly upon the projectile force of the mol- ecules, which is commonly called the vis viva; hence the absolute temperature is proportional to the vis viva arising from the translatory or projectile motion. "But there may, and indeed must, be other motions than that of translation among the molecules. Consider the case of two billiard balls approaching each other and coming into collision. If their shock be direct or central, they will recoil exactly as they approached; but if the collision, instead of being central, be oblique, a motion of rotation is added to the motion of transla- tion. It is thus with atoms when they fly singly through space. The motion of translation, therefore, does not express the entire motion; nor does the temper- ature, which is dice to the motion of translation, express the entire heat. This is the case to a much greater extent in compound gases than in simple ones. The compound molecules fly through space; but a moment's reflection will satisfy you that this translatory flight and mutual collision must immediately set up other motions. Take, for example, an assemblage of molecules each composed THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 247 of three atoms held within a certain distance of each other by a force of attraction and prevented from com- ing into actual contact by a force of repulsion. These two forces act the part of elastic springs, and are repre- sented by such springs in the annexed figure (Figure 3). Such molecules flying through space and clashing against each other must add to their translatory motion, as wholes, a vibratory motion of their constituent atoms. Now this vibration has nothing to do with the pressure or ex- pansion of the gas, which or expansion} is taken as a measure of its temperature. The vibration, in fact, though a portion of the heat, is not the portion by which temperature is determined. Heat and temperature, there- fore, are two distinct things."-Tyndall, "Heat a Mode of Motion," p. Hl. Now, I earnestly submit the question : If the separa- tion of molecules, owing to the lessening or removal of external pressure, leads to the theoretical necessity of en- gendering a vibratory motion of the constituent atoms, in order to prevent absolute cold in one corner of na- ture, would you not think such translatory or projectile motion of molecules, though expansive in character, re- frigerative per se, in harmony with the representation of the refrigeration and crystallization of water as fig- ured in 1 and 2 ? The separation of molecules, then be- ing both expansive and refrigerative, to what are we to attribute the temperature ? To the vibrating atoms ? No, certainly not, since we are told that "The vibration, in fact, though a portion of the heat, is not the portion by which temperature is determined." Both pressure, or expansion, and temperature depend wholly upon the projectile force of the molecules, and this, strange to say, is a refrigerative process. Nevertheless, in thus flying through space, when the external pressure is re- moved, the clashing of molecules against each other sets 248 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. up a vibratory motion of atoms which prevents absolute cold in our corner of nature, but which is not suscepti- ble of being measured by its expansive influence on mer- cury or other measuring instrument, since it "is not the portion by which temperature is determined"-this is determined by the refrigerative portion - the separa- tion of molecules, and by which Tyndall exploded his bombshell and the dynamic gas bubble at one and the same time. We will now take a view of their efforts to convert heat into electricity, and vice versa; and if they are found to vibrate as freely from one false statement to another as in the questions just discussed, we will leave off the dis-and thus reduce the dimensions of the word "discussed" three letters. See! Prof. Tyndall tells us that "Thermo-electricity was discovered in 1826 by Thomas Seebeck, of Berlin. The first thermo-pile was made by the celebrated Italian Nobili, and in the hands of his equally celebrated coun- tryman Melloni it became an instrument so important as to supersede all others in researches on Radiant Heat. To this purpose it will be applied in future lectures ; our present object is to ascertain the source of its power. Here an observation made by Peltier in 1834 comes to our aid. Soldering the end of a bar of bismuth to the end of a bar of antimony, and connect- ing the other two ends with a weak voltaic battery, Pel- tier sent feeble currents, first from antimony to bismuth, and then from bismuth to antimony, across the soldered junction. In the first case he found the junction always warm, and in the second c'ase always chilled by the current. An actual consumption of heat was thus shown to take place, when a voltaic current of sufficiently low intensity was sent from bismuth to antimony across a junction of the two metals. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 249 "I wish now to prove to you by actual experiment that heat and cold are produced in accordance with the statement of Peltier. This glass bulb (Figure 14) has three tubulures, through two of which pass air-'tight the bar of bismuth B and the bar of antimony A, both bars being soldered together at J. A narrow glass tube passes air-tight through a cork stopping the third tubulure. A little above the cork the tube is bent at a right angle, and in its horizontal portion rests a short column of colored liquids I, which is to serve as our index. Placing this portion of the narrow tube in the beam of an electric lamp, a magnified image of the in- dex and the adjacent tube is cast upon a screen. "Through the wires connected with A and B we now send a current from a single voltaic cell, causing it first to pass from antimony to bismuth across the junction at J. The index I immediately moves towards the open end of the narrow tube, proving the air within the globe to be expanded, or, in other words, heat to be developed by the passage of the current. We now sud- denly reverse the latter, causing it to flow from bismuth to antimony across the junction. The index I not only returns to its first position, but passes beyond it to- wards the angle formed by the tube. This retrocession of the index is due to the contraction of the air, or, in other words, to the lowering of the temperature within the bulb. The experiment may be repeated any number of times ; always when the current passes from A to B we have expansion due to heat, and always when it passes from B to A we have contraction due to cold, of the air within the globe."-Heat a Mode of Motion, p. #4, et seq. See Plate II, Figure 4. If the reader will substitute in this quotation the terms proper to the dynamic idea of heat and electric- ity, using molecular projections where the word heat, 250 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. expansion, etc., occur, and electrical motion instead of "current," and constantly keep in mind the true import of the last sentence quoted, regardless of any and all previous contradictions, he will get a much clearer idea of what is being here taught. Admitting that heat and electricity are modes of mo- tion, then the next question of paramount importance is, "A motion of what?" If the use of the expression - "current" - is not utterly misleading, it must be a mo- tion of the so-called luminiferous ether. A vibratory motion of the atoms or a projectile motion of the mole- cules of the conducting substance could in no true sense be denominated "a current." Let this be as it may, however, I shall show that from any possible dynamic point of view, the statement of facts above given is in conflict with every deduction of the advocates of this hypothesis. Using the terms proper to the dynamic hypothesis, then, we may state that in exciting electrical motion in any substance possible, and propagating the same through antimony, it is transmuted, in part at least, into heat by the interposition of bismuth. We learn from this that antimony is either competent to execute that peculiar mode of motion called electricity, or otherwise to permit such motion in the luminiferous ether within its meshes. We also discover that bis- muth, on the other hand, is not competent to accept and transmit all of this motion which was capable of pass- ing through or of being executed within the meshes of the antimony. The reason for this will be rendered clear when discussing this experiment from the molecu- lar standpoint - since it cannot be explained from any other standpoint. The bismuth seems capable of trans- muting the excess of electrical motion, which it cannot receive and propagate from the antimony, into molecu- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 251 lar projections or expansive heat motion. And, strange to tell, the atmospheric air suddenly becomes competent to absorb or accept this latter mode of motion from the bismuth-a thing that these dynamic advocates else- where state is absolutely impossible. We thus see that in accordance with this contradictory hypothesis the electrical motion is converted into heat motion by the interposition and influence of bismuth on the one hand, and into cold motion or no motion on the other hand by the influence of antimony. A specific cause must of necessity produce its legiti- mate effect in every instance, hence, if bismuth has the intrinsic power or property of transforming electrical motion into heat motion in this instance, it possesses the same power under any and all circumstances. On the other hand, if antimony has the property of con- verting heat motion into electrical motion in this in- stance, it possesses the same power at all times and under all circumstances. Such being the case, then, if a modification of the above experiments should give results diverse from those above recorded, we must con- clude that there is nothing fixed and definite in the laws and operations of nature, or else that the dynamic hypothesis is false in precept and example. * We know that if either of these two metals alone be used in such an experiment, no such result as we should naturally anticipate in accordance with this the- ory takes place, the contained air remaining wholly un- changed in volume, as proven by the index remaining stationary. If wTe substitute silver for antimony and platinum for bismuth the result is precisely the same in kind as that above recorded, and hence the same state- ments hold good with reference to the silver on the one hand and the platinum on the other as was the case with the antimony and the bismuth. 252 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Nevertheless, if we solder silver and antimony together and then pass a current of electricity through them, as in the first experiment, we shall find that the antimony acts in the premises as did the bismuth in the former case, and the silver as did the antimony. Soldering to- gether platinum and bismuth, and then substituting these for the former, we find that the bismuth now acts as did the antimony and the platinum as did the bis- muth. These seemingly contradictory phenomena must be in harmony with some wTell-established laws of nature, and consequently susceptible of a clear and satisfactory ex- planation if the proper and true fundamental basis upon which the correct data rests be had. The advocates of the dynamic hypothesis have not and cannot afford any consistent explanation of these phenomena whatever without contradicting their own fundamental doctrines and teachings. For incontestible evidence of this fact see forthcom- ing work entitled "The Molecular Theory of Physics" - by J. Redding, M. D. In accordance with this theory, the more dense a substance is the smaller the mole- cular spheres in diameter, and hence the smaller the in- tra-moleculaT as wTell as the inter-molecular spaces. The cavities of the molecules are filled with heat, and heat only; the inter-molecular spaces of all material substances are in part occupied with an incorporeal substance - called heat-and in part by molecules of electricity. These electrical molecules are an exception to the rule in that they have a less number of atoms entering into the composition of their respective walls, or else these atoms are more attenuated than those be- longing to any other known material substance, thus ap- proximatively resembling the atoms of incorporeal sub- stances, and only differing from the latter in their THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 253 primary character and in being endowed with magnetic properties by and through the exercise of which they are united together so as to form molecules, Now it will be seen at once that if by chemical or other means a change in the constitution or in the density of a material substance be effected, so as to render such substance more dense, and consequently the the inter-molecular smaller than previously the inter-molecular capacity for electricity will be propor- tionately diminished. In other words, a disturbance of electrical equilibrium will be superinduced. The electri- cal molecules thus displaced will in obedience to a universal law flow in the direction of least resistance. The direction of least resistance we naturally denomin- ate the Positive pole, that of greatest resistance the Negative pole. If a disturbance of equilibrium be thus effected at the distance of one mile or of one thousand miles from the receiving instrument the result will be virtually the same - when a molecule of electricity is forced into the inter-molecular space or spaces of the conducting media at the source of the disturbance, it necessarily displaces the molecule of electricity just in front of it, and this process being thus propagated from one molecule to another in rapid succession, the result is that soon, very soon, after a molecule enters the one end of the conductor the one formerly quietly resting in the inter-space at the opposite end is forced out. If there was no such thing as elasticity and compressibility, the process would be instantaneous - a molecule dis- charging at the' terminal extremity at the very instant one was forced in at the source of the disturbance. If there be no such thing as an absolute vacuum in the entire universe, and most assuredly there is not, then ultimately the electricity which is thus forced to take up new positions must be compensated for in one or 254 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. both of two ways; namely, the disturbance of equili- brium must be compensated for by an equivalent in- cremation of heat, or else by return current of electric- ity. Since the capacity for electricity, in the case of chemical change especially as a source of its evolution, is reduced, we must conclude that both of these pro- cesses occur in re-establishing an equilibrium. See Molecular Theory of Physics. With these few remarks regarding the nature of electricity, and the manner in which it is evolved and conducted from place to place, we are prepared to offer a clear, concise, and compre- hensive explanation, not only of the phenomena wit- nessed in the above experiments, but of others of a much more practical character from 'a medical and an economic standpoint. Remember, then, that the more dense any material substance is, the smaller the inter-molecular spaces, and hence the less their capacity to contain or to transmit any other substance, whatsoever its nature or composi- tion may be, as compared with a substance of less den- sity. Remember also that the greater the density the greater the specific gravity, the greater the cohesive energy manifested, and the less the relative heat capac- ity. Now bismuth is more dense than antimony, and con- sequently its inter-molecular spaces are smaller, there- fore its capacity for the transmission of electrical mole- cules is proportionately less. Such being the case then, one of two things must inevitably occur when a current of electricity is sent from antimony through the junc- tion into and through the bismuth. Either a portion of the electrical "fluid," if such we may call it, escapes into the surrounding air, or else the electrical molecules yield up a portion of the heat previously contained THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 255 within their cavities, in consequence of a change in shape from a spherical or approximatively spherical, to a more oval or fusiform shape, which they must neces- sarily undergo in order to pass through a restricted or reduced channel. This latter proposition is the one which I wish to promulgate, since it is the one that is in harmony with all the facts relating to the subject of electrical phenomena. The heat thus evolved, by virtue of a change in shape of the electrical molecules, is absorbed by the surround- ing air, causing it to expand in proportion equivalent to the quantity of such heat disengaged and the volume of air within the receiver. By reversing the direction of the current passing through the two metals thus united, the electrical molecules naturally tend to expand to their relatively normal size on escaping from their lat- eral confinement on passing out of the bismuth, and hence they necessarily absorb heat from the contained air in quantity sufficient to establish a thermal equili- brium between the air and electricity. Each of these, in harmony with a universal law, has its own individual relative normal capacity for heat, and any disturbance of this equilibrium, however produced, must be rectified, even though the whole material universe should be de- stroyed thereby. In order to establish this equilibrium, therefore the air gives up a portion of its heat to the electricity, causing the former to contract in volume and the latter to expand in the same relative degree*. It matters not what two metals be used in the above ex- periment, the results will invariably be the same, all things else being equal, there will be an evolution of heat, and consequent expansion of the air, on sending a current of electricity from the rarer to the denser media, and vice versa. It is in this way and only in this 256 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. way that we are enabled to explain the electric light phenomenon. By interposing a bad conductor between two good conductors, the volume of heat given out in consequence of the change effected in the shape of the electrical molecules, is rendered sufficient to render the bad conductor incandescent, and may be so increased as to actually fuse the more dense metals. Speaking to these electrical molecules, thus confined, the change in shape which we translate into sound, is propagated from molecule to molecule until it finally reaches the distant ear or is lost by gradual reduction in the degree of such change thus becoming imperceptible. Again, the change in shape from the approximatively spherical to the fusiform necessarily leads to a reduction in cohesive energy laterally, while it tends at the same time to in- crease this manifestation of magnetic energy at the terminal points of such molecules, and thus affords us a beautiful and consistent explanation of the electric mo- tor in harmony with all the known facts and phenom- ena with reference to the construction and operation of such engines. We are thus not only enabled to make use of these two forms of energy-heat and magnetism - by virtue of changes effected in the shape of electri- cal molecules, but to propagate sound also, and to ex- plain how all these phenomena are produced. The Mol- ecular Theory, however, is the only hypothesis ever promulgated that can afford any consistent explanation whatever of such phenomena, and I challenge the scien- tific world to show the contrary. By placing the positive pole of a battery over a fleshy tumor, and the negative pole at a distance from this, we may discuss such tumor more or less rapidly. How so ? Flesh is relatively a poor conductor ; heat is evolved ; heat is the great disintegrative agent of the universe; the tumor undergoes disintegration and is R-16 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 257 eliminated in the form of fatty granules, albuminoids and inosite. Hammering a mass of soft iron produces the very same change, in the shape of the molecules of which it is composed, that the passage of a current of electricity from a rarer to a denser medium does, that is, the molecules are caused to approximate a more or less fusiform shape at the expense of an equivalent volume of heat; and at the same time lose in lateral cohesive energy and increase in terminal cohesive en- ergy. Now this is precisely what does take place in the mass as a consequence of the hammering process ; and just the reverse of this is what takes place when the iron is subsequently heated - the molecules absorb heat, increase in their transverse diameter, approximate more closely to the spherical form, increase in lateral co- hesive energy, thus corresponding in all essential par- ticulars with what takes place in the electrical molecules when caused to pass from a denser to a rarer medium. See Plate I. With this somewhat meager elucidation of this most important question, I shall leave the ques- tion as to whether heat is a mode of motion, or is it an incorporeal substance ? to the predilections of the re- spective readers - believing and treating it as a real substantial entity so far as I am individually concerned. So far then from heat being "A motion, expansive restrained," etc., a projectile or translatory motion of molecules, it is the actuating influence or energy by and through which such expansive motion of molecules, and in the aggregate, of masses, is effected. And in effecting this expansion of molecules and masses, the heat thus incremated is actually rendered latent - so to speak. Let me state again that if heat be a mode of motion, expansive in nature and tendencies, then the greater the degree of amplitude of such motion the greater the de- 258 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. gree of heat; the heat and motion being virtually syn- onymous terms, that is, they being one and the same thing. In the process of expansion or rarefaction, therefore,' we should invariably, in accordance with the dictates of reason and common sense, naturally expect to find a proportionate elevation of temperature - poten- tial heat or possible motion rendered sensible heat or manifest motion. There is no escaping such a conclu- sion. If heat is motion we must have the motion called heat in order to be realized as such, and it must more- over be that kind of heat motion which is susceptible of being measured by the thermometer - expansive mo- tion- to be appreciated. And, on the contrary, conden- sation or reduction in volume must just as invariably be characterized by a lowered temperature or loss of sensible heat - actual motion-as expansion is charac- terized by the opposite phenomena. If the phenomena here scientifically predicated upon the dyanmic theory of physics is not actually realized in fact, then the facts of nature are against the theory, and consequently the the- ory is worthless. If, however, the theory is found to be in harmony with the facts of nature, then my theory of molecular physics, of extra-vascular circulation, of ani- mal heat, of secretion and excretion, of digestion, aye of disease germs, and all other peculiar doctrines and opin- ions thus far advanced by me, are false and absurd in the extreme. What are the facts in reference to this ques- tion then ? Notice carefully the import of the following statement from Tyndall "On Sound," p. 60: "Thus we see that because the heat developed in the condensation aug- ments the rapidity of the condensation, and because the cold developed in the rarefaction augments the rapidity of the rarefaction, the sonorous wave, which consists of a condensation and a rarefaction, must have its velocity THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 259 augmented by the heat and the cold which it develops during its own progress." We thus see that these dyn- amic authors are forced to recognize the fact that by condensing the atmospheric air heat is evolved or made manifest, while by rarefying it heat is rendered latent. They fail to explain how it is that a reduction of the amplitude of the vibrating particles .of the air in the condensed portion of the wave increases either the heat (that is the motion) or the velocity of propagation; and how it is that the cold (the absence of motion) in- creases the velocity of sound propagation. But as this is a matter of no special moment here, we will pass it by, and simply ask them, and all others who endorse this theory of heat, if it is not a fact that, in accor- dance with this theory, the molecules of air in the rare- faction do not actually have a relatively much greater amplitude of swing than is the case with the condensa- tion ? Such is and of necessity must inevitably be the case, and hence the molecular projections or translatory motions of the air molecules of the rarified portion of the sonorous pulse should naturally be the hot portion, the condensed portion ought to be somewhat affected with cold, in order to accommodate the exigencies of the dynamic hypothesis in a consistent manner. By forcibly compressing air in the fire syringe, or other properly arranged receptacle, we know that heat is thus rendered manifest, and vice versa. The same is true with regard to all known substances, whether fluids, gases, or solids, and hence, it seems to me that there is something radically wrong in the dynamic theory of heat, since it is diametrically opposed in its teachings and principles to the facts of experimental observation and research. We must either give up the facts or else the dynamic theory, and of the two I prefer that the reverse, the namic die. 260 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. In the union of oxygen and hydrogen to form water there is a reduction in volume, with the evolution of heat. The same is true as regards the union of oxygen and carbon to form carbonic acid. Naturally the first union leads to the production of a fluid, wThile the latter leads to the formation of a gas. The first is character- ized by the union of twTo gases to form a fluid, the sec- ond, the heavier of these gases with a solid to form a gas. If, then, heat is a real, substantial entity, and molecules have the characters which I assign them, we would not only naturally expect to have a much larger evolution of heat from a given amount by weight in the union of the first two than from that of the second, but such is actually the case. If, however, the dynamic theory of heat were true, there ought consistently to be a lowering of the temperature - a reduction in the amount of motion in consequence of a diminished ampli- tude. Prof. Tyndall says : ' ' But how are we to picture such dilatation in accordance with the theory which re- gards heat as a mode of motion ? " In answering this question he calls attention to a phenomenon once wit- nessed personally, and says: "Jupiter, thus quivering, would virtually fill a greater space than if he were still. The case is similar with our dancing atoms. When, instead of a motionless atom, wTe have a vibrating one, we must make room not only for the atom itself, but also for the distance over which its motion stretches." - Heat, p. 93. Now as there is neither more nor less of the material substances entering into these compounds in the one or the other state of existence, as anyone who is compos mentis must know, it inevitably follows, as a logical se- quence, according to the dynamic theory, that the hydro- gen and the oxygen gases both seem to occupy the space they do because of the supposed fact that "Jupi- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 261 ter, thus quivering [so to speak], would virtually [?] fill a greater space than if he were still," and hence the hydrogen quivering ought to be very hot motion comparatively, oxygen four times less hot motion, water a great many times less hot motion, carbonic acid a lit- tle less hot motion than oxygen, and carbon about on a par with water. The friction theory, while closely re- lated to the vibratory theory, is, if possible, more erro- neous than the former, and is therefore unworthy of even the attention of one who can find any other way to spend his idle moments. We are informed that: "A pound of water vapor- ized at the equator, has absorbed 1,000 times the quan- tity of heat which would raise a pound of the liquid one degree in temperature." And yet, strange to tell, the actual temperature of the water thus vaporized is vir- tually the same as that of the surrounding atmosphere at such time and place. The water thus vaporized occupies much more space than it in the fluid form ; is expanded, and hence, must be hot motion comparatively speaking, if there is the least shadow of truth in the dynamic hypo- thesis, which there is not. Neither the fluid, the solid, nor the gaseous state of water, nor any other substance, is per se a property matter, but a condition ; and a con- dition depending upon the presence or absence of a greater or less amount of something sufficiently substan- tial to occupy space. By rarefying matter, heat is ab- sorbed and thus rendered latent; by condensing matter, this heat is proportionately squeezed out - so to speak - and thus becomes manifest to our senses as such. Bioplasm is precisely the same in all its ascertainable physical and chemical properties whether living or dead, whether animal or vegetable, whether active or inactive, and hence the living state is not a property of 262 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. bioplasm, but a condition, and a condition dependent upon a superadded something, by inspiration, called "The breath of lives." The clashing of atoms in chemical union, and their subsequent vibrations - granting that such a thing does take place - is just as energetic in chemical combina- tion in which there is an absorption of heat as it is in the case in which there is an evolution of caloric. In- deed, the amplitude of the vibrating atoms in the first instance would of necessity be the greatest, since here we have an actual expansion, while in the latter there is a condensation effected. Heat being motion, then, wTe should consistently expect to find an elevation of heat where we have the greater amplitude, and the space over which to move, and a reduction of heat where the reverse of this obtains. Therefore, in harmony with the dynamic and the friction theories, we should get an elevation of temperature where we actually do get a reduction, and vice versa. Unfortunately, however, for the theory, nature regards the wishes and predilections of no man. Force can no more exist in a state of inertia than matter can exist without occupying space. And force, however widely diffused, can no more exert its influence upon two distinct objects at the same instant of time than a given mass of matter can occupy double the space measured by the sum of its volume. That is to say, a definite specific amount of incorporeal substance or degree of energy is wholly latent or inappreciable to all surrounding objects just so long as it is en- globed or is exerting its energy upon other masses of matter - maintaining such mass or masses of matter in a given condition against all adverse influences. In other words, force represents a certain quantity which while operating upon one substance, cannot sensibly in- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 263 fluence another ; and - in this sense only can it be said to be latent. The force or energy by and through which the atoms of matter are caused to unite to form molecules is not converted into some other form of energy, as the dynamic theory inculcates, but having effected such union it continues to exert all its energy thus specifically in maintaining such union. This special or specific degree of energy will be made mani- fest just so soon as some opposing force is brought to bear in such quantity as to render it the superior or controlling force. In every instance in which there is an actual absorp- tion of caloric - sensible heat rendered latent-in the act of chemical combination, a proportionate increase in the volume of the mass acted upon will and does take place, and vice versa. Dynamic consistency would incul- cate the idea that the heat thus absorbed is actually transformed into the energy which effects and maintains such chemical union in the first instance; and that the chemical energy by and through which such combina- tion is effected, on the other hand, in which there is condensation in volume, wTith the evolution of heat, that the chemical energy was transformed into heat. Such is the inconsistency and contradictory character of this dynamic hypothesis. These forces are specific in char- acter, fixed and definite in operation, and are absolutely inconvertible the one into the other. The same is equally true of vital force, as also of every known en- ergy- "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever." In making ice cream the motion imparted to the ice and salt surrounding the freezer is not the source of the caloric whereby the two are liquefied, or caused to melt. The heat by and through which such result can only be effected, comes from the contents of the freezer, otherwise we could obtain no ice cream. 264 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. I have already stated that pabulum is universally re- duced to a fluid consistency before it. can possibly be be made use of as such by any kind of bioplasm what- soever ; and I have given the very best and most sub- stantial reasons why this is so, one of which is that a product cannot be integrated anew until it is first disin- tegrated ; and a second reason given was that every kind of bioplasm has intervening between it and its proper pabulum some form of structure through the meshes of which nothing but fluids can pass. The evi- dent purpose for this latter arrangement having been made is, no doubt, to secure the preservative influence of the pabulum by which they are constantly being laved so long as the individual nutritive activities of the economy is maintained. We have seen that the pro- ducts of digestion are three - the hydro-carbonaceous compounds, and the albuminoids ; we have learned that these organic compounds appear unchanged in the venous circulation with which the organs of digestion are so intimately associated, and that they are somehow, and in some way, so changed as to lose their individual identity by the time this venous blood has passed through the lungs. Beale and others tell us that: ' ' By oxidation vegetable products are resolved into car- bonic acid and water," and he adds, "we find no ten- dency in these oxides of carbon and hydrogen to be- come reduced to such products as sugar, starch or cel- lulose ; nay, much further, we know of no [chemical] process by which such transformation might be effected, still less are we acquainted with any internal forces which can mould them into cells with functions to per- form." This is the work of the vital force. In the course of inorganic nature complex substances do not increase, but simplify their molecular complexity - the heterogeneous masses tending to become homogeneous THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 265 in character. If the combustion theory of animal heat is true, a purely vegetable diet, then, can furnish no pabulum for the nutrition of the organism, and must therefore lead quickly to starvation, even though it should keep up the temperature to the normal standard. Such union could only take place in the lungs, since the oxygen necessary to such union can only be brought in contact with the hydro-carbonaceous compounds at this point. The evolution or generation of animal heat would necessarily be confined to this point also, and would be limited in duration to the actual period of time expended in the process of digestion and absorp- tion of the food-elements. The temperature would fluc- tuate, therefore, very markedly before and after each meal instead of remaining at so nearly a fixed standard as is actually the case. It seems to me that these facts ought to satisfy any sane mind that the temperature of the animal body is not due to the combustion process as generally taught and believed, since the union of these elements is absolutely essential to the process, and the conditions necessary to such union obtain to a greater degree in the lungs than anywhere else in the economy, and it is here that the hydro-carbonaceous compounds finally disappear as such - rarely indeed ever being detected in the arterial blood current. If chemically changed then, it must be in the lungs. Un- fortunately for the theory, the facts and the phenomena are all adverse to the combustion dogma. A chemical analysis of the various structures of the body is all-sufficient to demonstrate the utter absurdity of the combustion dogma, since such an analysis never fails to reveal the hydro-carbonaceous compounds in the form of fatty matter, inosite or muscular sugar, amyla- ceous substance or animal starch - identical in composi- tion with vegetable starch - and in a word, all the ele- 266 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ments of the ingested food susceptible of being assimi- lated. Moreover, if these elements had actually suffered chemical change, then they would be totally unfitted for the purposes of animal pabulum, as already indicated, wThile the fact is, I have often seen both animal and veg- etable fat and starch transformed into bioplasm under the microscope, and the products resulting from the growth and formative change of such bioplasm actually become food for other forms of bioplasm, and this latter when digested reveals the starch, fatty matter, and the amyloid substances with which we started. Again, the products of disintegration - the secretions and excre- tions of the body - essentially consist of these very ele- ments in various vital combinations, but chemically un- changed as a rule. The chemical theory of animal heat, however, is much more plausible on its face than is the dynamic hypoth- esis, whether this latter be regarded as a vibratory mo- tion or a frictional manifestation. We know that in chemical union of many substances, a reduction in vol- ume does take place, and that, too, at the expense of an evolution of heat. But in all such unions there is a loss of identity in the primary elements or compounds acted upon, the properties of the resulting compound being the algebraic sum of the combined properties of all the primary elements entering into such new compound. Such is not the case in the conversion of pabulum into bioplasm. Here the pabulum as such loses its identity, the bioplasm remaining unchanged in character. Dr. Comstock says: "If water be thrown on un- slacked quicklime, in small quantities at a time, its heat will be gradually augmented to nearly 1000°, or so as to ignite wood. The heat in this experiment is ac- counted for on the law already explained, that when bodies pass from a rarer to a denser state, caloric is THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 267 evolved. The slacking lime absorbs the water and re- tains it as a part of its substance, and thus a fluid is converted into a solid with the evolution of much ca- loric. " The theory of animal heat promulgated by me is in perfect harmony with the well-known law above enunci- ated by Comstock, and only differs in its essential na- ture and results from the experiment just recorded in the source of the impulse by and through which the condensation is effected, and the peculiar products re- sulting therefrom. In the above experiment, we have resulting a com- pound of known and definite physical and chemical characters, whose analytical and synthetical origin and composition may be accurately determined. The same is also true of every chemical compound, but who can predicate the functional powers and formative capacities of bioplasm by the character of the pabulum or nutrient material which goes to nourish the various kinds of liv- ing matter of the animal organism; or who can tell the character of the pabulum suitable for the purposes of nutrition for any special kind of bioplasm by a simple analysis of such bioplasm ? Who has ever succeeded in constructing bioplasm, or even a compound having the physical and chemical properties of bioplasm - minus the BIOS-out of the elements of food, air and water? The Rev. W. H. Dallanger, F. R. S., F. R. M. S., says: "What do we know of life? Only this with cer- tainty- that wherever you have life it is inherent in a definite compound. This compound has special and unique properties. But wherever you find it as protoplasm, in the sense in which I use that word, [i. e., bioplasm] it exhibits the properties of life, and you will nowhere find the properties of life except asso- ciated with, and inherent in protoplasm, Now, has this 268 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. protoplasm an ascertainable composition ? Yes ; you can analyze it chemically, that is, when it is dead, and it is found that its chemical elements are everywhere prac- tically alike. To say that the life-stuff of the lowest fungus, and that of the most powerful human brain are identical is, there is no doubt, in some sense, absurd, it is abuse of language ; they without question differ in- conceivably. But if you consider only the chemical composition and discoverable physical properties of pro- toplasm from a mildew, or protoplasm from the appar- atus of human thought, they are alike. Their difference is potential and not physically manifest. Then we ask : How, and in what, do matter living and matter not liv- ing differ? In their properties - and in these they differ as the finite and infinite differ - absolutely and wholly. We may not dwell upon what they are, but we may add that even the chemical reactions of living protoplasm are quite different from those of the sub- stance which represents the protoplasm when its life is gone. " This eminent microscopist and biologist was laboring under the erroneous impression that life is the result of the union of the component elements of "proto- plasm," and hence the peculiar mixture of truth and error witnessed in the above excerpt. In order to ex- pose and eliminate these inconsistencies and contradic- tions, I have thought it best to reproduce the context of the above in such a manner as to correct all contra- dictions and misapprehensions. What do we know of life, then ? Only this with certainty - that wherever you have life it is only susceptible of being made mani- fest in and through a definite compound. This com- pound has special and unique properties, and is univer- sally the same in all kinds of living matter. But wherever you find it in bioplasm, it exhibits the same THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 269 unique properties, and you will nowhere find the mani- festations of life except associated with, and manifested through bioplasm primarily. Now, has this bioplasm an ascertainable composition ? Yes; you can analyze it chemically, that is, when it is DEAD, and it is found that its chemical elements are everywhere practically alike.- To say that the life-STUFF of the lowest fun- gus and that of the most powerful human brain are identical in both physical and chemical properties, is but to assert what the inevitable logic of experimental investigation proves to be absolutely true. They with- out question differ inconceivably ; but if you consider only the chemical composition and discoverable phy- sical properties of bioplasm from a mildew, or bioplasm from the apparatus of human thought, they are alike. Their difference is potential or vital and not physically manifest. Then we may ask : How, and in what, do matter living and matter not living differ ? In their CONDITIONS, and in these they differ as the finite and infinite differ --absolutely and wholly - the living and the non-living state being conditions, and not properties, of matter. We may not dwell upon what constitutes life-energy, but we know that the chemical reactions of DEAD bioplasm are universally the same, and that they are often quite different from the products of formative change wdiich results in obedience to the law of con- formity to type. If it were true that bioplasm living and bioplasm not living did actually differ in their properties, which they do not, however, we could only infer that some chemical change had been suffered, whereby life had become ex- tinct, since such a difference would utterly fail to account for the difference, on chemical principles, in the vital powers of resistance to adverse influences, in nutritive, formative and functional capacities, between 270 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the various kinds of bioplasm, even in the same organ- ism. The fact that such a difference does exist, how- ever, and that it is not chemically nor physically mani- fest, is good evidence that the difference is inherent in a superadded substantial something which is not sus- ceptible of chemical and physical analysis, and therefore incorporeal; and that life does not inhere in matter, but is a condition of matter. Different kinds of bioplasm appropriate the most di- verse compounds as pabulum, those belonging to the vegetable sub-kingdom often converting the crude inor- ganic elements of the earth and air into their own sub- stance, while the bioplasm of the animal sub-kingdom can only live upon compounds that have passed through the crucible of organic nature, and yet, however diverse these nutritive substances may be, the bioplasm is sub- stantially the same in ah its ascertainable physical and chemical properties. Chemical affinity manifests itself upon elements of known and definite properties, and thus produces compounds of specific and definite char- acters, which compounds resemble neither of the sub- stances entering into such compounds, but are the alge- braic sum of the individual properties entering into the compounds. Not so with bioplasm ; life force acts upon the most diverse substances, converting them into matter every- where practically the same; the pabulum only losing its individual identity, the bioplasm remaining un- changed. Formative change resolves this undefined and. so far as we may judge by the means at our command, unspecialized matter into definite and well-defined com- pounds, differing in physical properties from each other and from either of the compounds preceding it. Disin- tegration gives us even yet another specific compound, or compounds, differing essentially from either of the THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 271 above in some instances, and hence, we see that there is an insurmountable obstacle, a yawning chasm ready to engulf him who attempts to explain any of the phe- nomena of life and life actions upon purely chemical principles. When chemistry has integrated a specific compound she has reached the limits of her powers and capacities in this direction at least, and hence any far- ther specific integrative change, allied to the formative change in bioplasm, is impossible. "By their fruits ye shall know them" is as true in the one case as in the other, but this applies to the first and only change in chemical integration, and to the second or formed pro- duct in the case of bioplasm. But to quote our author again : "Then, so far as the evidence will carry us. there is today in our laboratories and in our facts from nature, no evidence of the exist- ence of spontaneous generation, no phenomena that prove, or even suggest, that what is not living can, without the intervention of living things [or life en- ergy], change itself into that which lives." Chemical affinity cannot do this; she can only integrate atoms into the form of molecules, and by cohesive manifesta- tion, these to form homogeneous masses. Vital energy takes hold of these independent molecules and integrates heterogeneous masses, such as bioplasm and its formed product. There is not today, nor ever has been evi- dence furnished or phenomena to prove or even to sug- gest that organic material is evolved out of any kind of chemical compound or combination of elements without the intervention of life energy first made mani- fest through bioplasm, and chemical energy cannot pro- duce a single particle of bioplasm, otherwise spontane- ous generation would be no longer a mere dogma, but a demonstrated fact. It does not render the phenom- enon of the evolution of animal heat any more intelligi- PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. 272 ble by attempting to explain it upon chemical princi- ples. On the contrary, it enshrouds the mind in a maze of doubt, uncertainty and contradiction, and confounds the understanding by overshadowing truth with false- hood. There is but one form of energy in the universe that can convert pabulum into bioplasm, and that en- ergy is vital energy. In so doing condensation takes place and in accordance with a universal law, caloric is evolved. There is a still farther condensation effected in the subsequent process of formative change, thus af- fording an additional evolution of caloric. The entire amount of heat evolved is, therefore, proportionate to the degree of condensation ultimately effected. Should the nutritive process be suspended for even a single moment, the attractive influence - so to speak - whereby the pabulum is caused to transude through the walls of the vessels and of the cells, would forever cease, be- cause of the suspension of the nutritive process - the primary source of the change constituting such attrac- tion-were it not for another universal law whereby a formative change instantly supervenes upon a suspen- sion or interference of nutritive supply. In this way nature seems to have provided most effectually against any such minor contingencies. Chemistry might account for the first phase of this attractive influence, but she utterly fails to provide for the second. Since there is but one kind of matter known to man that is suscepti- ble of undergoing formative change, and thus producing organic structure - bioplasm - it follows that in order to secure the continuous evolution of animal heat for more than a very brief period of time, as also in order to the genesis of this process primarily, wre must have bioplasm. How very absurd, then, to inculcate the idea that ALCOHOL and other such hydro-carbonaceous compounds are susceptible of being used as pabulum or R-17 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 273 food in any sense of the word, or even that they tend to support the heat-evolving powers of the organism, either by chemical change or otherwise, when it can be fully demonstrated that alcohol kills every kind of liv- ing matter and permanently lowers the heat-evolving powers of the economy. Clinical experience, as well as the facts of biology and physiology plainly confute such an assertion, and yet the present use of this agent as a therapeutical measure is based upon the absurd supposition that animal heat is due to a combustion process, and that alcohol thus contributes to the maintenance of the nor- mal temperature of the body. Dr. Carpenter says: "We may look to almost every molecular change in the body, although pre-eminently to those which are concerned in the disintegration of its textures and in the elimination of their products by respiration, as participating in the function of calorifica- tion. It cannot be disclaimed, however, that there are certain phenomena which seem at first sight to be com- pletely opposed to this doctrine, and which can scarcely be explained in accordance with it, save by a consider- able modification in our usual ideas." A theory that is so evidently fraught with contradic- tions and inconsistencies is certainly scarcely worthy of so much solicitude on the part of its advocates in order to save it from that oblivion it so richly merits. If in order to accommodate and harmonize this theory with "certain phenomena" which are completely opposed to it, and cannot be explained in accordance with it, we are compelled to modify our usual ideas regarding other questions of science correlated or not to it, then, I ask, which is correct, our usual ideas, or the theory thus advocated ? The laws governing chemical combination are specific 274 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. in character and definite in operation and results, and hence, if it requires 1000° of heat to effect the molecu- lar decomposition of carbonaceous substances, such as wood, and 750° of heat to disintegrate fatty substances outside the living body, it will require the same number of degrees of heat to decompose these compounds by the combustive process in the living organism. More- over, until this is accomplished in the manner already indicated new combinations of elementary principles can- not be formed. It must be remembered that chemical affinity has to do with atoms, not molecules - the latter being the legitimate result of the integrative energy by and through which the atoms are caused to thus unite; while vital energy deals with molecules, not atoms - in- tegrating these molecules into heterogeneous masses. Hence it is that the organic compounds only require that degree of heat which will overcome their cohesive energy, whilst the chemical compounds, dependent upon and existing by virtue of atomic affinities, must require a degree of heat over and above that of the former proportionate to the difference between the mutual at- tractions of the atoms on the one hand, and the over- plus of such energy (cohesion) on the other, al] things else being equal. Dr. Carpenter, in commenting on some experiments upon starvation, in which it was found that a loss of 93 per cent of fat had occurred, being all, in fact which could be removed, while the nervous centers scarcely exhibited any diminution in weight, says: "From the constant coincidence between the entire, consumption of the fat, and the depression of temperature, joined to the fact that the duration of life under the inanitiating pro- cess evidently varied (other things being equal) with the amount of fat previously accumulated in the body; the inference seems irresistible, that the calorifying THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 275 process depended chiefly, if not entirely, on the mater- ials supplied by this substance." From the foregoing experiment it is very evident that the fat had not been previously burned up in the lungs, as we would naturally be led to infer in harmony with this oscillatory theory, since it is here found to be a constituent part of the economy, and yet subject to the decomposing influence of heat. It does actually disap- pear in the lungs, after it has been absorbed into the venous circulation, as we have already seen in the for- mer chapter; and as we now know positively that it was not then chemically changed, may we not with equal certainty feel assured that its disappearance in the in- itiating process is not due to a combustion or burning up of the fat with the production of carbonic acid, wa- ter, and ammonia? The very same class of bioplasts concerned in taking up or absorbing the digested food products, and ultimately converting them into pabulum for the higher order of bioplasts, is now concerned in taking up and thus elaborating this matter. This fat is nothing more nor less than the natural product of waste - possibly in abnormal quantity - and which these vegetative bioplasts normally eliminate from the tissue- elements of the higher order, converting it into their own substance, and ultimately into blood-plasma in part, and in part into excrementitious substances. Indeed, this is the only source from whence the nervous system could possibly obtain its supply of nutrient matter so as to maintain its normal weight and structural integ- rity under existing circumstances. I hold, therefore, that his conclusions, as stated in the following para- graph, are entirely erroneous : "Whenever, therefore, the store of combustible mat- ter in the system was exhausted, the inanitiated animals died, by the cooling of their bodies consequent upon the loss of calorifying power." 276 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. In the first place, the store of combustible matter was not nearly exhausted at the time of death, as could have easily been demonstrated by subjecting the body to the cremating process. The conclusion is erroneous because it implies that the fat was decomposed and new combinations effected of a chemical character, the former of which could not be effected at a less temperature than 750° F., and had such a thing occurred, carbonic acid is not a supporter of life. It is erroneous because of the assumption that the duration of life is wholly dependent upon a definite degree of caloric. (See Chapter II.) Bioplasm is the only matter in the physical universe that lives, and the duration of its life is mainly dependent upon a proper supply of pabulum. Such a conclusion is erroneous because it inculcates the idea that disintegration or decomposition of organ- ized substances give rise to definite degrees of heat, when in reality the reverse of this is true - heat being the great disintegrative energy of the universe. If it be conceded that the animals died because of the cool- ing of their bodies - and such a concession is no doubt in harmony wTith the facts in a certain measure - then the question naturally suggests itself : How or in what peculiar manner did the cooling of their bodies affect the processes of life thus injuriously ? And what pri- marily led to the cooling process ? Carpenter says: "It is generally supposed that the development of heat is occasioned entirely by the dis- integration of fat. the oxygen uniting with the carbon, and a proportionate quantity of carbonic ' acid being formed." And this author endorses this view in the main. And yet, Dr. Beale says: "In many conditions in which the temperature rises many degrees above the normal standard within a very short period of time, THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 277 the oxidizing process is completely at fault, and the quantity of oxygen consumed is actually less than in in health." He continues: "The adipose tissue may, indeed, be regarded as a sort of storehouse, in which fat is accumulated as long as the body is abundantly supplied with food, from which it may be removed and appropriated should a period of scarcity occur." We thus see that the facts of observation are dia- metrically opposed to the general supposition involved in the combustion dogma; and I shall soon show that the greater the degree of nutritive activity of any part the more rapid the evolution of animal heat, and that there- fore, the main reason why the body cools under the ex- isting circumstances, is because the bioplasm had no longer the elements necessary to their nutrition; and the reason why the application of artificial heat had a beneficially modifying influence was, that it effected the disintegration of the formed materials into fatty and other substances so as to render them fit for the nutri- tion of the nervous system. In other words, the law holds good here as is the case in the digestion of the food-substances, and in all other disintegrative processes; hence we see that the disintegration of the formed materials into fatty and other substances could not be effected because of the absence of a due supply of that great disintegrative agent - Heat. Carpenter states that "Up to the time when they began to take food, their weight continued to diminish, the secretions being renewed, under the in- fluence of artificial heat, sometimes to a considerable amount. We see, therefore, that the suspension of the secre- tions was due to the absence of a sufficient degree of heat to effect the disintegrative changes necessary to their productions; and that this deficiency of heat was 278 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS science and philosophy. primarily due to the defective nutrition. In farther proof of this fact, we quote another statement of his, relative to the above experiment. He says : "It was not Lin til digestion had actually taken place (which owing to the weakened functional power, was commonly many hours subsequent to the ingestion of the food) that the animal regained any power of generating heat; so that, if the external source of heat was withdrawn, the body at once cooled ; and it was not until the quan- tity of food actually digested was sufficient to support the wants of the body, that its independent power of calorification 'returned." The facts of his own experi- mental research, as thus stated by himself, not only conclusively show that the combustion dogma is absurd- ity from every conceivable point of view that we may take of it, but they just as forcibly show that- the theory of digestion, secretion, excretion, in a word of DISINTEGRATION, as also that the source of the evo lution of animal heat, is such as I have here and else where promulgated and advocated. At this stage of inanition there was not sufficient nutritive activity in the body to afford the necessary degree of heat to disintegrate the organic constituents of either the food or of the body, and hence, in the ab- sence of artificially supplied heat neither digestion, secretion, nor excretion could be effected. Actually digested food is already disintegrated organically, and consequently the process of disintegration cannot be pre-eminently concerned in the production of animal heat, even if the disintregative process was a source of manifest heat instead of the very reverse, unless, in- deed, the molecules themselves, of which the heterogen- eous mass previously constituting the organic compound consisted, were decomposed. And even then the dic- tates of common sense would lead us to infer that the THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 279 heat was evolved as a result of new chemical combina- tions, since the products of such union are known to be less in volume than the combined volume of the pri- mary elements entering into such union. This being the case, then, "We may [NOT] look to almost every molecular change in the body, although pre-eminently to those which are concerned in the dis- integration of its textures and in the elimination of their products by respiration, as participating in the function of calorification."-Carpenter. The food-elements having been organically disinte- grated- essentially and necessarily so - in the process of digestion, the organic textures of the body must be first integrated anew out of the products of digestion before they could possibly become a source of animal heat in harmony with the above hypothesis; and hence, the food would not only have to be actually digested, but actually integrated anew, "before the animal re- gained any power of generating heat." In accordance with this gray-headed hypothesis, therefore, an inflam- matory process - especially after a complete return to the embryonal state - should be characterized by a total loss of heat-evolving power, since the disintegrative process is then entirely suspended, and the temperature should be proportionately reduced in the economy in- stead of actually being elevated, as is the case clini- cally. Since it is a well-established fact that BIOPLASM is the source of every cell, tissue, organ and structure in the organic universe, and since man does have an organic existence in this life (whatever may be his peculiar characteristics in the next), and since carbonic acid, water and ammonia neither constitute pabulum for animal bioplasm, bioplasm itself, nor formed material or organic structure, we are forced to conclude that the 280 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY food substances are not chemically changed in the pro- cess of digestion, in the lungs, in being converted into bioplasm, nor subsequently into formed material; and hence, if animal heat is evolved by chemical process at all, it must be "pre-eminently" in those changes "which are concerned in the disintegration of its textures and in the elimination of their products by respiration." There is but one single fact or phenomenon connected with the entire process of animalization which tends in any sense whatever to support the. combustion dogma, and that is the fact of the expiration of carbonic acid gas. All the other phenomena are diametrically op- posed to such an assumption, as I shah showT, and even this single phenomenon can be fully accounted for in an entirely different manner, and in harmony with all the other facts, without resorting to this contradictory hypothesis. Nevertheless, in lieu of a more consistent theory, Prof. Carpenter's view of the source of animal heat does less violence to the facts, and is by far the most rational of any that has ever been advocated by anyone, except that of my own theory. This peculiar hypothesis admits of the fact, by implication at least, that the food-substances are not chemically changed until after they have been digested, absorbed, converted into bioplasm, then into formed material, and finally, after they have served their purpose in this way, are disintegrated and eliminated as effete and useless matter - unfit for pabulum, as all inorganic matter is known to be, and hence for any other purposes of the econ- omy, unless, indeed, it be used for the purposes for which the secretions are formed. Unfortunately for the theory, heat is rendered latent - not manifest-in the formation of the secretions; and not only so, but the expiration of the gas forbids that we should regard the secretions as resulting from THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 281 such chemical change, even if these products had the chemical constitution and physical properties of the dis- integrated substances above mentioned. I shall show in a subsequent chapter that the secretions and excretions are both the products of disintegration of the formed material of the body, and that heat is not evolved in this process. In the meantime, Dr. Beale says: "It is well known that large quantities of fat which have been stored up in the body, and have been collecting for a considerable time, may quickly disappear in consequence of the fat being absorbed, and its elements applied to assist in the nutrition of tissues whose waste could not occur without consequences very damaging to the organism [the nervous centers for example], and in maintaining the requisite temperature." If this fat disappeared as a result of chemical change, as the above combustion dogma would lead us to infer, then it could not be ap- plied to assist in the nutrition of any kind of animal bioplasm whatever, since carbonic acid gas, water and ammonia do not constitute pabulum for such bioplasm; and even if it did it could not contribute to the main- taining of the requisite temperature, if the evolution of animal heat be due to the disintegrative process, or the subsequent chemical integrative process. Dr. Rindfleisch, the renowned German Histologist, says: "The larger the fat-drops become - and in the fat-cells of a lipoma especially they attain a very re- spectable size - the more difficult does it become to con- vince ourselves of the presence of certain remains of the protoplasm and the nucleus. Nevertheless, it is not permissible to doubt of their presence in general, as the nuclei regularly reappear upon the occurrence of the re- sorption of the- fat," which could not possibly be the case if at any previous period in the process of animal- 282 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHV. ization the fat had been changed by the combustion process, since carbonic acid gas, water and ammonia do not, either singly or combined, constitute, or even re- semble in any respect whatever, pabulum, bioplasm, or formed material. Bioplasm is not a product of the combustion of fat, then; and hence we must conclude that the reappear- ance of the bioplasm-nucleus is not due to a combus- tion process, but to the conversion of the fat into its own substance, especially so since the bioplasm cannot increase except it has something at the expense of which to increase. The absorption of the fat, then, and the maintenance of "the requisite temperature," is due to the conversion of pabulum into bioplasm in this in- stance at least. In farther confirmation of this fact, I quote again from Beale. He says: "In the winter, when the fat of the fat bodies of the frog is being absorbed, the bioplasm of each vesicle can be seen spreading around the fatty matter, which gradually diminishes in amount in consequence of its conversion into bioplasm. On the distal side of the vesicle, phenomena of another kind are proceeding. The bioplasm is there undergoing change and becoming resolved into substances which are immediately taken up by the bioplasm of the blood and blood vesicles." He adds: "As fatty matter is formed from bioplasm, so its removal is effected only through the instrumentality of this living matter. It cannot be removed until it has been again taken up and converted into bioplasm. Moreover, the same bioplasm is instrumental in both operations. In the one case tak- ing certain constituents from the blood, increasing at their expense, and then undergoing conversion into fatty and other matters; in the other growing at the expense of this fatty matter already produced, and becoming re- THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 283 solved into substances which find their way back again into the blood, and which are at length appropriated in part by other forms of bioplasm of the body." Whether or not his conclusions are wholly correct is a matter of indifference so far as the immediate ques- tion under discussion is concerned. I know from per- sonal observation, both on the dead and the living frog, that his statements are in the main true, and suscepti- ble of ocular demonstration. Paul says : ''Happy is he that condemneth not him- self in that thing he alloweth."-Romans, XIV, 22. If the reverse of this be true, then most unhappy must be these eminent authors, since their own statements of fact do most fully condemn the combustion dogma, which they elsewdiere endorse. Nevertheless, since I am writing wholly in the interest of truth, and not with a view to sustain any "pet theory" of my own, or any other theory, I trust that I may be pardoned even though I do compel those who advocate the combustion dogma to furnish proof of its utter falsity, while, at the same time lending -the support of their own testimony to the true theory of animal heat. Dr. Rindileisch says : "The chemico-physical process which lies at the basis of the fatty degeneration of the cells, is not, in- deed, known with sufficient perspicuity. In the mean- time we may set aside the opinion, as though the fat- globules attained the interior of the cells by intussus- ception ; the fact that muscle, in which we recognize a medium degree of fatty degeneration, nevertheless does not exhibit a greater per cent, of fat than does the normal, controverts this." It also proves that the fat of digestion was not chemically changed by combustion. But, he continues : "The possibility only remains that the fat-globules originate in the interior of the cell. But are they to be regarded as the production of a dis- 284 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. turbed exchange of material of the cell, or as the pro- duct of decomposition of the cell substance ? The view seems mostly to recommend itself that we are investi- gating phenomena the opposite of those which accom- pany the cell formation. As we know from the compo- sition of the yolk, the formative material of the cells consists of albuminates, which are abundantly mixed with fat. We further know from the chemical analysis of muscular fibers, that they contain a not inconsider- able amount of invisible fat, so that we have reason to accept an amalgam-like combination of fat and album- inates in the cells. Fatty degeneration is a re-separa- tion of this amalgam, in which the fat again appears free and in large globules in the protoplasm. That an appreciable enlargement of the cell occurs herewith, is explained by this, that the same amount of fat and albumen, in order to exist together separately, take up a greater space than in their former interpenetra- tion." Which is no explanation at all, but merely a statement of the same fact over again in a different form. This combination of albuminates with fat, and which he calls "an amalgam-like combination," is a vital in- tegrated product - VITAL INTEGRATION ; and the "re-separation of this amalgam" is a disintegration - PHYSICAL DISINTEGRATION. We are, therefore, truly investigating phenomena just the opposite of growth and formation; and in every integrative process of a vital character, if not indeed of a chemical charac- ter also, there is a proportionate evolution of heat rela- tive to the degree of condensation, all things else being equal, and vice versa ; so that the disintegrated products "take up greater space than their former interpenetra- tion" not simply because they do, but because of the in- cremation of an additional amount of heat, and which is THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 285 thus rendered latent as regards our senses in effecting such disintegration, and will so continue until rendered sensible by some condensing process. There is no in- herent power, property or principle in any of the food substances, either in their elemental nature or in their corporate character, whereby they can either integrate or disintegrate themselves. In other words, there is nothing inherent in sugar, fat, and albumen, or any other form or forms of nutrient matter, that can integrate bioplasm and its formed product; and after being in- tegrated, there is nothing inherent in the matter that can disintegrate it. The first is the peculiar and speci- fic province of vital force; the last of heat. Hence heat must exist in sensible form ere disintegration can be effected, and this heat cannot be due to combustion as taught by Tyndall, Carpenter and others. In effecting such integration, the vital force in some peculiar and occult manner causes a condensation or re- duction in volume of the former compounds, at the ex- pense of an equivalent amount of heat thus made mani- fest. In effecting such condensation, the atoms of which the walls of the molecules consist, necessarily have their points of strongest magnetic polarity rendered more divergent (and vice versa in every disintegrative process, whether digestive, secretive, or excretive), and hence cohesive energy assists in maintaining the normal status of the integrated product, and is the only force operating thus in the older and outer portions of the formed material, since this part is no longer endowed with vitality. Undoubtedly the reason for such {with- drawal of vital energy from the outer portion of the formed material, at least, is that it may be diverted to such new matter as can afford it the opportunity for a continuation of its peculiar nutritive and formative function, and thus maintain the normal status of the 286 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. cell as regards size, age, relative proportions, etc. Not that this vegetative energy is an intelligent force by any means, but He who created all things spoke this law into existence, and this energy executes His will, when not interfered with by some adverse influence. This leaves the outer and older portions of the formed material dependent upon the force of cohesion alone for the maintenance of the organic form ; and Prof. Tyn- dall, therefore, might have included the term "cohesion" also when he stated that of gravity is a van- ishing quantity as "compared with the mutual pull of its own atoms." See p. 185, Heat. As has been already stated in Chapter I, both cohe- sion and gravity are manifestations due to whatever over-plus of magnetic energy there may be in any given case not specifically and wholly exerted between the atoms per se, hence it is indeed a "vanishing quantity" in a very literal sense. Such being the case, then, we can readily comprehend why it.is that a temperature of only a few degrees above the normal of the human body may even disintegrate the bioplasm itself, notwith- standing the counteracting influence of both vital and cohesive energy ; and that a temperature of F. or even less can and does disintegrate the organic com- pound which is dependent wholly upon cohesive energy for its existing organic persistance ; and why, on the other hand, a temperature of from 750° to 1000° F. is actually required to decompose or separate the atoms of the constituent molecules of these organic compounds, so that new chemical combinations may take place. And yet we are gravely assured that "The temperature of the living body is kept up* by the chemical changes going on in the tissues, and especially by those true combustions which result in the formation of carbonic acid, water and ammonia." See Packard on Inflamma- tion. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 287 Nevertheless, the dictates of common sense teach us, that if a temperature of from 750° to 1000° F. is act- ually required as an initial force to start the disintegra- tive process, then a temperature at least equal to this must be maintained by and through the new combina- tions - the chemical integration following in the wake of such decomposition - in order to continue the disin- tegrative process until fully completed. The normal temperature of the human body, therefore, should be several hundred degrees greater than is the case, in order to render-.the theory consistent with the facts of observation and experience even in this one particular instance. Naked animal bioplasm may be kept alive for hours, and even increase in size at the expense of its proper pabulum, under the microscope, if supplied with oxygen; but no evidence of the presence of carbonic acid gas can be observed. And yet the most minute chemical interchanges, with the evolution of carbonic acid gas, may be conducted under the microscope, and the gas be readily detected by the blubbers it forms in the sur- rounding media. I have made both of these experi- ments, and know whereof I affirm. Bioplasm cannot live for but a brief period of time under our microscopes, even though placed otherwise under the most favorable conditions possible, unless supplied with oxygen, but this is no evidence of the chemical theory of life and organization/adds no strength to the combustion dogma, since all the phenomena of life are carried on in its presence without the appearance of the most remote evidence of such change. The pabulum diminishes while the bioplasm increases proportionately. This is the phenomena which is characteristic of vital integra- tion. Chemical phenomena differ widely from this in every essential feature, as is well known. Hence we 288 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. must conclude that the oxygen is incorporated with the pabulum in the form of molecules in the vital integrative process; and in the form of discrete atoms in the chem- ical process. Nevertheless, should the disbeliever in the combustion dogma bring to bear the most convincing facts and arguments in contravention of this proposition, and the most convincing proofs in support of the bioplastic theory, if I may use the expression, he is met with the characteristic stereotyped phrase: "Yes, but don't you know that the expired breath is largely composed of carbonic acid gas ? " Admitting the correctness of this proposition, the fact remains that enough carbonic acid is taken into the body, in a state of purity and chem- ically combined with the earthy salts, to not only supply the expired breath with the entire amount thus elimin- ated, but, also, to furnish the other excretory products with the amount thus eliminated in solution and other- wise. The water we drink owes its sparkling taste to the presence of free carbonic acid in solution - the vol- ume of which often ecpials that of the menstruum - and it is by virtue of this fact that the carbonates of lime, magnesia, soda, etc., are held in solution, as is readily proven by driving off the free gas by heat, when the salts will at once be precipitated. Prof. Austin Flint and others state that the reason why the right side of the heart of the foetus, and the left side of the heart in the adult, should be affected with rheu- matic endocarditis is not known, and probably he ver will be; and yet if they had but taken into considera- tion the above well-known fact, in connection with that other fact that the venous blood of the adult passes through the lungs -where it loses its carbonic acid - before reaching the left heart, and that the foetal blood does not, but passes directly into the left heart from R-18 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 289 the right, I think they would have no difficulty whatever in finding a scientific solution of the question. In neither case will there be any such disturbance so long as there is a sufficient quantity of carbonic acid left remaining in the blood to hold in solution the crys- talline substances. But when this acid is very mater- ially reduced below the normal, then crystallization takes place in the blood thus deprived of its due supply of such acid, and these solid and irregular shaped bodies impinging against the delicate structures of the parts must necessarily destroy their textures, and thus they cease to be the theaters of nutritive activity, and hence the pabulum formerly going to nourish them is now appropriated by those germs contiguous to such injury, and thus an exaggerated nutritive activity - a veritable inflammation - necessarily supervenes. (For a full and complete elucidation of this matter, see Chapters on In- flammation. ) The sulphates and phosphates of lime, soda, and magnesia, which constitute a portion of the solid con- stituents of the urine and other excretions of the body, are in large part taken into the body in the form of carbonates, and subsequently transformed within the or- ganism, and thus a large quantity of carbonic acid is set free. Sulphuric and phosphoric acids, occurring in consequence of the decomposition of the lime, magnesia and soda of the carbonates, and subsequent union with these salts, set free the carbonic acid, just precisely the same as though we had mixed them in our labora- tories. Has anyone been educated into the belief that the chemical union of sulphuric acid and marble dust, with the evolution of carbonic acid, is a combustive pro- cess. , Does anyone suppose the disintegrative process neces- sary to such chemical union subsequently requires any- 290 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. thing like as high a temperature to effect such disinte- gration as in the combustion process ? Does anyone suppose that well water, spring, or other "hard water" owes its hardness to sulphates or phosphates instead of corbonates ? Life force makes use of water in the nutritive process, but animal bioplasm at least has no use for carbonic acid in its growth, and hence these two compounds - the organic and the inorganic - are separ- ated during the nutritive process, the latter being re- jected as unfit for pabulum, and is immediately dis- posed of through the eliminative organs of the body, or else retained in part in the meshes of the tissues as a precipitate - as happens in the process of bone formation, etc. This brings us, then, to a consideration of the true source of the evolution of animal heat. And as the cell has truly been defined as "The morphological unit of organization; the physiological source of special- ized function," and bioplasm is known to be the founder and builder of every cell, tissue, organ and structure of the entire organic kingdom, I trust there will be no misconception with reference to the true import of my language when I say' that each and every living bio- plast of the human body is an independent nutritive, formative, heat evolving, disintegrative and specialized functional center; and that, therefore, the relative pro- portionate nutritive, formative, calorific, disintegrative and functional activity will be, and is, exactly propor- tionate to the size of the specific bioplast, all things else being equal. Such being the case, we see how it is that each indi- vidual cell is enabled to maintain its relative normal status as Regards size, notwithstanding the incessant nutritive, formative and disintegrative changes going on during the entire period of the life of such individual. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 291 For the sake of perspicuity, let us suppose all the con- ditions necessary to the normal physiological processes taking place in the hepatic cells may be witnessed under our microscopes, and that we have two such cells thus situated, one of which has just twice as large a nu- cleus- double the quantity of bioplasm - as the other, and see what we shall see. It is very evident that the larger bioplast or nucleus will exert twice the attractive influence upon the pabu- lum at the expense of which it grows than the smaller will or can, and consequently its growth must necessarily be twice as rapid as the latter. If then there is a balance or equilibrium obtained and main- tained between the supply of pabulum and the whole amount of bioplasm to be nourished, it would be physi- cally impossible for such bioplasts to actually increase in size - to do so would be to disturb this equilibrium by creating an overplus of bioplasm, and that too at the expense of NOTHING - and hence, whatever they gain at the expense of pabulum they lose on the other hand by formative change. Now, this formed material would inevitably increase twice as fast, or in a two-fold ratio in the larger as compared with the smaller, and the re- sult would be to maintain the. same relative proportions here also. But such a persistent increase of the formed material would soon lead to nutritive disturbances by virtue of the accumulating volume, making constanly augmenting pressure upon the nutritive channels, and in those cells in which the nucleus is centrally located, by increasing the amount of intervening substance be- tween the nucleus and its source of nutrient supply. Ultimately the nutritive process would be wholly sus- pended by such pressure, the bioplasm reduced to a mere fraction of its former size, or utterly extinguished, and its extra-vascular circulatory influence would suffer 292 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. in precisely the same proportionate degree. This is precisely what does take place normally in the forma- tion of the egg, and it is precisely what does not take place normally in any other tissue or structure of the body. These living cells, then, will be found to main- tain their relative proportionate size, and their actual normal dimensions, just so long as the nutritive supply remains undisturbed. In order to maintain a fixed, definite amount of formed material in each and every such cell, however, the constant production of formed material at the ex- pense of change in bioplasm, will have to be compen- sated for by a relative proportionate disintegrative change in the outer portion of the formed material - that point most distant from, and not involved in, the integrative process. The product of such disintegration will necessarily be twice as great in quantity in the larger cell as it will be in the smaller. The energy by and through which such disintegration is effected, then, will need be just double that in the larger cell than ob- tains in the smaller cell. And yet the temperature of the two is just the same, which could not be if the disintegrative process was the true source of animal heat; nor could it be if the dynamic or the friction theory was true. THE CONVERSION OF PABULUM INTO BIO- PLASM BEING TWICE AS GREAT IN THE LARGER CELL AS IT IS IN THE SMALLER. THE AMOUNT OF HEAT THUS EVOLVED IS NECES- SARILY TWICE THAT IN THE SMALLER CELL ALSO. THE SAME IS EQUALLY TRUE AS RE- GARDS THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL HEAT BY VIRTUE OF FORMATIVE CHANGE. AND, finally, THE HEAT RENDERED LATENT BY VIRTUE OF THE DISINTEGRA VIVE CHANGE IS ALSO DOUBLE THE QUANTITY IN THE LARGER CELL THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 293 OF THAT IN THE SMALLER CELL. Thus we see that each individual cell of the body has the power within itself of establishing and maintaining an equili- brium or balance between all these physiological pro- cesses under a normal state of things, and thus there is a constant regeneration or renewal of the elementary substances entering into the composition of the cell, in exact proportion to its individual needs; and hence, while it continually grows older so long as life lasts, yet it always remains young in substance, normal in constitution, and functionally active. And should the specialized function of the cell be that of secretion, as is the case with regard to the liver cells, then we have in the very processes of obtaining the above most im- portant results, a constant source of the secretions, and in just such quantity as the specific nutritive demands of such organ needs for the solvent purposes incident to preparation of more pabulum. See Chapter III. Suppose we now supply these liver cells with an in- creased access of pabulum, or with the facilities of ob- taining the same, and watch the legitimate result. We may be pardoned the assumption, if we state that the quantity of life substance or vital energy present in any individual cell is exactly proportionate to the spe- cific requirements of the work which it is engaged in; and that, therefore, it would be impossible to increase the nutritive activity of such cell without diverting a portion, at least, of this ennrgy from its formative work to the purposes of bioplastc growth. You comprehend why I say "from its formative work," since it would be impossible to divert it from its bioplastic or nutritive work to its bioplastic or nutritive work. Such a transference of vital energy from formative to nutritive activity would provide for an increase of bioplastic growth, an increased evolution of heat, a 294 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. more rapid disintegration of formed material, a con- stantly increasing attractive influence on the adjacent pabulum just in proportion to the increase of bioplasm, and hence a just as constantly augmented diversion of vital energy to the work of nutrition, until the formed material had completely disappeared by disintegration, and the cell had returned to its embryonal state. Whether the above assumption is well founded or not, is a matter of no great consequence, since we have the most positive proof of the fact that there is a re- turn to the embryonal state - when every part is thus supplied with a largely increased access of proper pabulum; and we know that this could not be without the disappearance of the formed material, and that vital energy is not a disintegrative, but an integrative en- ergy. Moreover, clinical experience and observation teach us that the secretions and excretions are pro- portionately augmented in the early history of an in- flammation thus situated, and disappear just as soon as there is a complete return to the embryonal state - providing the entire organ be involved, and diminish in proportion to such involvement on the other hand. Again, the temperature is less elevated previous to the return to the embryonal state than subsequently, be- cause a portion of the heat evolved in the first instance is rendered latent in effecting such disintegration, while there is no such consumption of heat in the latter case. Hence it is, that from the inception of an inflammatory disturbance to the time of a diminution or suspension of the secretions or excretions - as the case may be - the temperature is but little elevated, after which there is a sudden augmentation of temperature, which grad- ually increases until such time as the growth of bio- plasm has, by the relative increase of its own mass, established a balance between supply and demand, or THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 295 otherwise by its increase caused mechanical pressure upon the contiguous blood-vessels, and thus diminished the capacity for supply. In either event, formative change now ensues and constantly increases at the ex- pense of the just as constantly diminishing quantity of bioplasm, until a nutritive balance is obtained between the two factors concerned, when disintegration begins anew, and then the temperature becomes normal again. We could not have bioplastic growth and subsequent formative change, if the protein compounds disappear by combustion on or before reaching the lungs; nor, indeed, if such a process should take place at any time previous to the disintegrative act. On the other hand, if "The temperature of the living body is kept up by the chemical changes going on in the tissues, and ESPECIALLY by those true COMBUSTIONS which result in the formation of carbonic acid, water and am- monia," then the temperature should actually fall below the normal just so soon as the inflamed part returns to the embryonal state. Why does it not do so ? Simply because this is not the manner in which animal heat is evolved. In scarlet fever, small-pox, measles, tuberculosis, etc., the elevated temperature is due to the growth and mul- tiplication of specific disease germs-of animal charac- ter, not vegetable; and the degree of such elevation is exactly proportionate to the number and rapidity of growth of such germs - all things else being equal. In tuberculosis especially is this fact made use of as an important criterion to determine the rate of progress of the difficulty. It seems to me that no one can be so extremely puerile as to question the primary source of the evolution of heat here, since the growth of the germs so completely coincides with the relative propor- tionate elevation of temperature, and the diminished or 296 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. suspended nutritive activity with the diminution or sus- pension of the abnormal temperature. The heat evolved in the nutritive and formative process in tuberculosis effects the disintegration of the "half-starved" tissues surrounding such granulations, thus resolving them into pabulum for the tubercular germs constituting the peri- pheral zone of such growth, or they are eliminated through the agency of the blood-bioplasts. A portion of the heat thus evolved, however, is economized in effecting the disintegration of the central zone of the granulation, or rather the cells of the medial zone so soon as they cease to be the theater of nutritive activity by virtue of occlusion of the vessels-which is so characteristic of this form of difficulty - the product of this disintegration constituting the central zone. It is by virtue of this peculiar tendency to occlusion of the blood-vessels of tubercular granulations, super- added to the same tendency in Koch's "tuberculine " that actually leads to the "death of the living tubercu- lar tissue surrounding the cheesy center" but which does not kill the so-called "tubercular bacilli," since it is neither poisonous to them, nor does it disturb their nutrient supply, but rather tends to increase it by add- ing more organic detritus to that already existing in the cheesy center at the expense of which they grow and multiply. Unfortunately for the reputation of Koch, and for the weal of the consumpted, however, the dead animal matter thus left in situ, is very liable to work a more speedy demise by septic poisoning than the living germs, if left alone, would have done. This much by way of diversion. The heat thus evolved in these germinal difficulties cannot be due to disintegrative change, since the tem- perature is much more elevated during the inception, and the rapid growth of the germs, than at any subse- quent period, and in those forms of difficulty in which THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 297 the temperature is most elevated - as, for example, scarlet fever - there is no subsequent disintegration so long as they inhabit the body. If the temperature be due to atomic vibration, molecular translation or projec- tion, or peurile friction, then what but the vital integra- tive energy can be assigned as the actuating impulse and the sustaining cause of such motion ? Could we have the friction without the motion of the particles upon which such friction depends ? Would not such friction of particles against each other tend to interfere with and diminish the degree of such motion, and fin- ally arrest it if a vis a tergo did not excite and sustain the motion ? Would not the rubbing of such particles together rather tend to disintegration than the reverse ? Is the friction due to the intra-vascular circulation of blood, and dependent upon the cardiac impulses for its causative influence ? How can a man have the HEART to deliberately contribute to the growth and prosperity of his worst enemies - a legion of little bioplastic dev- ils? Drive them out of the "vital fluid" is it? Which is the most likely to be driven out, the non-resistant fluid blood-plasma or the active, energetic little semi- fluid bioplasts - providing the latter do not wish to va- cate such premises of their own nutritive accord ? Did it ever occur to the dynamic thinker to enquire why it is that the scarlet fever germ, for example, manifests a clinical preference for an epithelial clad surface of an excretive functional character - the skin and kidneys ? If they are driven out of the vessels, why don't they follow the channels in other directions as well as those mentioned, seeing that the blood-plasma, and occasion- ally the white blood corpuscles, have no special prefer- ence as to the precise locality of the capillaries through which they shall pass? Even vegetable bioplasm pos- sesses sufficient instinct, or something that serves the 298 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. purpose as well, to move in the direction in which its nutrient matter exists in greatest profusion, and surely animal bioplasm is not less fully endowed with vital in- stinctive attributes than the vegetable. The attractive influence by which the pabulum is caused to flow in the direction of the bioplasm, certainly exerts an influence upon the substance of the latter also, tending to draw it towards the pabulum, and which tendency is actually realized whenever the environments are such as to ad- mit of it. This is why the roots of the tree grow downward, and the scarlet fever germs seek the skin or its complement - the kidneys - or both. The increase in the force and velocity of the blood current is due to this special attraction, and not to any conscious or un- conscious intelligent act upon the part of the heart. The rapid withdrawal of the specific elements of the blood which constitute the pabulum at the expense of which these germs grow, naturally tends to increase the velocity of the blood to compensate for the loss thus sustained. Even the friction, then, which nature has so effectually provided the means of reducing to the utmost degree, is largely due to the energy exerted by the germinal matter outside the walls of the vessels, whether this germinal matter be normal or abnormal. That the scarlet fever germs actually do grow at the expense of the excrementitious matters of the blood, in part, at least, is evident, I think, from the fact of their preferred seat on the one hand, and the starvation and ultimate desquamation of the cutaneous and renal epi- thelia ' on the other hand. It is due to the absolute starvation of the latter, leaving the tubules devoid of any normal bioplasm to rehabilitate the tubules thus so seriously affected with their normal epithelial lining, that renders this disease so very fatal in many instan- ces. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 299 I have thus discussed this matter here at such length, rather than under the head of "Disease Germs," in a subsequent chapter, because of this important bearing upon the question now specially under consideration. Before dismissing this subject farther, however, it may be best to state that the formed material of the cutaneous epithelia is normally cast off bodily, instead of being disintegrated, as happens elsewdiere. This is due, no doubt, mainly to the fact of their exposed con- dition, and consequent rapid radiation of heat, together with the fact that the naked living bioplasts from which they spring, and which - resting directly upon the basement membrane - so seriously interfere with the nutrition of the more superficial germinal matter as to lead to complete in-nutrition. And this brings me to notice an additional objection offered to the acceptance of the bioplastic or vital the- ory of animal heat, as made by the same physician al- ready adverted to as having seen, with a quarter-inch, fourth-rate objective glass, the non-existent intra-cellu- lar and intra-nuclear fibrillar structure. I do not call attention to this matter with any improper or ungener- ous motives, but with exactly the opposite view ; name- ly, that those who are indisposed to accept my theory may in the future, in justice to themselves, as well as to the author, be admonished to do more than merely "READ SOME, SOMETIMES STUDY," as a medical gentleman recently put it, at a great National Conven- tion, in taking exception to "the living-matter-heat-pro- ducing theory." If we hope to advance the cause of true science, whether in medicine, physics or chemistry, we must do more than "read some, sometimes study," and then forthwith reject a theory of which we actually know nothing, and then ask men of intelligence to be- lieve, on the mere ipse dixit of a man, that "Rubbing 300 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. parts produces heat, rapid union or separation of parti- cles from heat," when, in fact, neither the one nor the other is true. That heat may be EVOLVED by molar motion I admit, if grease be kept out of the, question; and that the rapid bending of an iron wire so as to ultimately separate it into two pieces may be fraught with an elevation of temperature is also true. But such a merely superficial observation as this does not afford any great amount of information as to the more occult phenomena which lie at the bottom of the evolution of heat in either instance. That no such calorific phenom- ena ever occur without a breaking-down of molecular structure in the former case, and a change in the shape of molecules in the latter case, is as certain as anything can wTell be proven to be by the logic of facts. The rapid mechanical union of particles never has, nor ever can generate, form or evolve heat; and the rapid sepa- ration of particles thus united will prove equally as negative. "But," says the doctor above adverted to, ' ' I cannot understand how the condensation theory can explain the presence of heat in an animal." And I am sure no one need feel greatly astonished at this confes- sion of incompetency, in view of the very superficial character of his reasoning upon the matter. He says: "In our forests the 'condensation' is much greater than in the animal, and much greater quantities of 'nutrient matter' are consumed, and consequently a very high temperature would be the result, as the radi- ation of heat from the surface of vegetable growths is not proportionately as great as from animals." Just when or how the gentleman discovered this sup- posed fact in regard to comparative radiation of heat between the two kingdoms, is not manifest. Let this be as it may, however, I grant him an additional weight of glory to his side of the question, and a fact THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 301 too of much more weight than anything he saw fit to make use of. It is this; the formed material, like the cutaneous epithelia of man, never undergoes disintegra- tion normally, but the tree gets larger and larger by constant yearly accessions to its substance, so that there is virtually no consumption of heat-so to speak - in the case of the vegetable, while a very large quantity of the total heat evolved in the animal, is rendered lat- ent in effecting the secretions and excretions. Now, if the gentleman intends, by the use of the language above made use of, to draw a comparison as to the heat-evolving capacities of an individual man or animal and an .entire forest, I must confess I have no disposition to question his assumption, until the magni- tude and other important data are first ascertained. If he means to say that w'ood is a more dense structure than animal flesh, such I admit to be the fact in some instances. If he means to assert that an entire forest actually consumes more pabulum in a given length of time than does a cow, or even an elephant, I grant it may be so in the warmer months of the year. But to conclude, therefore, that the atmosphere of that forest would be very hot, were my theory true, only convinces me that such gross investigators would do well to stoop a little in their scientific dignity by commencing or ending with more minute researches, and better adapted to our capacities and to the purposes in view. If he means to institute a comparison between an individual member of such forest and its environments, and man, or an animal, and his or its environments, he thereby shows himself very unfamiliar with even the merest rudiments of the anatomy and physiology of both sub- jects of wfliich he essays to instruct us, or else he wrote the above statement with a view to excite comment, and thus to possibly advance the interest of science. I 302 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. feel confident that the latter object was the true incen- tive, since he surely would not attempt to impose upon us the idea that a just comparison could be drawn be- tween an exogenous growing vegetable, entirely devoid of vitality and nutritive activity, except on its outer surface, the bark and leaves, with a man who is in- stinct with life and functional activity throughout every part of his entire economy. He could not have forgot- ten the fact that the woody fibre of the tree is no longer the seat of nutritive changes, and that but a small proportion of its bark and leaves are actually living, growing bioplasm; while a man is endowed with living, germinal elements throughout every part of his being, and that everyone of these particles of bioplasm is constantly, both during the w'inter and the summer months, growing and forming, and that the deeper seated structures are not only better protected from atmospheric influences which would cause rapid radia- tion of heat, but are much more actively engaged in nutritive and formative changes than the vegetable bio- plasm, by virtue of their more constant and perfect en- vironment as regards temperature, etc. Man is in every part of his being constantly losing by disintegration of his formed material what he gains by nutritive and formative change, and hence maintains a uniform weight throughout adult life; while the tree never repairs the loss by disintegration or decay, (should it sustain such loss) and is wholly of exogenous formation, and consequently successively increasing in all its dimensions annually so long as its skin is the theater of nutritive changes. To make such a compar- ison at all practicable would necessitate such a remark- able change in the composition, anatomical conformation; and functional, activities of one or both of these two very different and distinct entities as to entirely destroy their respective characteristics. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 303 Such comparisons add nothing to our stock of real scientific acquirements, but rather tend to confuse the judgment and discourage true scientific research and in- vestigation. And even were it otherwise, the very same objections he presents to the acceptance of my theory, had they any real existence in fact, would obtain with far greater justice and intensity* against either the chemical or the mode of motion theories. This is such a self-evident proposition, that it is useless to do more than merely mention it. It matters not as to which of the two - the man or the tree - consumes most pabulum in a given length of time, nor which of the two actually suffers the greatest degree of condensation in the organic process, so far as the real question at issue is concerned. The question is one of relative normal temperature, or more properly, perhaps, how and why such a difference actually ob- tains. That such a difference does obtain we know, and had the Doctor given as much thought to the subject of anatomical and physiological conditions, and the spe- cific environments, as he did to the merely superficial fact of the actual difference in temperature, this criti- cism of a criticism would have been uncalled for. The tree is stationary, constantly exposed to all the vicissi- tudes of the weather, presents its only vitalized and heat evolving structure to the constant radiative influ- ence of the atmosphere, while the man is so differently constituted and situated in all these respects. In conclusion of this somewhat unpleasant, but seem- ingly necessary feature of the discussion of the source of animal heat, I quote one other paragraph of his: "According to this theory, all heat must first be taken in by absorption, and when we come to consider the fact that the greater part of the food of animals is taken into the body in a state more solid or ' condensed ' 304 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. than the majority of the tissues of the body, and the further fact that these particles of food must all be re- duced to a semi-fluid [fluid condition first, he should have stated ] condition before they are taken up and become a part and parcel of the living matter of the body preparatory to being again condensed, it does look as if there would be at least as much heat required to produce the change as would or could be again squeezed out of the food, thus leaving the amount of heat given off by radiation all unaccounted for." Should the heat be squeezed out, not radiated, then surely the temperature of the body would become ex- ceedingly great in due process of time. In harmony with the doctrine of conservation of energy, we confess that we can neither create force and matter, nor annihi- late them when existent, and hence, wTe also admit that "all the heat must first be taken in by absorption," whether heat be substantial, a mere mode of motion, or whatever its nature may be. Even the chemical dogma involves the conversion of chemical motion into heat motion on the one hand, or the " squeezing out" of latent heat and thus rendering it sensible heat on the other hand. So that your strictures on this head are just as weighty against either of the old the- ories as they are against mine. There is, however, no weight whatever in such an objection against either theory, andiT am surprised that anyone who feels him- self competent to discuss such questions should have thus presumed upon the supposed ignorance of his readers. I am even more surprised, however, that he should state "that the greater part of the food of animals is taken into the body in a state more solid or 'condensed' than the majority of the tissues of the body." Much of the more solid constituents of the food ingested by animals are rejected as food or pabulum, and R-19 THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 305 cast out as effete matter ; and that which is assimilated is usually subjected to a more or less severe heating process previous to being appropriated by man. More- over, the very constituents of the food substances which we do make use of are those that contain the greatest quantity of latent heat. The composition of our bodies, the quantities of fluids - both cold and hot - the con- densation of the oxygen of respiration in the integra- tive process-not its molecular decomposition - the heat from the sun, our stoves, etc., all contribute to the final result; and after all is said and done, there can be no excess of heat evolved in the body, or ultimately radiated or otherwise eliminated from the body, than was involved in the sources from which it was ob- tained. THE ONLY REASON WHY THE TEMPERATURE OF THE ANIMAL BODY EXCEEDS THAT OF THE VEGETABLE, IS, THEREFORE, DUE TO A GREATER DISTURBANCE OF THE THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM IN THE ONE CASE THAN IN THE OTHER. And the reason why this disturbance is much greater in the animal, is because of the differences in the specific bioplastic, formative and transformative re- lationships, and in the environments. In cases of typhoid fever, and other difficulties pri- marily involving the source of all our supply of elabor- ated pabulum, the temperature becomes much elevated, notwithstanding the fact that the general nutrition is considerably below par. Now. it is this very thing of increased temperature that attracts the attention of the physician and surgeon more profoundly than any other subject relating to the practice of medicine. So very intensely is this anxiety manifest, that the vast majority practically - if not, indeed, theoretically -lose sight en- tirely of the causative influences operating to produce the thermal phenomenon. 306 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Those who look "pre-eminently to those [molecular changes] which are concerned in the disintegration of its textures and in the elimination of their products by respiration, as participating in the function of calorifica- tion,'' whatever their actual practice may be, to be con- sistent should prescribe alcohol, and other such anti- disintegrative agents. Those who hold to the friction theory, should give castor oil, axle grease, etc. Those who hold to the dynamic or dynamo-chemical theory should reduce the amount of oxygen inhaled or the quantity of fuel taken into the stomach, so as to lessen the dynamic change in motion or the chemical change in composition, as the case may be. But those who believe that heat is evolved by the conversion of pabulum into bioplasm, and the latter into formed material, and that heat is in- volved in the process of disintegration-whether that be in the formation of the excretions, secretions, and in digestion, etc. - will hasten as speedily as possible to secure the elimination of the poison which constitutes the causative influence, by establishing the nutritive, formative, secretive and excretive functions as quickly as possible, and thus to make a way for the escape of the overplus of heat in the manner that Nature has provided. The so-called "critical stage" is nothing more nor less than the struggle - if I may so denomi- nate it -between the retained heat and the cohesive and vital energy in the battle of integration and disin- tegration. That is to say, these opposing energies are struggling for the mastery over the whole mass, the heat readily gaining the ascendancy over that portion of the mass under the dominion of cohesive energy only, but these becoming more and more expanded con- stantly as the temperature increases, and hence interfer- ing more and more by pressure with the calibre of the PLATE II. Fig. 3. Fig. 2. Ftg. 1. 4. Copied from Tyndall on heat. Explanation in body of work. THE EXTRA-VASCULAR CIRCULATION. 307 vessels, so that the bioplasm grows less and less in quantity because of the nutritive disturbance, until one of two things must happen; namely, an elimination of these integrated products with their retained heat, or such a reduction of the bioplasm as to fatally interfere with the physiological processes essential to co-ordinate vitality. These disintegrated elements cannot be eliminated ex- cept in a solvent state, and for this purpose fluids are absolutely essential. Were the bioplasts belonging to the venous side of the circulation [see Chapter III] active, there would be no difficulty in the absorption of fluids. But just here comes in the great difficulty, and alcohol, as well as all other agents which tend to kill these bioplasts, tend to greatly intensify this very diffi- culty. On the other hand, any remedial measures which tend to increase the nutritive activity, likewise tend to favor absorption, since these bioplasts are the active agents in effecting such absorption. CHAPTER V. INFLAMMATION. There is at the present time, and has been for nearly a century past, two almost diametrically opposite viewTs entertained relative to the nature and tendencies of the inflammatory process. By far the greater number of medical men regard and treat inflammation as a disease per se, while a small minority believe and inculcate the idea that it is universally conservative in its nature and tendencies, and in the majority of cases assuredly a re- parative process. There is no other condition to which the human being is so frequently subjected as that of inflammation, nor one that is a source of so much anx- ious solicitude to the physician and surgeon, the patient and friends, nor of so great theoretical and practical importance as this. Such being the case, then, and realizing the fact that both of these views cannot be correct, it is certainly our duty, and should be our pleasure, to carefully, thoroughly, and conscientiously investigate this subject in all its minutia and bearings, wTith an honest and unbiased view to eliminate error and establish the truth. There is such a manifest dis- position on the part of the great mass of mankind to regard a majority view with reference to any profound, occult, or intricate question as being necessarily and essentially true, as to render it a difficult and often al- most hopeless task to effect a reformation in such mat- ters by disabusing the mind of preconceived notions and opinions of an erroneous character. There are sev- eral reasons which might be given for the existence of this unfortunate disposition of the human mind - the INFLAMMATION. 309 most prevalent, perhaps, and certainly the one most to be deplored, is the overweening credulity of the masses in the teachings and traditions of a few self-constituted leaders. Another strong incentive to be and to act with the majority is the bitter opposition, revilings and persecution to which those who promulgate and advocate minority views are subjected - the majority in effect pretending to be absolutely infallible, and hence insist- ing that its own peculiar policy or precepts should be THE governing principle for all. So extremely Pharisaical and arrogant has sectarian majorities shown themselves in times past that they have inflicted the most excruciating torture, and even the penalty of death upon those who dared to presume the majority view fallible. The writings of such men have been consigned to the flames, and the men them- selves imprisoned lest perchance doubt should be cre- ated in the minds of the public as to the infallibility of the majority leaders. How much better disposed are the majority parties, sects and creeds of this day and generation '? Could the integral parts of a majority party, creed or sect be thoroughly educated in all the fundamental principles and other essentials of political economy, of religion, of science, as the case may be ; and was the love of indolence, of money, of self, of notoriety and fame banished from the human heart, and love of God, of our neighbor, of justice and truth substituted instead thereof, then indeed would a majority rule approximate the acme of perfection. That the great majority of medical men are ignorant, grossly ignorant, of the fun- damental principles of medical science is a lamentable fact, and one which has been very forcibly emphasized by our courts of justice during the last few years. There is nothing that so much tends to beget and per- 310 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. petuate ignorance as a belief in the infallibility of our leaders, since such a belief naturally tends to dis- courage original research and investigation as a useless expenditure of both time and energy, and to reject without examination everything as false and spurious that does not originate with and proceed from the sup- posed great infallible head of the party, sect, or creed. The voter refuses to read other than his own politi- cal newspaper, the professed Christian refuses to read other than his own religious periodical, and the medical man refuses to even consult with his professional brother of another school, much less to read and inves- tigate the doctrines and teachings which he may pro- mulgate and advocate. In this connection I wish to quote briefly from an ad- dress delivered by N. S. Davis of Chicago, before the "Medical Congress" recently held on Staten Island, N. Y., he said: "I wish to say to the members of that most important and humane profession, in whose ranks I have diligently labored for more than half a century, that if you, one and al], will patiently and boldly verify the truth of these several propositions as I have done, by acting in accordance with them at the bed-side of the sick, you will not only soon realize a marked dimin- ution in the ratio of mortality from all these diseases for which you have heretofore prescribed alcoholic liquors, but by uniformly characterizing such liquors as depressing, paralyzing and poisonous, instead of stimu- lating and tonic, w'henever they are alluded to, you wall save many thousands from death annually, and do more towards banishing the terribly destructive habit of liquor-drinking from every circle of human society in one decade than has been accomplished by legislation in a century past. By thus quietly and persistently desig- nating all the various fermented and distilled drinks INFLAMMATION. 311 simply as diluted poisons capable of impairing cerebral and nerve sensibility, muscular force, metabolic tissue changes and secretory activity, in proportion to the quantity taken, you will more rapidly and effectually educate the people correctly on this all-important sub- ject than can be done by any other agencies." In another place in the same address he says: "If the foregoing views regarding the effects of alcoholic liquids on the human system in health are correct, what can we say concerning their value as remedies for the treatment of disease." The correct answer may be found in the paragraph first quoted, and more fully in Lecture VII of this work. Now Dr. N. S. Davis of Chicago, stands pre-eminently at the head of the Allopathic school of medicine in the United States of America; and hence we are justified in stating that if it was possible for anyone of that school to effect a reformation in its precepts or its prac- tices, he would be the very man to introduce and carry it to a successful issue. Can he do it ? If not, why not '? We have only to substitute the name of some other brain and nerve sedative, heart and muscular de- pressent, or other poisonous or destructive agent for that of alcoholic liquors, and then request the rank and file of such school to faithfully and persistently charac-, terize them as above indicated, in order to discover at least one reason why reformation from within cannot be accomplished. It is not merely a reformation in the use of one or two drugs that constitutes the great and cry- ing need, but a reformation in the precepts and doc- trines upon which a poisonous therapeutics is based. Prof. Lionel S. Beale, in treating of inflammation of the kidneys, says: "So far from disease being univer- sally a destructive process - a disintegration - it con- sists essentially, and in the majority of cases, of a too 312 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. rapid increase of the living or germinal matter, of an addition to a part rather than a subtraction from it, and if in many morbid changes, increased destruction could be brought about, the diseased state would cease." Many years ago it was said by one of the great lead- ers of this "regular" school of medicine that: "The most virulent poisons are our best remedies," but never in the entire history of the school before has anyone vouchsafed such a concise, comprehensive, and alto- gether consistent proposition as a fundamental basis upon which to excuse if not to construct a poisonous therapeutics. Taking it for granted that man is a duad being, is composed of living and non living matter- bioplasm and formed material-as is plainly implied in the state- ment ; and, secondly, that disease does essentially con- sist of a too rapid increase of the former of these tw7o constituents, then surely we cannot doubt but that in- creased destruction of this too rapidly increasing living or germinal matter is the one great desideratum to be sought for. Granting, again, that there are agents pos- sessing fixed and definite properties, which, when given, will destroy the living matter, thus rendering the prac- tice of medicine no less scientific than chemisty, astron- omy, or mathematics; and then suggest to the adher- ents of such a theory that they "uniformly characterize such liquors, [liquids and powders], as depressing, par- alyzing and poisonous, instead of stimulating and tonic," and I grant that "you wTill save many thousands from death annually, and do more towards banishing the ter- ribly destructive habit" or practice of giving poisons as remedies than all other influences combined, provid- ing they become obedient to such a behest. But what becomes of the fundamental basis of a poisonous ther- apeutics if such a proposition be true? No, my friends, INFLAMMATION. 313 this will not do ! Before we can ever hope to effect a reformation in medicine, we must first get at the very root of the evil, and then the superstructure will crum- ble and disappear because of its own intrinsic worthless- ness. There are believers in high license, low license, local option, and prohibition or suppression in the medical profession as well as in political parties, but we call these things or opinions by different terms; namely, high potency, low potency, eclectic, and Physio-Medical. And it is to be remarked here also that the question of potency - high, low, optional or no - potency has refer- ence strictly to poisons. All of these sects, except the local optionists, have founded their respective therapeu- tical beliefs and practices upon theoretical premises in harmony with such respective practices ; and hence the absolute necessity of a careful investigation of such premises if we may ever hope to secure a reformation in practice. The proposition quoted from Beale comprehends all there is in medicine, so far as the fundamental princi- ples of that school are concerned, whether they be true or false; and they are so intimately interwToven with the practice that the whole structure must either stand or fall together as a systematic arrangement. Now, we are told by this same author that bioplasm is the only matter in the universe that can be nourished, and grow, and multiply and thus produce new particles like itself ; that it is the only substance known to man that can undergo formative change and thus produce cells, tis- sues, fibres and structures of an organic character. We are also told that ' ' The cell is the morphological unit of organization, the physiological source of specialized function." And hence we shall discover, if we go back in the 314 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. history of man and follow him up, step by step, through all the gradations of developmental change, until at last he has reached man's perfect estate, that a few trans- parent. colorless, entirely structureless particles of semi- fluid matter - BIOPLASM - wTas the author and builder of every cell, tissue, fibre, structure and organ of his entire body. We shall find that this bioplasm, trillions of times less than that which it has produced, has taken up non-living nutrient material and converted it into its own bioplastic substance, endowed it with its own vital powers, formative, nutritive and functional ca- pacities, and thus imparted life to that which before was dead, and it is caused to live. We shall find that the multiplied millions of living particles which have resulted from the growth, division and re-division of these primitive particles of bioplasm, have ultimately undergone formative change or condensation in their outer part - in consequence of an equilibrium having been established between the nutrient supply and nutri- tive demand-and that thus an organism of marvelous, though exceedingly simple workmanship, has been pro- duced. This is not mere idle speculation, for myself and many others have seen this matter growing and divid- ing and sub-dividing, until hundreds and thousands had been produced out of that which had neither life nor motive energy of its own. We have seen this matter produce tissues, structures and organs out of that which was previously destitute of either. The microscope shows this matter to be capable of undergoing the most varied movements, of constantly undergoing change of form, capable of moving from place to place, even in opposition to the laws of gravity and those of other physical influences, capable of converting other materi- als into its own substance, of endowing them with its INFLAMMATION. 315 own transcendentally wonderful properties - so to speak - capable of building for itself a house, a protective covering, and thus developing a cell. This is absolutely the only matter known to man that can be nourished and thereby grow and multiply; and it is positively the only matter that can produce new tissue, and renew that which is old and restore that which is lost. Every kind of organic existence, therefore, whether simple or complex, whether living or dead, had for its builder "BIOPLASM." And not only so, but I shall conclusively show in the pages of this work that every organic function, every vital manifestation, is but an expression either directly or remotely of its marvelous powers. This matter is distinguished, therefore, from every and all other forms or kinds of matter by virtue of its peculiar powers, properties and capacities, and is called living matter, germinal matter, embryonal matter, protoplasm and bio- plasm, because it alone of all things in the universe can be nourished and grow, and move by virtue of its own inherent powers, can produce nerve, bone, muscle, carti- lage or any other organic substance ; because it alone of all created things can impart life to things that are dead and thus endow them wTith its own specific and unique vital powers, functions and capacities. It is to be the bioplasm or living matter of man's organism that we must look, therefore, for the source of the impulse by and through the exercise of which every and all vital phenomena are made manifest - whether nutritive, gen- erative, formative, calorific, specific function, secretive or excretive. And yet, notwithstanding all these rec- ognized and conceded facts, it is this "living or ger- minal matter" that Dr. Beale's proposition would legiti- mately and logically involve in therapeutical destruction. Cornil and Ranvier state that "It is certain that the 316 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. inflammation whose symptomatic ensemble vze see in the clinic, consists essentially in an exalted nutrition and formation of anatomical elements [embryonal ele- ments]."-Pathological Histology, p. 55. They also say, on page 72 of the same work: "Whenever artificial or pathological irritation has determined « growth of embry- onal elements, if the irritation cease this neiv growth always tends to return to the original form of the tissue which served as a matrix." Beale calls this exalted nutritive activity, this return to the embryonal state, "a too rapid growth of the living or germinal matter," and ad- vises the therapeutical use of such agents as tend to destroy it, notwithstanding the fact that these very em- bryonal elements tend to reproduce the tissue of its ma- trix- whenever a balance between the nutritive supply and demand is obtained. Yes indeed, the farther we continue our investigations the more do we become as- sured that all organs, tissues, and organisms, however diverse in appearance, in physical properties or chem- ical composition, are but the expression of the formative capacities of this living matter, which has neither color, structure, nor form ; neither physical nor chemical prop- erties whereby we can differentiate that which will pro- duce the lowest from that which will produce the high- est organism in the scale of creation. It is only after they have undergone formative change in their outer part, and thus gained the dignity of cells, that we may assuredly determine the kingdom, the genus, and the species to which they respectively belong. And not- withstanding the countless millions of living, growing, multiplying, and organizing particles of bioplasm that are brought into existence daily, not one of them ever makes a mistake in developmental change. Such being the case, then, should we not ponder well all these facts before we judge them too harshly and INFLAMMATION. 317 strike the fatal blow which shall terminate their vital existence? The command has gone forth, "Thou shalt not kill." Should we not weigh well the pros and cons before resorting to the use of agents which, when once started on their mission of death and destruction, no power on earth can change or stay, but they silently and more or less effectually strike down the sentinels of our being, the authors of our organic existence, strike down that which guards the very citadel of life - the brain - the organ of thought, of reason, of judg- ment. of love, joy and worship ? I trust the reader will not think me overly prolix in regard to this paramount question of all questions relat- ing to the science and practice of medicine. It is either right and proper to administer such agents as naturally tend to kill the living matter of the body in cases of inflammation especially, or else it is radically and essen- tially wrong. There is no half-way or medium course scientifically permissible in the premises. There can, therefore, be no excuse for the existence of the low-po- tency or Homeopathic, nor the local optionists, nor Eclec- tic doctors. There can be but two sides to this ques- tion; namely, Is inflammation a disease, or is it not? If a disease, even then a poisonous therapeutics is not scientifically correct nor eminently consistent with the theory. If inflammation is a conservative, and generally a reparative process, then a poisonous course of treat- ment is erroneous and damnable. The natural and sci- entifically legitimate right to exist as a school of medi- cine depends wholly and entirely upon the fact as to whether or not we are justly commissioned to make a regular business of killing the intrinsic germinal ele- ments of our patients. If we are, then Physio-Medical- ism should be given an enormous dose of Allopathic " Tuberculine," or some other extrinsic bioplastic anni- 318 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. dilator. If we are in the right, however, then, since our theory would forbid that we should kill them, we should try and "regulate" them. Lest some of my readers should be disposed to reject Beale as authority in the school which he represents, and object to the recognition of his proposition as applying to the doc- trines and precepts of that medical sect, I will quote from Dr. Packard, who was chosen some years ago to give a special course of lectures on inflammation before the learned men of that regular school because of his supposed great erudition and peculiar qualification to give correct instruction upon that special subject. He says: "I take the position that inflammation is always, wherever met with, a disease, and that the term 'healthy inflammation,' and all the theoretical views dependent upon it. are incorrect. It is a morbid change affecting the nutrition of the part in which it is seated. Not one of the normal actions of the organism either requires it or gives rise to it. Science goes further, and proves that in proportion to the degree of this morbid action the part is rendered more unfit for its regular duty, less tenacious of life, and less capable of returning to its healthy state." This is certainly a most sweeping statement, and. if true, calls for thor- oughly radical means to counteract and suppress the entire process. He adds: "It is the response of a living tissue to a stimulus or irritation applied to it, * * * and is, therefore, set up as the result of the injury done, and not as a means of repairing it." Well, Beale says that disease essentially consists of a too rapid increase of the living or germinal matter; and surely this could not be without something at the expense of which to increase, hence the increase of the living or germinal matter necessarily pre-supposes an increased access of INFLAMMATION. 319 proper pabulum to such part, and thus we see that at least three of the "normal actions of the organism" do give rise to it, the elaborative, conductive and assimila- tive. Let this be as it may, however, we are told that "According to Virchow there are three forms of excite- ment or irritability, ' the functional, nutritive and forma- tive.-' Resulting from the first of these three is merely a more rapid discharge of the duty, whatever it may be, of the elements acted upon by the stimulus. From the second there arises a more energetic absorption of nourishment by the cells, etc., which already exist, so that they grow. Upon the third there ensues a forma- tion of new elements by the enlargement and division of those which previously constituted the tissues." - Packard. The so-called third form of excitement as explained by Packard is but an exaggeration of the second, as any- one having the least knowledge of the matter must know, and is in no sense a definitive statement of what Virchow meant by the term "formative." The word "formative" is virtually synonymous with "organic." Now. since this eminent Dr. Packard states so positively that inflammation "is the response of a living tissue to a stimulus or irritation applied to it," we feel justified in compelling him to show forth in his own language in which of these three modes it actually responds. He says : "No sooner does the mutual relation between the blood and any cell cease than the active life of that cell ceases also. No sooner is there a change in the rela- tion outside of certain bounds, than the health of the cell is impaired, and the same is as true of fifty or a thousand cells as of one." Do these cells respond to the stimulus by ceasing to manifest active vitality ? No need for poisons if they do. Do they respond by having their healthy function im- 320 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. paired? Certainly not, since "Just so long as a part, or an organic individual, a cell, is being nourished and discharging a function connected with its nutrition, it is liable to any or all of these forms of irritation, or rather of response to irritation," and tuce versa ; for he says "It is only when there is a nutrition to be disor- dered that inflammation can occur." - Packard. Since he states, however, that it is a change affecting the nutrition of the part in which it is seated, the re- sponse of the living tissue must be nutritive, and the so-called "stimulus or irritant" applied to it must re- solve itself into "a more abundent" supply of pabulum to the part, else his summing up of Virchow's state- ment is unfortunate for him. to say the least. We take it for granted, then, that all these authors are practically agreed that inflammation is an exalted nutritive activity of the part, and characterized by a more or less rapid increase of the living or germinal matter of such part. We know that they are fully agreed in denominating it a disease, and since poisons are so-called -because they have the power to kill that which lives, we are the more fully prepared to compre- hend wThy it is that "The most virulent poisons are our best remedies." But why Dr. Davis should reject alco- holic liquors, after aq experience of near half a century in practically demonstrating their high potency for bio- plastic destruction, is a mystery to me. Possibly he has somehow or other come across the Physio-Medical idea of equalizing the circulation, and profiting by this isolated fact, searched a little farther until he found means of actually diverting the excess of blood to its proper channels, and finding that hun- dreds and thousands of human lives could thus be saved annually that would otherwise die under the poisonous course of treatment, he became conscience smitten and R-20 INFLAMMATION. 321 hastened to warn his professional brethren and the world of the dangerous fallacy of giving this special class of poisons. The microscope has established the fact that inflam- mation is always, wherever found, essentially character- ized by a more or less rapid increase of the living or germinal matter of such part. And the collateral evidence of heat, redness and swelling, superadded to the physical impossibility of having an increase of bioplasm, under any circumstance whatsoever, without the presence of a more abundant supply of the proper and indispensible pabulum suitable to the nutrition and growth of such bioplasm, conclusively proves that in- flammation is a NUTRITIVE response, of a living tissue to a more abundant supply of proper pabulum. This fundamental question, then, having been settled in harmony with the immutable truths of nature, we must next try and see if we can ascertain as definitely, specifically, and immutably whether or not inflammation is a disease. I know full well that it is decidedly "irregular" to even dare to presume to question the fundamental verity of any ancient theoretical dogma of the Allopathic school of medicine; but my profound astonishment at the position taken by Dr. N. S. Davis on the subject of alcoholic liquors, at the great Medical Congress, on July 15, must be my excuse for being thus "exclusive," since the very fact that there is not an- other remedial (?) agent in the entire universe that so completely interferes in every conceivable manner with the nutritive changes either normally or abnormally going on in the human economy as does alcohol; nor is there another agent in the universe which naturally tends to kill bioplasm by virtue of its poisonous prop- erties that can be administered so effectively and per- sistently for long periods of time with so little danger, 322 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. comparatively speaking, to co-ordinate vitality, as can alcoholic liquors, tends to create doubt as to the funda- mental verity of the proposition that inflammation is a disease. By the use of this class of poisonous agents, therefore, he would be virtually doubly fortified against the ravages of this most prevalent form of disease - if disease it be. Reasoning thus, I said in mine heart : Surely this man of long experience, great erudition, and profoundly discriminative judgment, has either discov- ered that inflammation is not, after all, a disease ; or he has become childishly fanatical in his old age, and has thus been led into the grave error of traducing the character of that great "I. X. L." remedy in inflamma- tion, in order to advance the cause of prohibition; oth- erwise he exposes himself to the charge of the grossest inconsistency. Knowing that the Doctor had recently condemned the use of other poisonous agents-as, for example, the coal-tar compounds - and having a very high regard for him because of his known professional erudition, I took it for granted that he had ceased to regard inflammation as a disease per se, and that owing to past events in his professional life he felt somewhat of a delicacy in publicly criticising the time-worn Allopathic theory of inflammation. Personally possess- ing no "regular" or "inclusive" reputation to lose I thought it not imprudent to investigate this important question more fully than has been done hitherto. We will take up the subject of Nephritis first, since this is the special form of difficulty under consideration at the time Prof. Beale gave expression to the funda- mental proposition already quoted. It is to be presumed that the reader is conversant with both the gross and microscopical anatomy of the kidneys, nevertheless, it will be better, perhaps, to briefly notice some of the more important anatomical INFLAMMATION. 323 relationships existing between the different elements and structures that are directly and specifically con- cerned in the function of the organs ; as also inciden- tally to notice those which are involved in the passive excretory function. These elements and structures con- sist of the blood-vessels; the nerves which govern the calibre of the vessels; the Malpighian and inter-tubular capillaries; the uriniferous tubules which conduct the urinary constituents to the pelvis of the kidneys ; and the epithelial cells which line the internal surface of these tubules, and which are "The physiological source of (the) specialized function" of the kidneys. By referring to the Chart, you will notice that the renal artery, after entering the organ at the hilus, divides outside the mucous membrane of the pelvis into numerous branches in its course through the medullary substance. A very few of these branches pass directly through the cortical substance and are distributed to the capsule and surrounding connective and adipose tissue - not shown in the drawing. The remainder, on reaching the boundary line dividing the medullary from the cortical portion of the organ, assume a more or less curved or horizontal direction, corresponding with the base of the pyramids. From the curved arteries numerous branches are given off; a few very small arterioles - the vasa recta, to be described soon - are derived from the concavity of these vessels and pass directly downwards and are distributed to the straight tubules and loops of Henle, but by far the greater number radiate outwards, in a nearly straight direction, through the cortex. From the latter numerous small and short branches are derived, each terminating in a ball-like capillary plexus - a Mal- pighian body - which is received into the dilated ex- tremity of a uriniferous tubule. This expanded portion 324 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of the tubule, together with its contained capillary plexus, is called x'a glomerulus." These little arterioles divide inside the membranous expansion of the tubules into three or four symmetrical branches, having their calibre but slightly if at all re- duced below that of the parent arteriole. They continue but a short distance, however, before breaking up into a ball-like plexus of capillary loops, the convexities of which always look outwards, that is, towards the wall of the glomerulus - which in man is destitute of an epithelial lining. The efferent vessels, which conduct the blood away from the Malpighian body, are derived from the union of three or four small venous radicles - the embodiment of the capillary network just described - which lie in the central part of the tuft, and unite to form a single small trunk before passing out of the glomerulus at a point usually very near that by which the afferent ves- sels enter. This little trunk pursues a very short course and then breaks up into an extensive capillary network, in the meshes of which the convoluted tubules lie, and from which the bioplasm or nuclei of the renal epithelia obtain, their nutrient supply. This secondary capillary plexus or network is eventually reunited into venous radicles which pour their contents into venous trunks corresponding in their position and course with the curved arteries. The efferent vessels which spring from the Malpig- hian tufts situated nearest the base of the pyramids constitute an important exception to the arrangement above described. They divide, immediately outside the glomeruli, into a number of long and nearly straight branches, and passing inwards towards the apex of the pyramids, terminate in a capillary network of compound origin and in the meshes of which the conducting tubes and the loops of Henle lie. INFLAMMATION. 325 The vasa recta, as has already been stated, are few in number and are derived from the curved arteries at the boundary line of the cortical and medullary substance; they also pass inward, toward the apex of the pyra- mids, dividing and re-dividing, and again anastomosing freely in assisting to form the capillary network sur- rounding the straight and looped portions of the urinif- erous tubules. This system of capillaries of compound origin, but which may very properly be termed the vasa recta system, since it is mainly derived from these ves- sels, unites to form small venous branches which finally terminate in the same venous trunks mentioned above, which receive the blood on its return from the cortex. The uriniferous tubules commence in a flask-like membranous expansion which embraces the Malpighian tuft of vessels; it then becomes contracted into the form of a tube, which is very much convoluted in the cortical portion, but as they are about to emerge from this portion of the organ, they pursue an almost straight course and open into collecting ducts. A few of the collecting ducts extend nearly to the surface of the cortical portion of the kidney, but the majority originate within and are confined to the medullary por- tion exclusively. A few tubules, before terminating in the collecting ducts, form loops-loops of Henle - with their convexities looking inwards towards the apex of the pyramids. The convoluted portion of the tubules is considerably larger in diameter than the straight portion of the loops of Henle, nevertheless the lumen of the two lat- ter considerably exceeds that of the former normally, in consequence of the epithelial cells lining the convo- luted portion being polygonal or quadrilateral in shape, while those lining the straight and looped portions ap- proach the tessellated or pavement cell variety in shape. 326 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. By virtue of the convoluted or tortuous arrangement of the uriniferous tubules in the cortical portion of the gland, a large amount of tubing is allowed to be packed in a limited thickness of structure ; and this in connec- tion with the fact that the epithelial cells in this situa- tion far exceed, both in size and numbers, those which line the straight and looped portions, affords us strong presumptive evidence in favor of the position that the depurative process, as indeed the disintegrative changes by which the solid urinary constituents are in a large measure formed, is mainly accomplished here, and that the straight and looped portions perform but an indifferent part in the specific function of the organ. As an additional evidence in support of this view, I would instance the circumstance of the peculiar and certainly very important anamolous arrangement of the renal vessels, by virtue of which all the blood en- tering the organ, except the comparatively small quan- tity intended for the purposes of nutrition only, is caused to pass into the curved arteries, and whence the by far larger quantity normally reaches the Malpighian corpuscles, and eventually is caused to trav- erse the inter-tubular plexus of capillaries on its way back whence it came. It must not be forgot- ten, however, that a small amount of blood entering these vessels is distributed to the pyramids through the instrumentality of the vasa recta, without having passed through the MMpighian capillaries - and thus being deprived of no portion of its water - at all. No one questions the fact, I believe, that the blood, traversing the extremely delicate walled capillaries of the Malpighian tuft, does lose a portion of its watery constituents by transudation, before passing into the efferent system of capillaries, where it slowly wanders in a highly concentrated form, and where the excre- INFLAMMATION. 327 mentitious substances of the blood are removed through the instrumentality of the bioplasts or nuclei of the epithelial cells lining these tubules. That this is the peculiar and specialized function of the kidneys, and that it is performed by these specific elements and in the manner here indicated, I shall conclusively prove before I have done with this particular subject. In the meantime, the compound origin of the capillaries which surround the straight tubules and the loops of Henle, and hence the less consecrated nature of the blood, having been deprived of but a very small quantity of its water, in connection with the tessellated character of their epithelial lining, very clearly indicates that the secretory function of these cells is, to say the- least, much below that of the cells lining the convoluted tubules, and we have evidence to show that the cells lining the straight and conducting tubes are not func- tionally concerned in the secretory process at all. Moreover, the convoluted and indeed the looped ar- rangement is certainly highly favorable to the reten- tion of the transuded water, "fully charged with oxy- gen," in contact with the cells lining these tubules, and by virtue of which the formed material constituting the outer and older portion of these cells is held in solu- tion, and perhaps more or less completely oxidized on being disintegrated - thus giving rise to some of the soluble constituents characteristic of the urinary secre- tion, notably the urates. See Chapters I and III. Again, the fact that the kidneys do perform a secre- tory function pre-supposes the existence of something in the blood that should be eliminated; and the fact that (he muscular, nervous, bony, cartilaginous, and other tissues and structures which do not communicate with the outside world directly - so to speak - are the the theaters of nutritive activity, of repair and WASTE, 328 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. would indicate that this is the source of such excre- mentitious substances. To advocate the idea, as some have foolishly been disposed to do, that the kidneys act merely as a filter - permitting the passage of these elements into the lumina of the tubules and retaining other constituents within the vessels, would leave us without any attractive influence to draw these waste elements into the blood in the first place, and secondly it would involve the necessity of attributing their ex- pulsion to the force of the cardiac impulse upon the blood mass ; and since it would require no more energy to force them out at the point at which they might be supposed to enter, and less energy perhaps to keep them out in the first place, we feel strongly disposed to relegate this idea to the dead past. Then again, such an hypothesis utterly fails to afford any intelligent reason why there exists any of the co-ordinated or cor- related structures other than the glomeruli with a sim- ple straight duct terminating in the pelvis of the kid- ney or in the conducting tubes proper. The skin is said to and does complement the kidneys in function, and hence, if one is merely a filter so also is the other. We are thus forced to conclude, therefore, that the nucleus or living germinal matter within each and every cell lining the convoluted and looped portions of the uriniferous tubules is constantly renewing itself at the expense of the excrementitious substances of the blood on the one hand, while on the other, the outer and hence the older and more distant portions of the bio- plasm from the source of the nutrient supply is as con- stantly undergoing formative change, and this latter is just as constantly being disintegrated by the heat evolved in the process of bioplastic growth and forma- tive change, and thus the balance between supply and demand, growth and formative change, formative change INFLAMMATION. 329 and disintegration, is maintained so long as the entire economy is in a comparatively healthy state. If there still exists a lingering doubt as to the truth of this representation of the modus operandi of renal secretion, I think it will surely disappear before we have done with the subject. Before entering upon a detailed history of the - shall I call them, "pathologi- cal " (?) changes occurring in nephritis, I desire to briefly notice a few facts of personal observation with reference to the state of the vessels in an inflamed part. I do this because there exists such a discrepancy of opinion amongst medical men with regard to this matter. In conducting these investigations I have made use of the web of the frog's foot, the tail of the tadpole, and the tongue, the mesentery and the lungs of the rana temporaria, the rana esculenta and the common toad. The circulation, both during and prior to the inflam- matory process, may be witnessed in the external gills of the tadpole, if taken quite young, and is, perhaps, "the most transcendentally beautiful sight" that the microscope has ever revealed, and its revelations are in the main a constant succession of beauties. Anaesthetics and paralytics, however desirable for the purpose of rendering the subject insensible to pain and completely motionless, undoubtedly have a modifying influence on the inflammatory process, and hence their use is very apt to vitiate our conclusions. I have therefore strenuously avoided everything which would tend to cast doubt upon the results of my researches. On applying any one of those so-called remedies "which quickly and rapidly destroy a large proportion of the vitality of the system," as near the objective of the mi- croscope as is consistent with safety to the lens, the tissues with which they come in contact are so far 330 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. changed as to completely and forever suspend all vital action, and that part of the economy will be thus ren- dered wholly incompetent to perform its physiological office and functions until such time as the surrounding tissue-elements - those which were not directly involved in the destructive process, but have maintained their normal integrity-have regenerated the lost structures and thus restored the part to its normal status, in some measure at least. Reasoning a priori we should naturally anticipate an increased circulation through those parts contiguous to the seat of injury - those parts which are destined to experience proliferative change - since the normal quan- tity of blood distributed to such part was only sufficient to meet the requirements of the parts necessary to maintain the nutritive equilibrium. Only under the most adverse circumstances will we be disappointed in our anticipations ; nevertheless the very first vital man- ifestation witnessed is just the reverse of this, the cir- culation of blood being entirely suspended in the con- tiguous structures to the seat of injury for a longer or shorter period of time, and known as "shock of injury." The circulation is soon re-established, however, in the vast majority of cases, and what is very remarkable, and especially worthy of note, is that the number of vessels now visible - under moderately lowT magnifica- tion- when compared with the picture presented to the eye before the inflammatory process was superinduced, would lead an unthinking mind to erroneously conclude that the number of vessels had actually been increased by new formation. The vis meclicatrix natura is wonder- fully prolific in her resources, and displays conservative and reparative powers of a very high order in the devel- opmental processes, as is clearly made manifest in the construction of new vessels to replace those wdiich may INFLAMMATION. 331 have been destroyed by the death-dealing agent, but this requires time, and always takes place pari passu with the multiplication of the anatomical elements which are destined to repair the lesion, and their extension and course through the new tissues is wholly deter- mined by the attractive energy of the latter upon the blood mass. We would be thought very childish, then, should we attribute the phenomenon to an actual genera- tion of newT vessels at this early stage of the process. Nevertheless, such an assumption -would be less puerile than it is to anticipate, or inculcate the idea that there can be, an increase of the living or germinal matter of a part without increased nutritive activity of such part, and the words left out of the quotation from Packard - as indicated by the asterisks - involves just such an absurdity, for he most emphatically declares that the nutrition is not increased, but diminished or suppressed. But to return to the subject proper; there are two factors operating to produce this deception, namely, prior to the inflammatory action, had the objective possessed greater penetrating power, thus enabling us to look deeper into the tissues without losing sight of those more superficially placed, many vessels wdiich .were on a lower plane, and hence without the focus of our instrument, and consequently invisible, could have been seen. Now many of these vessels, under the new7 order of things, are by virtue of an increase in their calibre, brought within the focus of our microscope, and are thus rendered visible. The other factor operating to produce this deception is, that a greater or less num- ber of the more minute capillaries may have escaped our notice previous to the induction of inflammation by virtue of the absence of red-corpuscles flowing through them, but which become quite obvious subsequently, o'wing to the presence of one or more files of red-cor- puscles. 332 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Seeing that the penetrating power of the lens must necessarily remain precisely the same, we are forced to conclude that the phenomenon above noted is wholly and entirely due to an increase in the calibre of the vessels; and C. Hanfield Jones has fully demonstrated - by means of the manometer - that not only the volume but the force of the blood-current is considerably aug- mented in inflammation, so that w'e know that there is a more abundant circulation going on in the part. I have observed time and again, by the use of the micro- scope, that vessels which previously admitted of but one or two files of red corpuscles, on the supervention of inflammation transmit three, four, or more files of these corpuscles abreast; and that vessels which were before invisible, or faintly visible, owing to the absence of these bodies, subsequently become distinctly visible by the presence of one or more files of these corpuscles ; and herein we find the true explanation relative to the increased redness which constitutes one of the usual characteristics of the inflammatory process. I say " usual," because where there are no vessels, as for ex- ample, in the case of the articular cartilages, there can be no inflammatory redness ; and it is important to note this fact, since redness here is a post-mortem change of the part. The increased volume of blood, superadded to the multiplication of the anatomical elements, explains the swelling which is given as another diagnostic feature of the process. The red corpuscles are seen to cross the field of the microscope at an increased rate of speed so long as the inflammatory process continues active ; the white cor- puscles, on the contrary, drag along the walls of the vessels at a diminished pace, frequently stopping for a few moments, and again resuming their onward march, INFLAMMATION. 333 or, as not unfrequently happens, they send forth a fila- mentous prolongation of their substance through the wall of the capillary, thus making a channel through which the entire mass soon passes to the outside of the vessel. This diapadesis almost invariably takes place on that side of the vessel nearest the seat of the lesion ; and the reason therefor will be apparent if we but con- sider the nutritive capacities of these corpuscles to- gether with the disintegrative changes taking place in the devitalized structures. The shock of injury, or rather the phenomenon thus characterized, may be accounted for upon the supposi- tion that there exists a kind of alternation of action be- tween the cerebro-spinal and the sympathetic system of nerves, and that the first effect of the "irritant" is to induce' a paretic condition of the cerebro-spinal nerves of the part, thus leading to an increased vis ner- vosa of the vaso motor nerves, and consequent contrac- tion of the circular muscular fibres of the arteries lead- ing to such part, and hence to a diminished or obliter- ated lumen, as advocated by Brown-Sequard, Wharton Jones, and others. It is more probable, however, that these muscular bioplasts are directly, and not indirectly, stimulated or excited to assume or approximate the spherical form in consequence of the disturbing agent which causes the lesion. See Chapter on Muscular Contractility. Let this be as it may, however, the subsequent in- crease in the force of the blood-current through such part cannot possibly be scientifically accounted for upon the usual assumption of a vis a tergo. since the cardiac impulse is equally and proportionately to the calibre of the vessels expanded upon the whole mass of blood, and is actually and relatively the same everywhere in the arterial system. I cannot well resist making a brief 334 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. quotation here from Dr. Packard "On Inflammation," since it affords us an approximately correct explana- tion of the true source of the energy by which the force of the blood-current is thus locally augmented, but also convicts him of being guilty of the puerility above mentioned. He says: "The more abundant cir- culation going on in an inflamed part finds its explana- tion, not in any force exerted by the vessels, or in their debility, or relaxation, but in the augmented attraction of the tissue-elements for substances contained in the blood : not that the interchange between the blood and the tissues is rendered more active - although such may be the case, in the early stage of the process - for, if this wTere so. nutrition would be promoted ; but merely that the irritated part calls for more blood, and that the call is responded to." However much the self-contradictory character of the statement just quoted may tend to discredit the reputa- tion of Dr. Packard as a safe and reliable teacher in questions relating to the science of medicine, it certainly should not deter us from profiting by an acceptance of whatever of truth there may be therein contained. Nor is it of very much greater importance to the cause of true scientific progress to "seek for truth wherever found," than it is to expose that which is false, espec- ially when thus associated with the former. It is scientifically inconceivable and practically im- possible to have "a more abundant circulation going on in a part," and especially to have the force of this cir- culation relatively and actually increased in consequence of "augmented attraction of the tissue-elements for substances contained in the blood." and not have the ' • interchange between the blood and the tissues ren- dered more active." That such an attractive influence does obtain in the animal economy, and that it exists in INFLAMMATION. 335 every part of the body where there is bioplasm to be nourished, and that it may be either increased or dimin- ished by an increase or a diminution of the bioplasm of any special part, no one will question who has ac- cepted my theory of the Extra Vascular Circulation. That both the volume and force of the blood current is actually and relatively increased in an inflamed part, and that this is due in a greater or less degree to an augmented attraction of the bioplasm of such part, is assuredly true. That the attractive influence, per se, owes its very existence primarily to the conversion of fluid pabulum into semi-fluid bioplasm, and secondly to the conversion of the latter into formed material, when this process obtains, is likewise true. It is scientifically impossible, therefore, to have an "augmented attraction of the tissue-elements for sub- substances contained in the blood" or elsewhere, -with- out first having an increase of bioplasm in such part by and through which such attraction is primarily made manifest, and hence, inflammation is necessarily and essentially an exalted nutritive activity, as Cornil and Ranvier, Beale, and others affirm. Such being the case, then, from whence do wre obtain the necessary pabulum, in the very inception of the difficulty, at the expense of which the existing bioplasm must increase in order to the augmentation of attraction ? It would hardly require the wisdom of a Solomon to discover the fact that the total nutritive capacity of a given area of tissue-elements, a portion of which consti- tutes the seat of an injury, and consequent devitaliza- tion, is actually less the normal; since the actual quan- tity of bioplasm has been reduced in ratio proportion- ate to the extent of such lesion. If it be true, as Dr. Packard states, that inflammation "Is the response of a LIVING tissue to a stimulus or irritation applied to 336 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. it," "and is, therefore, set up as the result of the in- jury done,'' and if there are but three ways in which a LIVING tissue can respond to a stimulus, as Virchow states ; and if both the clinical history and microscop- ical investigation conclusively prove that this response of a LIVING tissue is NUTRITIVE in character, then most assuredly the total nutritive capacity and correlated attractive energy is proportionately reduced at the very inception of the inflammatory pro3ess. So, far then, from there being an augmented attraction of the tissue- elements for substances contained in the blood at this stage of the process, just the reverse of this is true. We are now prepared, I trust, to give a consistent and truthful answer to the most inportant question above propounded, and in the answer thereto will be found the true reason why inflammation invariably manifests itself in the tissues immediately contiguous to the seat of the lesion. The vascular capacity by and through which the spe- cific area included in the process is normally supplied with blood remaining unchanged so far as the arteries and veins are concerned, with, perhaps, an increased cal- ibre, by virtue of the withdrawal of the vis nervosa of the vaso-rnotor nerves, necessarily tends to afford the same amount of pabulum to the part subsequent to the injury as previously-if not indeed a greater quantity - and, hence, that portion of such pabulum which was pre- viously being made use of by the tissues involved in the lesion is subsequently diverted to the nutrition of the contiguous tissue elements, and they, in harmony with a universal law,. undergo increased nutritive ac- tivity. In other words, the vital energy which was previously concerned in effecting formative change is now diverted to the bioplastic integrative process. There is no change in the specific nature of the energy thus R-21 INFLAMMATION. 337 diverted to the integrative process; nor is there any change in the general character of the work performed, since in both processes CONDENSATION is the re- sultant phenomenon. In the incipient stage of the process, then, the tissue- elements contiguous to the seat of the lesion are actu- ally supplied with more pabulum than they can possibly assimilate - in consequence of the fact that in addition to their own normal supply, they have superadded that which was previously distributed to the injured tissues. The bioplasm, in harmony with the law already men- tioned, begins to increase rapidly, and the heat thus evolved just as quickly and rapidly disintegrates the existing formed material, at which time the part is said to have returned to the embryonal state. Just as soon as a balance or equilibrium has been established be- tween the constantly increasing bioplasm on the one hand, and the source of nutrient supply just mentioned on the other hand, then there is indeed, and in truth, an "augmented attraction" on the part of these ele- ments "for substances contained in the blood," and not before, to any considerable degree at least. There is from this time on a definite, relative proportionate in- crease of this attractive energy pari pasu with the actual increase of bioplasm in such part. Moreover, the heat, redness, and swelling actually in- crease in the same regular order and relative propor- tionate degree, as the clinical history abundantly proves. And. finally, when by virtue of mechanical pressure upon the vessels, due to the increase of the germinal matter, or from whatsoever influence it may be tha>t is brought to bear, the demand cannot be longer fully complied with, formative change supervenes, and all the above phenomena, except that of the temperature in a somewhat modified sense, diminish in the same relative 338 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. proportionate degree - as is confirmed by the clinical history also, as well as by microscopical research and investigation. It is certainly a great mystery, therefore, how any sane mind could conceive it possible ' ' That the inter- change between THE BLOOD and the tissues " of such a part "may be rendered more active" "in the early stage of the process " - at the very time in which it is less active, by virtue of an additional source of pab- ulum - so to speak - with a reduced capacity below the normal; and then conceive or inculcate the idea that at a later stage of the process, when the total amount of bioplasm in the given area far exceeds the entire quan- tity of bioplasm normally existing in the same area pre- vious to the reception of the injury, there is a diminution, if not a total suppression of the nutritive process. He thus theoretically precisely reverses the laws and pro- cesses of nature. And in so doing renders himself em- inently consistent with that other theory which excuses the use of poisons as remedial agents, (and which nat- urally tend to destroy the living or germinal matter of the human economy, ) by simply passing them through the hands of inclusively educated medical men, and thus reversing their nature. Why not accept the microscopi- cal revelations relative to the true nature of the inflam- matory process, and then give poisons because of their definitely recognized power to kill, and thus be consis- tent ? The eminent Dr. Beard, of New York, says : "Opium will kill, and that, so far as it goes, is science." Why not give opium with the avowed purpose to kill, and thus be Scientifically Consistent ? "All poisons, whatever their difference in other re- spects, agree in this, they suddenly and rapidly extin- guish a large proportion of the vitality of the system." Why not bring yourselves down nearer upon a level INFLAMMATION. 339 with other human beings, and thus let nature have her perfect course, and be ye in scientific accord with her and her laws and operations ? Do as Beale advises you; give your poishns for the very purpose of destroy- ing the living or germinal matter, for which they are eminently qualified, or else give them not at all. But to return to the main subject; these so-called embryonal elements are nothing more or less than the naked living bioplasm resulting from the rapid growth and multiplication of the previously existing germinal matter of the parts involved in the inflammatory pro- cess, and their rate of growth and multiplication is wholly dependent upon the amount of proper pabulum with which they are supplied. If, then, the supply of nutrient material be unrestricted the germinal matter will increase at a rapid rate, and formative change will be held in abeyance ; but should the reverse of this take place - should the access of nutrient materials be markedly restricted or almost wholly cut off, fatty degeneration, or other regressive change will ensue, and involve all that rela- tive proportionate portion of the bioplasm situate most dis- tant from the source of nutrient supply. This latter fact is of the utmost importance to be remembered, and I have, therefore, italicized it. If, howrever, the happy medium between these two extremes be obtained and maintained, tissue formation will proceed from without inwards in an orderly manner until the lesion is fully repaired. If the two former conditions naturally tend in their own proper order to eventuate in this happy medium, then inflammation is at least a conservative process, otherwise it is essentially a disease, as taught by Beale and others, and as generally regarded by the majority of the medical profession. There are but two sources from which the bioplasm or nuclei of the renal epithelia can obtain a superabun- 340 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. dant supply of their own proper and indispensable pab- ulum necessary to their increased nutritive activity; namely, either from an increase or augmentation of the disintegrative changes by and through which the excre- mentitious substances of the blood are furnished, or else in consequence of a diversion of such substances from some other eliminative organ or structure to the kid- neys. As has already been stated, the skin complements the kidneys in function, and when both of these struc- tures are functionally normal in nutritive activity, it would be nearly impossible to have such an intense augmentation of the conditions necessary to so greatly increase the excrement!tious substances of the blood as to lead to a veritable Parenchymatous Nephritis. That this is rarely, if ever, the nutritive cause of nephritis is quite certain. Cold is the most prolific cause of renal inflammation known, and, according to the state- ments of pathological histologists, when thus superin- duced, the morbid ( ?) changes are extremely intensified. It is hardly necessary to state that the surface of the body is alone affected directly by the cold - the kidneys and other deeply situated organs and structures being only secondarily influenced by the recession of blood, and such other legitimate results following in the wake of the suppression of the function of the cutaneous bio- plasts. It will be found upon clinical investigation, that the first day or two after the inception of the difficulty, the patient finds it necessary to void his urine more frequently than usual, and that the total quantity for the twenty-four hours is increased considerably. This is due mainly to the suppression of the perspiratory function, of the skin; but in order that the superabun- dance of fluid and tissue detritus - thus thrown back into the general circulation, so to speak, may be depur- INFLAMMATION. 341 ated, or passed off through the kidneys, it is necessary that the quantity of blood flowing to and from the kid- neys should be proportionately increased. Owing to the sympathetic relationship existing between the skin and the renal apparatus whereby the one is able to per- form, in a measure, the depurative function of the other, and vice versa, when circumstances arise necessitating such compensative action, this diversion of the blood in considerably augmented quantity is soon realized, but not until the bioplasm within the convoluted tubuli has been proportionately increased. It is owing to this fact that patients suffering from this form of difficulty complain so much more severely of general constitutional disturbances in the early his- tory of the case than later on. At this time the excre- tory substances are actually increasing more rapidly than they can possibly be eliminated by the diminished number of functionally active excretory bioplasts - the renal bioplasts only being active, and they not yet had time to increase in size and numbers so as to equal the eliminative demands of the economy. The blood, there- fore, becomes very considerably enriched in excretory products - from an eliminative standpoint, should the cutaneous vessels remain contracted for any consider- able length of time, and this very increase affords the only necessary incentive to a more rapid growth of the renal bioplasm, even if the quantity of blood flowing through the part was only proportionately augmented with that of other parts of the body by virtue of the recession. While other tissues and organs of the body suffer to a greater or less degree in consequence of the presence of these deleterious substances, the renal bio- plasm actually becomes childish or embryonal from in- creased nutritive joy and activity, so that the formed material of the epithelial cells is soon disintegrated and 342 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. removed from the body through the natural excretory ducts. That this material is disintegrated and elimin- ated in the form of urates in solution during the first two or three days from the inception of the difficulty, and at the time when the flow of water is most abund- ant, is susceptible of absolute proof by micro-chemical analysis, as I have quite often demonstrated. During this period these constituents maintain their normal rel- ative proportions to the water, notwithstanding the fact that the latter is very decidedly increased over and above the normal. And not infrequently it may be ob- served that these constituents are very largely in excess of the fluids for the first twenty-four or forty-eight hours after the inception of the difficulty ; notably so in cases of nephritis supervening from cold after scar- latinal desquamation has commeced to take place. Many of these germinal elements - all of which even at the very earliest period of their appearance, with possibly a very few exceptions, will be found upon microscopical investigation in an entirely naked condi- tion, and in greater or less numbers during the active inflammatory period of the difficulty. At a later period in the history of the difficulty, however, they will be found to have increased so rapidly and to such a de- gree as to completely choke up the convoluted tubules, and eventually to greatly distend them, thus mechanic- ally compressing the blood vessels - inter-tubular capil- liaries - so as to greatly diminish the volume of blood flowing through them, rendering the cortex anmmic or semi-ansemic, entirely arresting the flow of water through the tubules to the pelvis of the kidneys, and hence very seriously interfering with the excretory function of the organs. Now, I ask in all sincerity, if this real, and certainly apparently most dangerous and undersirable state of INFLAMMATION. 343 these organs, does not naturally and strongly tend to create the impression on our minds that: "So far from disease being universally a destructive process, a disintegration, it consists essentially and in the major- ity of cases of a too rapid increase of the living or germinal matter, of an addition to a part rather than a subtraction from it ? " In other words, are we not of scientific necessity compelled to regard such a condi- tion of these organs as a very grave form of disease, in view of the fact that there had been no real fnjury sustained by these organs as a causative influence tend- ing to produce such a condition, and hence could not have been set up "as a means of repairing it?" If Parenchymatous Nephritis is not a veritable dis- ease, it certainly presents features of such an appar- ently abnormal character and grave import, from this by no means merely superficial investigation of the matter as to have greatly deceived some of the most eminent microscopical investigators and most erudite men in their chosen professions that the world has ever produced. Everyone who is at all familiar with the works of Beale, Virchow, Randfleisch, Cornil and Ranvier, Hux- ley and Martin, and others of almost equal renown, need not be told to what special school of medicine they actually (or sympathetically) belong, and the pub- lished results of their respective labors are alone suffi- cient evidence of the great and glorious work which they have executed in behalf of true scientific progress. Far be it from me, then, to wish to detract one iota from their just meed of praise individually or collectively. However severe my deductions and conclusions, based upon these premises, may be, they are not designed to reflect upon the well earned reputation of these men, but simply to get at "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God." 344 physiology : Its science and philosophy. Let me ask, then : Would it not be more consistent, and more in harmony with the dictates of common sense, to give alcoholic liquors - which so pre-eminently interfere with the nutritive process in every conceiv- able manner, and at the same time preserve the forma- tive products from active disintegrative change, as is fully shown in Chapter on Alcohol; I say, would it not be better to resort to the use of these agents exclusively, than to attempt to effect increased destruction of this living or germinal matter by the use of such poisons as are more rapidly destructive of co-ordinate vitality, and thus, and thus only, interfere with nutrition by their destructive relations to bioplasm ? Granting that renal inflammation is a disease - which it is not would it not really be more in harmony with the scientific indications, as inculcated by a dis- turbed nutrition, to divert the excess of excrementitious substances at the expense of which this "too rapid in- crease of living or germinal matter " really tqkes place back to its normal channels ? If so, then, would not the Physio-Medical theory or idea of treating disease by sanative remedies be more rational, less dangerous to co-ordinate vitality, far more conservative in its na- ture and tendencies, and eminently the most successful in effecting the result sought for-the cure of our patients ? It is not only theoretically probable, but the facts above given as to the remote and specific causation of renal inflammation, and the bioplastic nature of the dis- turbance conclusively prove, that the excrementitious substances of the blood, which normally exist in this fluid in greater or less quantity, just in proportion to the amount of tissue detritus resulting from general waste of the structures not directly in communication with the outside world, actually constitutes the proper INFLAMMATION. 345 and indispensable pabulum essential to the nutrition and growth of the renal and the cutaneous bioplasts, and that any abnormal increase of this excrementitious ma- terial in the blood is both deleterious and imminently dangerous to the life of the patient if permitted to re- main and still further accumulate for any considerable period of time. It is very evident, therefore, that this rapid increase of the renal bioplasm within the convo- luted tubules is not only a legitimate sequence of the suppression of the eliminative (i. e., nutritive) function of the cutaneous bioplasts, but that it is conservative of the best interests of the patient under existing circum- stances also. In addition to this diversion of excrementitious sub- stances from the skin, it is probable that there is an additional augmented formation of this matter incident to the general systemic disturbance, and consequent in- creased retrogressive metamorphosis of the structures above mentioned. Bioplasts in general are great gor- mandizers- if I may so speak -and cannot resist the temptation to convert everything of a palatable charac- ter with which they come in contact into their own substance, and since formative change and subsequent disintegration are completely suspended while they are instinct with life and proliferative activity, it follows as a logical sequence that this constant accumulation of new material will eventually fill, choke up, and distend the uriniferous tubules. A section of the cortex of an inflamed kidney, at this stage of the process will show, under a low power, numerous opaque and distended tu- bules, and the Malpighian tufts more or less congested with blood. A power of from 400 to 500 diameters will resolve this opacity into a peripheral zone of naked liv- ing bioplasts extending inwards from the basement membrane of the respective tubules to a greater or less 346 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. distance - dependent upon the degree of vascular com- pression, and a relatively proportionate central zone of fatty, granular matter, or in lieu thereof, occasion- ally a central hyaline cast with a medial zone of fatty granules. This increase in volume of the convoluted tubules leads to the tumefaction of the entire organ - in the language of Rindfleisch, "to a constantly exhausting distensability of the renal capsule and hence to com- pression of the vascular network within the changed parenchyma, so that the cortex actually becomes anae- mic." Now, by virtue of the peculiar and anomalous arrangement of the circulatory apparatus in this part of the economy of man, we shall find that the medullary substance grows richer and richer in blood just in pro- portion as the cortex is rendered more and more anse- mic. By virtue of the mechanical pressure thus brought to bear upon the inter-tubular capillaries, and also on the arteries and veins of the cortex, the at- tractive influence exerted by the nutritive changes going on in the part, and which was thus far being constantly augmented by the rapid increase of bioplasm, is now rapidly diminished, so that we have as a result of such pressure a reduced vascular capacity and attractive in- fluence jointly combined tending to divert the excess of blood into the vasa recta and Malpighian tufts near the base of the pyramids, whence it is distributed to the straight and looped tubules. The blood previously hav- ing been depurated of the greater portion of its excre- mentitious substances, by virtue of the rapid growth and multiplication of the convoluted biojflasts, is now brought in close proximity to the cells lining the loops of Henle, which, notwithstanding that their nutritive ca- pacity is individually and collectively much below the former, still enables them by their rapid increase, con- INFLAMMATION. 347 jointly with the relatively decreasing bioplasm within the convoluted tubules, to prevent this matter from ac- cumulating in the blood to a very excessive or danger- our degree, thus acting as a kind of vent or safety-valve until such time as the disintegrated materials constitut- ing the central zone within the convoluted tubules can be discharged by the force of the accumulated waters above them. The tubules, being thus freed from their disintegrated contents, return to their former dimen- sions, the blood is again caused to flow freely through the vessels in this region, and should there still remain a large excess of excrementitious material in the blood, the tubules again become filled and distended with bioplasm, and the former process is repeated again and again until the cutaneous function is re-established. The loops of Henle are filled, distended, the central contents degenerated, and ultimately discharged in pre- cisely the same manner, and by virtue of the same in- fluences as the former, but intermediately between the above processes as just pointed out. These statements are not merely theoretical deductions based upon the anatomical and physiological facts - which, however, are certainly sufficiently peculiar and characteristic to war- rant such logical deduction - but they have been veri- fied by myself and others time and again by microsco- pical examination of sections representing the various stages of the entire process. Whatever the remote cause of renal inflammation may be, the direct and specific cause is and of necessity must be a more abundant supply of nutrient materials to the bioplasm actively concerned in this process. Parenchymatous Nephritis, therefore, is not only an ex- altation of the nutritive process, but is an exaggerated activity of the specific or specialized function of the renal bioplast, and is wholly and entirely due to and 348 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. characterized by the normal processes constantly going on in the economy during the continuance of co-ordinate vitality; the only really abnormal condition, over and above a mere question of quantity, is the suppression of the normal function of the cutaneous bioplasts and other normal processes incident to the function of the skin in cases in which cold is the primary or remote cause. These renal bioplasts cannot resist growing and multiplying when thus supplied with an increased quan- tity of pabulum, without violating a universal law gov- erning such matters, nor can they thus increase in quantity without occupying more space than formerly, and consequently finally superinducing mechanical pres- sure upon the intervening structures. This leads to re- gressive changes in all such bioplasts as are thus de- prived of their nutrient supply - namely, those situate most distant from the source of the nutrient supply, and hence nearest the center of the tubules -of a fatty- granular (occasionally albuminoid) character, when quickly and markedly reduced below the normal de- mand. This also is in harmony with a universal law, and is therefore natural or normal. These bioplasts had returned to the naked or embry- onal condition, and must therefore, all things else being equal, obey the same laws which govern embryonal life and embryonal death in general. During the active stage of the inflammatory process all other normal con- stituents of the blood are caused to circulate through the part in augmented quantity proportionate to the in- crease in volume and force of the blood-current, thus affording an increased supply of pabulum to the non- striated muscular bioplasts of the vessels, and to all other structures dependent upon blood-plasma for their nutrient supply, in consequence of which they also be- come embryonal - the muscles thus losing their power INFLAMMATION. 349 of contractility - and hence the absolute necessity of mechanical pressure being brought to bear in order to divert the blood to other channels so that the com- pleted function of the kidneys - the absorption or as- similation, disintegration and final elimination of the excrementitious substances of the blood-may be fully realized. The disintegrated products are fatty or albu- minous simply because of the absence of oxygen to combine with them at the moment of disintegrative chalige, and fatty (not albuminous) because of the ab- sence of water to act either as a constituent or a sol- vent. See remarks with reference to product of disin- tegrative change of the bioplasm of the venous side of the general circulation. It matters not in what constitutional condition these disintegrated products are so far as the economy at large is concerned, just so they are disintegrated and eliminated-which latter result could not take place so long as they were in a condition to exert an attractive influence upon the blood and thus create a reciprocal attraction of their own engendering. Taking a comparatively superficial view of the whole matter as regards the anatomical and histological condi- tions presented, and without considering the physiologi- cal import of these conditions and the causes leading to them, we might very easily be led to erroneously con- clude that the presence of such an immense quantity of germinal matter was a most undesirable condition - de- leterious, diseased - whatever our conclusions might be as regards the subsequent fatty degeneration or other regressive metamorphoses. It must be confessed that those who advocate this idea, and consistently claim that if "increased destruction could be brought about the diseased state would cease," do but utter a truth as regards the latter proposition which Nature herself 350 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. forcibly emphasizes in actually bringing about this very state of things, and often patients might thus recover if not hampered in their efforts by the use of poisonous agents and other adverse influences, even without any artificial assistance towards restoring the functions of the skin. I would not willingly detract one iota from their just meed of praise for the inestimable work these renowned investigators have done for the cause of med- cal science; nevertheless, the interests of humanity compel me to state that their puerile deductions from the very best of premises have led to a practice fraught with the most evil and destructive results. It is true that this increased destruction which al- ways follows in the wake of Parenchymatous Nephritis - when left to nature - could not have been necessary had there been no such previous increase of the living or germinal matter. It is equally true, however, that the germinal matter of the kidneys cannot do the work of the cutaneous bioplasts in addition to their own without an increase in numbers, or in nutritive activity, Which virtually leads to the same thing, and without such eliminative process the blood would soon be rendered unfit to sustain co-ordinate vitality. Moreover, starting with a reduction in the total number of such elimina- tive bioplasts proportionate to the size and numbers whose functional activity has been suppressed, it is very evident that for some little time after the inception of the difficulty there must necessarily be a more rapid increase of Avaste elements in the blood naturally than can be eliminated by the existent workmen, so to speak, and consequently an ever-increasing quantity of this substance in the blood until a balance is obtained be- tween the supply and demand by the increase of the germinal matter. Even if it were not possible, there- fore, to divert the blood to its normal channels by any INFLAMMATION. 351 sanative means at our command, and thus to abort the whole difficulty, there can be no scientific justification for giving poisons or other agents with a view to bring- ing about increased destruction previous to the effectual elimination of this material, and by the time this is ac- complished such agent could not possibly be needed, since nature has provided for this necessary destruction in a way wffiich leads me to quote a very pertinent Scriptural passage, namely: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah, LV, 8, 9. Man, as a living, active sentient being is an expression of the concept of God as regards the most exalted work of creative genius in the physical universe, and hence the very laws and processes we have been con- sidering are but so many expressions of His thought. The operation of these laws and processes ultimately leads to the death and discharge of the bioplasm most centrally located within the tubules, and at precisely such time when such bioplasm can no longer serve a conservative function in the economy, and is brought about in a way that is consistent w'ith the very best interests of the other structures concerned 'under exist- ing circumstances, and at a time and in such a wTay that there is necessarily and esssentially left a zone or plane of bioplasm in immediate contact with and rest- ing directly upon the inner surface of the basement membrane constituting the walls of the tubules respec- tively-wdiich bioplasm is absolutely necessary to the restoration of the normal epithelial lining in the process of final restoration of the entire economy to its normal status. How is it when poisons are given for the purpose of 352 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. increasing or effecting the destruction of this living or germinal matter ? Look at the drawing, or better still at a microscopic section of a human kidney, and ask yourself this question. I doubt the existence of a single member of that great infallible school of medicine who is such an ex- treme "sap head" as to need be told that these bio- plasts which are preserved alive by God's plan, will be the very first to be killed by the toxadministers' plan. It strikes me that it would be much better practice to direct our therapeutical measures toward re-establish- ing the cutaneous function, rather than that we should ransack the material universe in search of some abom- inable poison with which to effectually destroy these and other living germs of the body, and thus thwart the vis medacatrix naturea in her conservative efforts. Yea, more, it would be far better that these living germs should be permitted to go on and consume this worn-out, disintegrated, and otherwise deleterious sub- stance, converting it into their own harmless living substance, endowing it with their own nutritive powers and formative capacities, and thus growing and multi- plying until their own gluttony, has at last prepared the way for their death in greater or less measure, and the final elimination of this latter material, than that they should be subjected to the destructive influence of poisonous drugs, and at the same time the economy at large be thus seriously endangered from the combined influence of both the tissue-detritus and the poisonous agent. Nature's God - whether that god be merely a designless, senseless, planless, evolutionary god or the God of the Christian believer, is a better physician to trust by far than even an infallable toxadminister ; and nature's plan, under existing circumstances, is to secure this very increase so as to first depurate the blood of R-22 INFLAMMATION. 353 the excrementitious substances, and then eliminate them in their ultimate forms from the body, and she has made abundant provision for the evolution of heat for the purpose of effecting such disintegrative change. She has also made provisions for rehabilitating the tu- bules with their normal epithelial lining - which are the cells which constitute "THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOURCE OF (THE) SPECIALIZED FUNCTION" OF THESE ORGANS. The poison-givers have made provision for nothing but the death of living matter, and their fee for killing the same. More recently, however, they have been scheming with a view to thwart Nature in her efforts to re-establish the function of the skin in this special class of cases, by instituting legal enactments designed to exclude Physio-Medicalists from the practice of med- icine. Yea verily, and that too in the face of such statements as the following with reference to the dam- nable character of their own so-called remedial agents ; namely, "When, however, the renal cells have long been subject to the influence of blood modified by the con- stant presence of alcohol, they lose their healthy ap- pearance, sometimes merely becoming smaller and more condensed, sometimes appearing granular and in a state of disintegration. And perhaps in consequence of the growth of the germs having been interfered with at an early period," as for example, at a time when they' are EMBRYONAL -"the place of the disintegrated [pois- oned] cells cannot be occupied by a new generation" - because there is no bioplasm left to generate new cells. "Moreover a complicated series of morbid changes in other structures of the kidneys besides the epithelial cells gradually ensue, the blood becomes still more de- praved by the accumulation in it of matters which ought to be removed BY THE KIDNEYS, and other 354 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY tissues and organs of the body." - Beale on Kidney Dis eases. Dr. N. S. Davis, in the same address previously re- ferred to, says : ' ' Accurate investigations show that beer and wine-drinkers generally consume more alcohol per man than the spirit-drinkers ; and while they are not so often intoxicated they suffer fully as much from dis- ease as do those who use distilled spirits. Again, the beer-drinker drinks more nearly every day, and thereby keeps some alcohol in his blood more constantly; while a large percentage of spirit drinkers drink only periodically, leaving considerable intervals of abstijience, during which the tissues regain nearly their natural condition. The more constant and persistent the presence of alcohol in the blood and the tissues even in moderate quantity, the more certainly does it lead to perverted and degenerative changes in the tissues, end- ing in renal and hepatic dropsies, cardiac failures, gout, appoplexy and paralysis." It is following this statement that he immediately adds: "If the foregoing views re- garding the effects of alcoholic liquids on the human system in health are correct, what can we say concern- ing their value as remedies for the treatment of dis- ease ? " I hope the great sanhedrim will excuse me if I should mildly suggest that "the expectant plan" so much in vogue a few years ago, before the pharmaceu- tists of the country assumed the responsibility of fur- nishing both the drug-compounds and the brains for the medical profession, be again adopted, and just let the living matter accomplish its own death, in part, af- ter having prevented the blood from becoming "more depraved by the accumulation in it of matters which ought to be removed BY THE RENAL BIOPLASTS, and the bioplasm of other excretory tissues of the or- ganism, and not contaminate every drop of blood in the INFLAMMATION. 355 body with your infernal poisons. If you were not so un- compromisingly and insanely prejudiced against every thing that is in harmony with the laws and operations of nature, I would suggest that you take one or two full courses of lectures in some Physio-Medical College, and learn how to divert the blood to its normal chan- nels by purely sanative means, and thus render the renal bioplastic increase unnecessary. I have written thus earnestly on this subject because the Allopathic, Homeopathic and Eclectic schools of medicine, one and all, have for their therapeutical basis the false and pernicious idea or doctrine that disease does essentially consist in exaggerated vital activity of some form or other, and this in face of the fact that a SUPPRESSED FUNCTION, A LOWERED VITALITY at some other point can invariably be shown to be the true locus morbi, whence originates the necessity for cell-proliferation, and other exaggerated functional man- ifestations, in every instance. CHAPTER VI. INFLAMMATION.- CONTINUED. In harmony with the original design of this work, it is not the purpose of the author to treat of specific or local inflammatory manifestations, only in so far as this may be necessary to impress upon our minds the great practical importance of observing that, while the char- acteristic changes constituting the inflammatory process per se are histologically the same everywhere, there are various modifying influences, dependent upon the char- acter of the pabulum proper to such locality, the nature of the structure and its environments together with the specific function of the part, which call for specific modifications in therapeutical management in order to meet the indications properly. Inflammation affecting the epithelia of the bronchi and pulmonary alveoli present conditions as regards specific physiological modifications which tend to determine certain ulterior changes in the contents of these tubes and alveoli pre- paratory to their elimination in the process of resolu- tion, which in many respects are identical with that found to obtain in nephritis, and yet the environments in the main are very different. I have thought it prudent, therefore, to discuss the subject pf Broncho-Pneumonia at this place as affording a more nearly regular progressive course of investiga- tion than any other we could take, perhaps. In order to render this subject as thoroughly in- structive and practical as possible, I shall make use of an article furnished by me for the Physio-Medical Journal, published December, 1882; and entitled " Bronclio-Pheu- INFLAMMATION. 357 monia and Tuberculosis Compared." I do this in part because: Notwithstanding the wide difference in the seteology, pathology (or histology), symptomatic phe- nomena and termination of these difficulties, as also the diametrically opposite therapeutical indications, they are being constantly confounded the one with the other. Broncho-pneumonia, or to be more explicit in nom- enclature broncho-vasicular-pneumonia, is in a strictly histological sense, a proliferative ectacy of the germinal epithelia of the bronchial tubes and of the air vesicles - a rapid increase of the germinal matter resting im- mediately upon the basement membrane of the bronchi and alveoli. Tuberculosis is the product of a specific virus, (dis- ease germs of animal character) primarily of extrinsic origin, and properly belongs to the "specific inflamma- tions" of authors, which yield, instead of the "plastic exudations of true inflammation," products which are characterized by their tendency to persist and increase, also by certain special anatomical peculiarities, which are typical in their nature and developmental history, and may invariably be traced back to the particular quality or formative capacity of the so-called "inflam- matory irritant," the disease germs - whether it be tuberculosis, syphilitic, or other specific germinal trouble. Broncho-pneumonia has its causation in some adverse influence, such as exposure to excesssive heat and cold, the inhalation of noxious or poisonous gases, etc., which tend to impair or destroy the anatomical struc- ture and living germs of such cells. Such impairment leads to a proportionate functional incapacity on the part of these cells, and hence the vis-vitae or the vis-medicatrix-naturea, in the form of the sub-epithelial germs, come to the front in battle array 358 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. with the fore-ordained and predestinated purpose of eliminating the injured elements, and building up in their stead new epithelia, having the same vital endow- ments and pristine functional capacities as those that preceded them. "Spontaneous cure" is quite an emi- nent peculiarity of the true inflammatory process, but inflammation does not arise "spontaneously." How often a "spontaneous cure" of broncho-pneumonia takes place only the careful diagnostician, and the conscien- tious, painstaking, and truly scientific practitioner knows. Now it is a universally conceded fact that the per- sistence and increase of tumors completely separate these neoplasms from inflammatory new formations, for in the latter, when the neoplasm forms it organizes and produces tissue identical, or very similar to that whence it sprang, or it disappears little by little by suppura- tion, or caseous metamorphosis, etc. No doubt the ma- jority of pneumonic and broncho-pneumonic cases would naturally terminate in resolution if left wholly to the vis-medicatrix-naturea, but it must be patent to all who have sufficient intelligence to recognize the true nature of the difficulty that many times circumstances, of which we shall speak soon, determine the latter phe- nomenon. Tuberculosis is not dependent for its causa- tion upon an injury to any part of such organism, either directly or remotely, but is the expression of a living and specific contagious or infectious virus. Its tendency is always to persist or increase, and never produces tissue identical with, or even similar to that of the organism which it infests. The germinal matter of the body takes no active part in the development of tubercular new-formations; on the contrary it suffers nutritive disturbances, starvation, and finally fatty or other regressive changes as a result of the voracious appetite of the parasitical disease germs. Broncho- INFLAMMATION. 359 pneumonia is a reparative effort - "an effort of nature to reinstate the part to nearly its normal condition." Tuberculosis is always and essentially destructive in its nature and tendencies. In war the skilled general always has a reserve force to take the place of those who may be killed or disa- bled for duty in the first onslaught by the enemy. So does nature hold in reserve a germinal force to rehabil- itate the bronchial tubes and air vesicles with their normal epithelial lining when this becomes necessary. It often happens that the reserve force of the general is largely or wholly composed of raw recruits. All were at one time unskilled in the science of war, un- taught in army tactics, and unprepared in physical and mental stamina for the fierce onslaught. The reserve force in broncho-pneumonia is naked, living germinal matter - bioplasm -and hence much less capable of withstanding adverse influences than the dead and cast- off epithelia were with their solid formed material en- closing the living germ within. But these, too, were at one time raw recruits, naked germinal matter, and hence we see why it is that capillary bronchitis (broncho- pneumonia) is so much more prevalent in infancy and early childhood than in adult life. The formed material of the mucous epithelia is a product of change in bio- plasm whereby it loses its germinal character and be- comes more dense and resisting, thus forming a shield or protective covering for the bioplasm within. When these epithelial cells lose their vitality and are cast off, we have the conditions of early childhood or embryonic life, and consequently the same peculiar susceptibility to adverse influences as obtain in infancy. Hence, should the enemy marshal her forces anew, even though some- what reduced in effective strength, these young recruits are or may be incapable of offering a determined and 360 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. vigorous resistance, unless protected by proper breast- works, and they, too. succumb and are replaced by others held in reserve, and so the process may be re- peated over and over by thus exposing the recruits to the enemy time and again, until the supply is exhaust- ed, and the enemy gains the victory. Let me repeat; our army simile, which Dr. Packard has so kindly suggested to us, is no fanciful sketch, but a living reality, for the epithelia of adult life were actu- ally naked germinal matter in early infancy, or at least approximately so, and when the epithelia are destroyed by the inhalation of noxious gases, or other extraneous influences, the histological conditions of the parts are almost those of infancy, and sustain the same relation- ship to surrounding environments as did those that oc- cupied the front rank at the period of their first enroll- ment. We should be admonished, therefore, of the ne- cessity for adopting the same precautionary measures that are indicated as a means of prophylaxis in infancy. We have the embryonic condition, the tenderness, the susceptibilities of infancy, let us care for our broncho- pneumonic patients as the good parent does for her "wee baby," or as the good general does for his army - protect them as fully as possible from the enemy in front, and under no circumstances permit an enemy to attack them in the rear, either in the form of famine, pestilence, poisons or other adverse influences. The active proliferative changes in bronco-pneumonia are confined to the mucosa proper, and this increase of germinal matter ultimately eventuates in filling up and distending the tubes and air vesicles with the products of their own growth and multiplication, and subsequent fatty degenerated products, just in the very same man- ner as was found to be the case in parenchymatous ne- phritis. This fortunately results in suspending the re- INFLAMMATION. 361 spiratory function of the part involved, thus affording protection to the germinal elements lining the basement membrane from outside influences until resolution can be instituted, at which time they will have experienced sufficient formative change as to not need such protec- tion longer. The specific cause of the inflammatory process is precisely the same here as elsewdiere - the death of the epithelial germs create an excess of nutri- ent supply normally, in that the contiguous bioplasts, relative to those which have ceased to be consumers, profit by this superadded source of supply, and thus rapidly gain in numbers and attractive influence, so as to soon superinduce an increased flow of blood to the part, and in this way make provision for such a con- stantly augmenting supply of pabulum as is necessary to the growth, multiplication, and ultimate distension of the tubes and alveoli. The fatty-granular degeneration or disintegration is induced here also in precisely the same manner as in nephritis, but it is removed in a very different manner. It is quite probable that the in- crease of the germinal elements in the early stages of the difficulty, before the tubes and alveoli become filled and distended, produce such a disturbance in the respir- atory function by virtue of the peculiar sensibility and diminishing calibre of these tubes and alveoli as to call into increased activity the cerebro-spinal system of nerves, thus leading to a withdrawal of the vis nervosa of the vaso motor nerves and consequent dilatation of the vessels supplying such part. Let this be as it may, we know from frequent micro- scopical examination of the sputa of broncho-pneumonic patients that the injured and dead epithelia are expec- torated in large numbers during the incipient stage of the difficulty, and we also have microscopical evidence which conclusively proves that sooner or later the air 362 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. cells and tubes become filled and distended with living naked bioplasm, and that this latter undergoes subse- quent disintegrative change in every part except that in immediate contact with the basement membrane, and, hence, nearest the source of the nutrient supply, as was the case in renal inflammation. The active phenomena characteristic of inflammation, therefore, takes place in broncho-pneumonia within the lumina of the tubes and alveoli, the parenchyma of the lung remaining structur- ally normal during the earlier periods of the difficulty, and only becoming secondarily involved from mechani- cal pressure, and only then when this distension is very great in degree or indefinitely prolonged. The tubercular germs, whether derived by hereditary transmission, by actual contact, as in kissing a fruitful source of multiplying cases of the disease - or in what- soever manner it may have found access to the human organism, always makes itself manifest first in the pa- renchyma- having its preferred seat in the adventitia of the smaller and smallest arteries-and subsequently by peripheral extension may ultimately involve the mu- cosa also. Broncho-pneumonia is a reparative effort - " tending to reproduce the tissue of its matrix" - so to speak. Tuberculosis is always and essentially a destructive pro- cess, starting from a minute germinal center - primarily of extrinsic origin - and constantly encroaching more and more upon the normal elements of the organism by peripheral growth and multiplication, disintegrating these elements by the heat evolved out of the pabulum stolen from them, and either using the products result- ing therefrom, or else imposing this additional elimina- tive burden upon the white blood corpuscles - which is most likely the case. While these tubercular germs are constantly growing and multiplying more or less rapidly INFLAMMATION. 363 at the periphery and thus extending their bounderies at the expense of the normal tissues, they are at the same time preparing the way for or actually undergoing for- mative change nearer the center, and if the tubercular new-formation has gained the dignity of a granulation, regressive changes will have already taken place in the center so that there comes to exist in every granulation a central cheesy zone, a media] cellular zone, and an ever increasing, ever destroying, germinal peripheral zone. Two influences act conjointly in effecting the changes just mentioned, as is also the case in broncho- pneumonia ; but in tuberculosis the primary center of activity soon becomes the seat of formative change, which formative products sooner or later suffer regres- sive metamorphoses of a cheesy character, differing in this respect from the normal cellular structure of the entire animal economy, since in the latter no such bod- ily destruction of cells ever takes place naturally, for while they grow on the one hand they undergo forma- tive change on the other hand and the latter is just as constantly disintegrated in its outer portion so that a perfect balance is obtained and maintained constantly during the natural life of the cells, all things else being equal - the cutaneous cells being an exception to this rule - are desquamated without having suffered any dis- integrative change at all. The reason why the tubercu- lar cells prove an exception to the law governing ani- mal cell growth, etc., is, I apprehend, because the con- stantly augmenting number of living disease germs soon leads to a markedly disproportionate supply relative to the increasing demand for pabulum, which is greatly in- tensified by mechanical pressure upon the vessels which they encircle, and which indeed soon become occluded by pressure and plugging by a granular coagulation of fibrine within their lumina - thus showing very clearly 364 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. that nature has made no provision whatever for a kindly entertainment of such an adventitious visitor. It is anatomically and physiologically impossible to have broncho-pneumonia developed primarily anywhere else than in the mucosa proper, and hence it always creates respiratory disturbance almost from the very inception of the difficulty, while the very opposite of this is the rule in tuberculosis. The mechanical pres- sure upon the vascular and other parenchymatous struc- tures is exerted in broncho-pneumonic troubles from within the tubes and air vesicles outwards, while just the opposite of this is true in tuberculosis. When the latter difficulty causes respiratory disturbances, there- fore, it does so by its peripheral extension gradually encroaching upon the parenchyma of these parts from without their lumina and causing their walls to approx- imate each other more and more as the growth pro- ceeds, unless, indeed, the walls should be destroyed be- fore much force can thus be brought to bear. It is by virtue of this latter fact that the naked germinal matter first shows its presence in the sputa of a tuber- culous patient on the formation of a vomica, and subse- quently cells and the cheesy detritus appear as constit- uents of the sputa upon microscopical analysis. It must not be forgotten, however, that tuberculosis may be complicated by proliferative change of the mucosa at any time during the entire history of the difficulty, and that the presence of germinal matter in the sputa at an early period in the history of tuberculosis, and before it is possible to make a correct diagnosis by all the ordi- nary means at our command, is of itself no evidence either for or against the existence of tuberculosis. In tuberculosis there is no injury to or impairment of the function of the epithelia of the air vesicles, the bronchi- oles, or, indeed, of any of the functional elements of the INFLAMMATION. 365 mucosa or other structure of the part, except that which is directly or remotely dependent upon the growth and multiplication of the tubercular germs themselves. The symptomatic phenomena must there- fore be very different in the two difficulties in the ear- lier stages, and it is only after the tubercular granula- tions have increased in volume to such an extent as to make pressure upon the walls of the tubes and air ves- icles that even an approximative similarity obtains. Nevertheless, the evidence of caseous or broncho-pneu- monia being present does not prove the absence of tu- berculosis, even though we have no direct or specific evidence of the existence of the latter. Finding both microscopical and physical evidence of broncho-pneu- monia present in a given case in which the history and symptoms all agree, and no specific evidence whatever of the existence of tubercle being present, unless ob- scured and overshadowed by the more prominent diffi- culty, one is very apt to give an opinion as to diagnosis and prognosis in harmony with the above apparent state of affairs. I was thus misled some two years since on first examination, but a subsequent microscopi- cal analysis of the sputa--about three weeks after the first analysis, in which there was no evidence of tuber- culosis whatever - I found innumerable connective and elastic fibrillas, tubercular cells, cheesy detritus and angular particles in large numbers, and lost the confi- dence of the patient and family through my former mistake and the manifest infallibility of a "regular" Toxadminister. I would advise great caution in giving an opinion in such cases, therefore, upon the part of men who are fallible and liable to err. Tubercle germs differ in vital endowments and forma- tive capacity from every kind of germinal matter of man's organism, as is clearly evinced by the fact that 366 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. they will retain their vital characteristics under condi- tions as regards heat and cold, moisture, etc., which would quickly prove fatal to the latter ; and secondly, while they increase at the expence of the blood plasma and, possibly, the tissue detritus, they undergo forma- tive change, thus giving rise to a specific cellular pro- duct having characters which differentiate them from any and all of the cell-units or corporate elements of man. These statements I know to be true from actual and repeated observation, and they constitute an import- ant element in differential diagnosis. Not only so, but the fact of their extrinsic origin as thus evinced by their vital endowments and formative capacities, affords us the only hope we can ever have of discovering a safe, sure and permanent cure of tuberculosis in that we may perchance discover, by experimentation with sana- tive drugs upon these living germs under the micro- scope, some agent that will be fatal to them while not affecting the normal bioplasm of man's organism injuriously. Such a remedy, even if discovered, would have to be applied early in the history of the difficulty, lest the death of a large mass of such animal matter thus locked up in the economy should generate pto- maines as a result of decomposition and lead to septic poisoning, as in the case of "tuberculine." /'Tubercu- line" is essentially a hazardous experiment at the very best because of its natural tendency to produce coagula- tion of the blood. Phosphorus, arsenious acid, strichnia, and many other poisonous agents formerly in repute as remedial for consumptives 'will quickly destroy tubercular germs, but in order that these agents may be brought into imme- diate contact with them they must get into the blood, and as they are equally fatal to the germinal matter of man they necessarily effect his death in relatively pro- INFLAMMATION. 367 portionate degree to their curative, i. e., destructive in- fluence upon the tubercular neoplasm. Hence, we must, even in our murderous designs, resort to sanative means if wo would not kill our patients also. In no stage of broncho-pneumonia, except in long standing cases in which an abscess or vomica has been formed, do we find connecting tissue fibrils and elastic fibrillee on microscopic analysis of the sputa. But these elements of disintegrating lung-substance may be usu- ally found in considerable lengths and in commensurate quantity in the early stages of tuberculosis, and at a time when the physical signs and symptomatic phenom- ena are not at all well marked, and wholly insufflcient as a reliable means of arriving at a correct differential diagnosis, providing complications exist. In cases of long standing fragments of such fibrillas may even yet be found in tuberculosis, but they have been subject to the disintegrate process for so a long time that they are of much less length than earlier in the history of the difficulty, unless there be the history of a recent abscess, and even then they are of immeasurably less value in a diagnostic point of view - first, because of the probability of their being present in the sputa of chronic cases of broncho-pneumonia, and secondly, be- cause other means of diagnosis are sufficiently charac- teristic at this time. In caseous pneumonia the normal percussion re- sonance, as also the vesicular respiratory murmur, are quickly modified, and soon suspended. In tuberculosis this takes place at a much later date as a rule. In broncho-pneumonia the lower lobes are primarily first affected as a rule, the reverse of this obtaining in tuber- culosis. Vomica are regular characteristic phenomena in the history of tuberculosis ; but a rare occurrence in caseous pheumonia, and more of the nature of a slow and very superficial suppuration. 368 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Considerable accumulations of muco-pus may take place, however, in disseminated lobules as a consequence of tubal obstruction. This obstruction may come about in two ways ; first, by virtue of tumefaction of the walls of the smaller bronchial tubes, and consequent oblitera- tion of their lumina at such point, and secondly, by the formation of a secretion ball-valve, so to speak, which will be carried into the most dependent .part of the bronchial tree by the force of gravity together with the inspired air, and becoming fixed in such position either leads to collapse or a retention cyst as the case may be. The first mentioned cause is always present, the latter acting more frequently as the direct cause of lob- ular collapse than otherwise. The secretion accumulat- ing by virtue of the growth and multiplication of the mucus germs - if secretion we may call it-is retained in situ by the resistance offered by the obstructed bron- chi, thus resulting in constantly augmenting mechanical pressure from within outwards, leading to distension of the tubes and air-cells with consequent compression of the vessels and diminished nutrient supply. The distension of the air vesicles with the consequent stretching of their walls renders the vessels less and less tortuous, they become separated farther and farther apart at the same time, and their calibre proportionately diminished by the mutual pressure of any two adjacent air-cells and infundibuli so that the lobules thus in- volved actually become anaemic. How different this from the condition which obtains in the atelectatic lob- ule, whether produced in the manner above indicated or by the pressure of some encroaching adventitious growth - tubercular or other parasitic growth. In the latter case the vessels are rendered more tortuous-even bent at right angles upon themselves in many instances - and are crowded more closely together, compressed, con- R-23 INFLAMMATION. 369 gested, and giving such lobules a dark purple or bluish color. This marbled appearance is very characteristic even to the naked eye on section in atelectacis, but is never thus observed in tuberculosis, being obscured by the more prominent granulations themselves, neverthe- less I have specimens in my possession showing that this condition does obtain under the influences above spoken of. The fatty-granular degeneration of the contents of the bronchioles and air-cells, resulting from the diminished nutrient supply, may be mistaken for tubercular granu- lations by the careless or poorly informed pathologist on first examining the cut surface; but a more careful ex- amination of the parts, however, will at once reveal the true nature of the difficulty, for instead of finding a lymph duct, a blood vessel or a lymph gland as the center of the granulation or cheesy zone, he will find a bronchial tube or air vesicle as such center. The parenchyma may be infiltrated with the products of such broncho-pneumonic process, whether consisting merely of fatty granules or partaking more closely of the nature of a caseous metamorphosis, but the parenchyma per se will be found structurally intact as a rule. In tuberculosis, on the contrary, the tissue elements will already have suffered regressive change just in proportion to the peripheral increase of the tu- bercular process. Pressure upon the cut surface of the broncho-pneumonic lobules will force the obstructing elements out of the tubes and infundibula, thus furnish- ing us casts of the same, as also anatomical proof of the nature and condition of the cheesy focus. Pneumonic and broncho-pneumonic products cannot be removed by coughing and expectoration, except in small quantity in the beginning and at the closing peri- ods of the difficulty, and hence must be removed mainly 370 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. by absorption, if removed at all. If not interfered with by the use of such agents as tend to kill the absorbent bioplasts, or to thicken the walls of the vessels and render them more dense, or to change the nature and composition of the disintegrated products, or to prevent such change taking place by aborting the natural course of the difficulty, such matter is susceptible of being absorbed, except in the most extreme cases, since the white blood corpuscles are the absorbent bioplasts, and the blood vessels seldom, if ever, become entirely impervious. Not so, however, in tuberculosis; the cheesy metamorphosis has for its causation an occluded vessel, and hence there is no possibility of this matter be- ing absorbed, and must be removed by expectoration, if removed at all. The living tubercular germs which con- stitute the peripheral zone of a granulation may, by their amoeboid movements, gain entrance into a blood vessel or lymphatic duct and be transported to some other part of the economy, there to grow and multiply and produce a new granulation ; but the cheesy focus is not susceptible of being absorbed under existing circum- stances, the vessels and lymphatic ducts, even in the cellular zone to no slight extent, being permanently oc- cluded, the old resorption dogma of authors to the contrary notwithstanding. This resorption dogma is not so very ancient, how- ever, as to not merit brief notice here, since our most recent standard works on pathological histology all make mention of it, and by some at least it is still en- dorsed as being the true source of tuberculosis. Vir- chow states that in almost all cases of "acute dissem- inated miliary tuberculosis cheesy masses could be found somewhere in the body, usually a cheesy lymph gland," and this in connection with the fact that in some cases of experimental inoculation the miliary tubercles are INFLAMMATION. 371 found in most numbers around a cheesy focus, led many pathologists to adopt the opinion that miliary tubercu- losis "is a resorption disease." Substantially they held that the actual relationship between scrofula and tuber- culosis- between the yellow and gray granulations (the fatty and caseous)-consists essentially in the elabora- tion of a poison in consequence of the cheesy modifica- tion of the scrofulous elements, which when absorbed produce tuberculosis, and that, therefore, the tubercu- lar poison, in most cases, is manufactured by the pa- tient himself. In this way the gray tubercle lost somewhat its character as a primary lesion, and was rather considered to be the result of resorption and de- pendent upon anterior conditions. Rindfleisch states that it is a matter of indifference whether the cheesy material is transferred by inoculation, or whether it arises in the organism itself, the smallest particle of the cheesy detritus must be regarded as a poison, which by direct irritation occasions the tuberculous new-formation of certain constituents of the tissues. Many other statements might be educed in support of this almost universally accepted theory of tuberculosis less than a decade since, but those given are sufficient to show the inconsistent and extremely erroneous char- acter of reasoning by which it was thought to establish the doctrine upon a sure foundation. It is by no means a rare thing even at the present time to hear medical men of fair reputation state that they fear the disease - whatever its nature may be-"Will run into con- sumption." The noteworthy fact, however, that the cheesy product of true inflammation, such, for instance, as occurs in chronic broncho-pneumonia, on being ab- sorbed never gives rise to tuberculosis, but in fact con- stitutes the only possible hope of affecting a perfect cure, and, on the other hand, that the cheesy detritus of 372 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. a tubercular granulation is so situated that it cannot possibly be absorbed, show that the doctrine is founded in error. The hypothesis is very evidently based upon a false conception of what is really implied by the histo- logical appearances -the cheesy detritus being a product of the disintegration of previously existing germinal matter, or of its formed product, in every instance, and not a causative influence by and through which the bio- plastic growth and formative change is induced. There is only one possible way of exciting bioplastic growth and increase, and that is by supplying pabulum at the expense of which they may grow and increase, and all the pabulum in the universe would utterly fail to excite such growth and increase in the absence of bioplasm to thus grow and increase, and even if such bioplasm be present it could neither grow nor increase at the expense of such pabulum unless that pabulum was of such char- acter as to be in harmony with its nutritive capacities, and there is no bioplasm in the lungs or elsewhere in the animal economy which constitutes the preferred seat of tuberculosis, except the white blood corpuscles, that can assimilate cheesy detritus. Not only so, but even if the reverse were true, the cheesy detritus would lose its identity in being thus appropriated to the nutrition of such bioplasm, and become endowed with all the pecu- liar powers, properties, and capacities of the latter. If, then, this matter could have any possible influence in exciting or intensifying tubercular growth, it would be due to its nutritive value and nothing else, and hence there could be no cheesy center so long as the growth was active. The resorption theory of tuberculosis, how- ever, is in harmony with and characteristic of the whole history of Allopathic teaching from her birth to the present time; namely, hypothetic reversal of the laws of nature, making her laws and processes INFLAMMATION. 373 theoretically responsible for all the ills of the economy, even to the auto-genesis of a peculiar poison which so far from killing, actually changes - not the bioplastic substance-but the vital energy with which it is en- dowed, so that it gains increased resistive powers, new formative capacities, and a destructive disposition second only to the poison-givers who promulgate, advo- cate, and endorse this damnable theory. Prof. Koch, realizing something of the absurdity of such a hypothesis, made the startling announcement that, "It was in the highest degree impressive to ob- serve in the center of the tubercle cell the minute or- ganism which had created it." Yes, so exceedingly im pressive, being German, that the pharmaceutists of the whole civilized world have been kept actively engaged in compounding "bug juice" out of the old abomina- tions, and giving the doctors instructions where, when, how, how much, and how often to give them ever since. Oh but it wTas impressive, but of this we shall deal much more fully in the next Chapter. I only introduced this matter here that you might discover that Germany has recognized the fact that there is such a thing as a "tubercle cell," thus setting that question at rest for all time in the minds of those W'ho are ever found "in harmony with the whole tendency of modern thought." I will simply add: "By their fruits ye shall know them." Absorption essentially consists in the living matters of the organism taking into themselves sub- stance which they convert into their own bioplastic material, endowing it with their own vital powers and formative and nutritive capacities, and it is absolutely, eternally, irrevocably impossible for the pabulum or anything else to cause a change in the vital energy with which any special mass of bioplasm is specifically en- dowed, and thus to produce formed material different 374 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. from that formerly characteristic of such bioplasm. The little bioplast might well and truthfully adopt the substance of Paul's statement and say : "It doth not yet appear what I shall be, but when the change comes I know that I shall be like my predecessor, for the law of conformity to type is rigid, fixed and definite." "By their fruits ye shall know them." The dissemination of tubercle and other' germinal troubles from a center to other localities is not due to an absorptive process, but a diapadesis of the naked germs, as any sane professional mind ought to know. Naked living matter alone has this power. The peri- pheral zone of a tubercular granulation alone consists of naked living matter; the cellular, and even the cheesy zone, while they both may and no doubt do con- tain life-stuff within, are nevertheless incapable of moving from place to place by virtue of their environ- ments, and even if it were possible to have them bodily transported to a new locality they would have no power to effect the disintegration and destruction of the nor- mal tissues, since the bioplasm could not come in con- tact with them, and the heat generated or evolved would only be sufficient to maintain the normal size of the cell by disintegrating its outer formed material. More- over, the vessels of the peripheral zone soon become embryonal, thus favoring such a diapadesis, while the central and a part of the cellular zone are completely occluded. Those who advocate the doctrine of auto-genesis fail to show in any instance that the infectious matter ex- perimentally used was not the product of or did not contain living tubercle germs. See Chapter VII. Moreover, the statement that miliary tubercles were found in greatest numbers around a cheesy focus in cases of experimental inoculation, and that this fact was INFLAMMATION. 375 thought to be an evidence of the resorption character of tuberculosis, militates strongly against such a view, since such an assumption would involve the transporta- tion of the auto-genetic cheesy detritus en masse to the point of new deposit, and subsequently its resorption in whole or in part, and transportation to still other new points of deposit. How these infallible medical Phari sees do strive to bring forth a mountain of logic to convict Nature of waywardness, and the laws and oper- ations peculiar to the preservative, conservative, and re- storative processes in man of being his own worst en- emy in order that they may ply their nefarious traffic in normal bioplastic life, and thereby gain a pecuniary recompense. A minute tubercular germ, might very readily be included in the matter of inoculation-which they were always careful to select from animals peculi- arly prone to tuberculosis - and finding its way into the adventitious coat of a vessel, or perhaps into the sur- rounding connective tissue, by virtue of its amoeboid powers, and there grow and multiply at the expense of the blood-plasma, until the increase in volume has by mechanical pressure, together with the natural tendency which this growth induces to coagulation of the fibrine of the blood, caused the lumina of the vessels to become obliterated, thereby arresting the circulation at the cen- ter of such deposit, and thus lead to their ultimate death and consequent decomposition. The cheesy focus is never due to absorption or "resorption" and subse- quent deposition at some other point of any kind of cheesy matter, but always represents the regular inevi- table sequence of an arrested nutrition, and hence the decomposition of the central tubercular new-formation, which is always present in the larger and largest nod- ules because these are the oldest, and in the center of such nodules because the most distant from the source 376 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of nutrient supply. It is to this resorption dogma that we owe the use of alcoholic liquors, quinine, and com- pany, in such large quantities for the last few years in the treatment of pneumonitis and broncho-pneumonia, and by the quitting of the use of which-"you will save many thousands from death annually, and do more towards banishing the terribly destructive habit of liquor-drinking from every circle of human society in one decade than has been accomplished by legislation in a century past." Knowing that alcohol thickens and condenses the walls of the vessels and of the cells, thickens the serum of the blood and the basement membranes of the body, thus in a fourfold sense interfering with the transuda- tion of the blood-plasma or nutrient pabulum; and kills every kind of living matter, thus putting an end to its growth and attractive influence, and hence arresting the formation of caseous matter within the bronchi and air vesicles, and rendering it impossible to have absorbed any such matter that may be present, they think to an- ticipate and prevent "it from running into tubercular consumption." Then again, these Pharisees have a tra- dition that the presence of the innumerable bioplasts constituting the periphery of a tubercular granulation really is due • to a specific inflammatory process, and that they actually originate from the normal bioplasm of man's own organism, and by virtue of a kind of cheesy infection they become degraded in character - i. e., tubercular - and hence they, and all other bioplasts in- clined this way, must suffer death at the hands of some skillful physician who has the marvelous power of directing the engine of death whithersoever he wills. This is no fancied picture I am drawing, nor is this doctrine discarded at this day, even as regards tubercu- losis, much less as regards cancer, epithelioma, sarcoma, INFLAMMATION. 377 etc., though somewhat modified as regards the nature of the infectious substance, as I shall show under the caption of "Disease Germs." As soon as the pneumonic or broncho-pneumonic de- posit has been removed by absorption or otherwise the tubes and air vesicles return to their normal condition, and to secure the absorption of this matter should be the paramount desideratum in treatment. The injury clone to the epithelia, and which constitutes the pri- mary, and indirectly the specific cause of the inflamma- tory process, can only be repaired by a growth of the sub-epithelial bioplasm of such part; and this growth and increase can only be limited by the filling and dis- tension of the parts in which it takes place so as to produce mechanical pressure upon the vessels, thus gradually diminishing the supply of pabulum, and in this way leading to a formative change on the distal aspect of the bioplasm lining such basement membrane. The presence of the more centrally located contents acts as a barrier or breast-works to protect the delicate structures from contact with the air and other adverse influences, also until formative change can be effected to some extent, and its fatty degeneration as provided for by the mechanical pressure cutting off the greater proportion of pabulum, is also necessary to fit it for the nutrition of the vascular bioplasts through the agency alone of which it can be eliminated. Any therapeutical measures, poisonous or otherwise, that tend to interfere with this process in part or in whole are contrary to the best interests of the patient, and should be proscribed. In tuberculosis, on the contrary, the process is de- structive of the normal tissue-elements from the begin- ning to the end of the chapter, and whether this mat- ter remains as a mechanical obstruction or is got rid of 378 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. by necrotic process the structure and function of such part is forever destroyed. An inequality of the surface of the lungs, when exist- ing, is permanent in tuberculosis for the reason already indicated above, and is always co-existent with a loss of normal structure of the part. The depressions ob- served on the surface of broncho-pneumonic lungs are almost invariably due to acquired atelectasis, which in the natural course of events would have been remedied by a growth of the bioplasm and a transudation of serum into the lumina of the alveoli thus collapsed, causing them to become distended more and more un- til the old level would have been reached, or even ex- ceeded. The transudation of the blood-plasma occurs by virtue of the tortuous and distended blood vessels wThich always accompany atelectasis, and is certainly conservative though much of the nature of a dropsy. The part approximates more and more an anaemic state as the distension proceeds, and thus nature puts a mechan- ical check upon the supply of pabulum in part and upon the transudation of serum entirely, thus leading to formative change in the germinal matter lining such walls, and under the same or similar favorable environ- ments as above. Under no circumstances can the nat- ural environments lead to a total suppression of the supply of pabulum, since the central mass will have been deprived of its supply and have undergone con- sequent regressive change in harmony with a universal law relating to this matter, and this tissue detritus will already have begun to be absorbed before such an un- toward event could possibly take place - the absorption of this matter acting therefore as a check upon the further expansion of such cavities, tubes or lumina. I feel perfectly justified, therefore, in positively assert- ing that every conceivable change occurring either di- INFLAMMATION. 379 rectly or indirectly as a result of "true" inflammatory action - not the so-called "specific inflammations" of authors - is conservative in its nature and tenden- cies, whether it be pneumonitis, broncho-pneumonia, nephritis, conjunctivitis, or any other true "ITIS." Just the reverse of this is true as regards tuberculosis, and all. other so-called "specific inflammations" of authors. I have thus shown as best I could some of the most important distinguishing features between broncho-pneu- monia or caseous pneumonia and tuberculous "pneumo- nia." A few words as to the grosser aspects of these difficulties may not be wholly improper in this work and in this place. The interference with the pulmonary circulation inci- dent to both difficulties must necessarily lead to certain results very similar in some respects, and hence we shall find symptomatic phenomena closely simulating each other in the two difficulties. The history of the case, however, together with a careful enquiry into the diagnostic features of the re- spective troubles need leave no doubt as to the true na- ture of any special case. In broncho-pneumonia cough is an early symptom, and is prominently marked in se- vere cases as is also dyspnoea. In tuberculosis a short, hacking cough exists for a greater or less time before assuming a deep and pronounced type, and it is only after extensive destruction has been effected that dys- pnoea is prominently manifest. The physiological rela- tionship existing between the heart and lungs necessar- ily leads to a greater or less disturbance in the func- tional activity of the former early in the history of broncho-pneumonia, and should there be a large amount of lung structure involved at one time so as to markedly obstruct the circulation through them, and should this 380 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. persist for quite a length of time, organic disturbances may present themselves. In tuberculosis the vessels are far more slowly and much more effectually rendered inefficient for the performance of their function, and hence we shall have in all the more chronic forms of cases at least an almost imperceptible but constantly progressing cardiac disturbance, and ultimately leading to dilatation of right ventricle, insufficiency of pulmon- ary and the tricuspid valves, congestion and fatty de- generation of liver, systemic congestion and general dropsy, all following in the order here named and as a legitimate consequence of the disturbance in the pul- monary circulation primarily. Should life be prolonged sufficiently, granulation after granulation forms, vessel after vessel becomes occluded, the right heart is more and more crowded with venous blood, the resistance to its onward flow is constantly augmenting, and the result already stated is inevitable. A large majority of the medical profession look upon the two difficulties as identical in character, or else in- timately related to each other, and having a false con- ception or no knowledge of the true nature of either, are constantly mistaking the one for the other or con- founding the two, and thus the treatment is of a more or less vacillating character, and usually pernicious in its nature and tendencies rather than beneficial. As has been stated already the treatment usually prescribed for these difficulties by the poison givers is based upon the idea that disease essentially consists of a too rapid increase of the living or germinal matter and calls for agents that have the power to bring about increased destruction of such living or germinal matter. They prescribe, therefore, such agents as phosphorus in some of its many compound forms, whisky, wine, brandy, etc., and a host of other "abominations that maketh deso- INFLAMMATION. 381 late," and inconsistently give cod-liver oil which is not a poison at all, but an offensively odoriferous, nasty, rancid food-substance, difficult to endure at best, and much more so when the organs of digestion and assim- ilation are below par, as is always the case in tubercu- losis. It does not meet a single indication for cure other than its nutritive properties, and I challenge the profession to furnish a single well authenticated case in favor of its ever having effected any real benefit in either the one or the other form of difficulty under dis- cussion outside of its nutritive value. Alcoholic liquors thicken the serum of the blood, the walls of the vessels and of the cells, has, like all other poisons, a destruct- ively modifying influence upon every kind of germinal matter, and hence very materially lowers the nutritive changes, which are absolutely essential, not only to the physiological existence of such organism, but to the ab- sorption of the products of disintegration in the case of broncho- pne umonia. The indications for treatment will be furnished by the clinical history and physical conditions of the pa- tient, and hence, will vary somewhat during the differ- ent stages of the difficulty ; the chief or most important therapeutical indication, however, in broncho-pneumonia is relaxation and stimulation-relaxants to effect an in- crease in the calibre and permeability of the vessels; stimulation to increase the functional activity of the bioplasts. This would be most excellent constitutional treatment in cases of tuberculosis also, were it not that relaxation only hastens a more favorable condition of vessels for the migration and dissemination of the dis- ease germs, and stimulation encourages them, not only to increased nutritive activity, but to take advantage of the state of the vessels by augmenting their vital movements. It is a well known fact that tubercular 382 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. germs may exist in the organism in a quiescent state for months and even years, and then suddenly assert al] their virulent properties when the conditions suit- able to their growth and multiplication are brought about, just as is the case with syphilis and some other germinal difficulties. It is also well known that those who are in good health have the capacity to resist the encroachments of small-pox, measles, scarletinal, and other disease germs, while those who are feeble or in poor health will succumb on the first approach of these parasitical elements. We are thus admonished that ton- icity of tissue is the paramount object to be obtained in tuberculosis if we would diminish, retard, or arrest the ravages of these germs. The feeble and sick are lax in structure, deficient in life stuff, and their blood is poor in quality and inefficient for the proper supply of the demand for pabulum on the part of the normal bioplasm. In the treatment of tuberculosis, therefore, I would advise that attention be given especially to1 en- riching the blood, strict obedience to the laws of health, and the use of vegetable tonics. In this connection I wish to especially invite the attention of the reader to some statements made by Prof. Stafford in an article on "Hydrogen Dioxide," read at the Indiana Physio- Medical Association, May 6, 1891. He says : "One would be led to think that some good could come from these facts under the headings ('Phy- siological Actions ') which would aid in gaining thera- peutical knowledge, but he is doomed to disappointment. A homeopath with his law, Similia Similiabus Curantur, must needs know the so-called physiological action, and the Physio-Medicalist who claims that a medicine has the same effect in health and disease, can prosper by a knowledge of the effect of a drug in health. It is be- yond my conception, and I want to be honest in this INFLAMMATION. 383 matter, to find any use that a regular or an eclectic physician can make of such knowledge except as a tox- ical fact, to limit them in the amount of the drug so that they will not kill anyone. * * * I find in the pro- ceedings of the International Medical Congress, held at Berlin, Germany, on the 7th of August, 1890, a paper on Peroxide of Hydrogen and Ozone by Dr. Paul Gibier, which states, 'Another objection is the unstableness of the compound, which gives off nascent oxygen when brought in contact with organic substances.' This was read at the greatest medical congress of the regulars, and it shows a lack of the conception of the real force upon which the medical virtue of the agent depends. If peroxide of hydrogen had not the power of giving oif nascent oxygen, it would have no more virtue than pure water. * * * Take a drop of blood on a piece of glass and bring a drop of hydrogen peroxide so that the edges of the drops will come together and an effervescence will immediately set in and will continue a short time and stop. Why ? Because the hydrogen peroxide has been acting chemically and has exhausted its strength; add some fresh peroxide of hydrogen, and chemical ac- tion will be seen to commence again, and by continued adding, the blood will all be acted upon and held in solution and the whole will assume a transparent ap- pearance. " So far as I have any knowledge or belief relative to this question, Prof. Stafford is entitled to the credit of having been the first chemist to specifically state the modus operandi of inorganic compounds, and he has done as every man who wants to be strictly honest should do - proved his statements true by actual dem- onstration. Matter of itself is inert and can neither manifest nor generate force or energy per se, hence the remedial virtue of every inorganic compound must be 384 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. due primarily to chemical affinity, and secondarily to the specific resultant new compound or compounds. We so regard it when we give neutralizing cordial and such like compounds for acidity of the stomach, arsen- ious acids to kill malignant germs, etc., and so we must regard them always if we wish to be consistent with ourselves and with the facts of nature. Now I desire that the reader study critically and ob- serve closely the relation anatomically of the matter in nephritis and broncho-pneumonia, as indeed of every other inflammatory new-formation (which the allopathic theory inculcates the destructien of) to the vascular supply, and then ask himself how either of the three schools who resort to a system of poisonous therap- eutics can profit by a knowledge of the "toxical fact, to limit them in the amount of the drug so that they will not kill any one." Let the poison be administered by way of the mouth, the rectum, hypodermically, or in any other manner whatsoever, it acts in precisely the same manner upon the elemenfs of like character with which it first comes in contact that it does subsequently, and unless it be given in quantity sufficient to have an over-plus of en- ergy left - so to speak - on reaching the organ or tis- sue affected the object sought to be obtained fails to be accomplished. And should there be a sufficiency given to reach the part affected before its virtues are entirely exhausted, it kills the very matter which is absolutely essential to the generation of new cells with which to restore the part to its normal condition, and hence even the smallest quantity that can be given with any assur- ance of reaching the point desired must be large enough to do great mischief where its effect is not theoretically desired. Perhaps it was owing to a consciousness of this great and important fact that led Dr. Beale to say : R-24 INFLAMMATION. 385 "J/ in many morbid changes, increased destruction could be brought about, the diseased state would cease." That is if "increased destruction could be brought about" at the precise point where the "too rapid increase of liv- ing or germinal matter" obtains, without endangering the life of the bioplasm elsewhere in the economy, the diseased state would cease. But even in this he is very much mistaken, since killing the renal bioplasts does not restore the function of the skin, but reduces the tubules to mere fibroid cords of no functional value whatever ; killing the pulmonary bioplasts does not re- store the normal epithelial lining of the air vesicles and bronchial tubes, but renders such a restoration impossi- ble ; and what is true of these inflammatory processes is true in the main of all such processes wherever found. The homeopathic attenuations are even more absurd (if much less destructive) from their own theoretical standpoint than the allopathic idea of the largest possi- ble doses short of immediate death. I am well aware that they claim that by thus attenuating the potency of the drug is increased by liberating and rendering active the inherent force or energy with which it is endowed. But this claim amounts to precisely nothing in view of the fact that all agents owe their action to the energy present primarily, as stated above, and no possible de- gree of attenuation can change their nature or mode of acting. Some years ago I submitted various kinds of living matter obtained from both man, beast and rep- tile, to the action or influence of various agents - san- ative and poisonous-under the microscope. I found that the one-seven-millionth part of a grain or less of strychnia almost instantly transformed the living germs contained in a drop of the substance experimented upon into non-living fat globules and granules. I have seen 386 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. hundreds of living, moving bioplasts "suddenly and rapidly " suspend all vital action from the destructive effects of less than one-forty-thousandth part of a grain of morphia, and thus remain a dead and smeary mass. Dr. E. W. Ellis of Muncie, Ind., assisted me in all these experiments, and we exhibited the phenomena to a num- ber of other medical men. all of whom -will testify to the truth of these statements. We have witnessed the death of living matter from the effects of alcoholics, chloroform, carbolic acid, aconite, hellebore, stramonium, and a large number of poisonous agents in constant use amongst the majority of the profession. These agents were generally used in such relative proportions as would represent a minimum dose of the specific drug then being experimented with, and the result was so very characteristic that I feel confident that the clinical result can be definitely predicated by the results of mi- croscopical observation, and vice versa, without any pre- vious knowledge of the therapeutical relationship of the drug whatsoever. Let this be as it may, however, these experiments demonstrate conclusively that quantity does not alter or change the quality of a drug, and they prove also that nothing is more certain in this world than the death of living or germinal matter when sub- jected to the influence of these agents. It matters not how minute the quantity may be the result is essentially the same in kind. And should but one single bioplast be destroyed the vitality of the organism is reduced just that much ; there is one particle less to perform a function; one more to be eliminated as effete matter- in addition to that already existing - and hence an in- creased burden imposed upon the excretory bioplasts, which are at the same time rendered less competent to perform their proper function by virtue of the debilitat- ing influence of the poison - either in its original form or in the form of a new compound, or both. INFLAMMATION. 387 I conclude, therefore, that homeopathy gains nothing in potency by her attenuations, but that the patient gains very decidedly in his chances to recover by such attenuations in every instance in which poisons are made use of. Not only so, but it is exceedingly doubt- ful if their attenuations reach the seat of the difficulty for which they are prescribed before they are exhausted - unless that difficulty exists or is supposed to exist in the portal circulation or its immediate appendages. Homeopathy approximates the expectant plan more or less closely in proportion to the actual degree of atten- uation. and beats colored water for variety, and there- fore appeals the more strongly to the credulity of the indolent mentality of the fastidiously inclined. Upon the whole. I think homeopathy a great improvement over both allopathy and eclecticism, if her fundamental teachings be strictly adhered to in practice. Her prov- ings amount to absolutely nothing, however, from a therapeutical standpoint, so far as they are concerned. Having thus spoken well of homeopathy, I feel that there can be no great injustice done to anyone personally in quoting a few words from a very able and usually consistent writer of the Physio-Medical school for the encouragement of our allopathic brethren: "The prin- cipal officb of the lungs is to supply to the blood that indispensable vitalizing element, oxygen, and to separate from the blood that carbonaceous waste, carbonic acid, the resultant of vital combustion." Lest you should be- come confused, however, by the phrase, " vital combus- tion," I will supplement the statement with a few words from another brilliant writer of the same school: "Liv- ing matter, which, as is known to all, is an extremely complicated affair, is said to be a store of vital force, manifesting itself constantly in vital actions or vital phenomena. But living matter is living matter only in 388 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. its relations to something else, it is but one term in the dynamic equation of life - one term of a relation, the other term, or, at least, one factor of the other term, invariably being oxygen. * * * And so we conclude that no vital force inheres in living matter as a con- stant fixed entity, working change spontaneously; that it is a variable and constantly varying quantity; that it exists only as it is generated by the reaction going on between its elements and some other factor or factors ; that it is expended as fast as generated in vital func tion, and disappears. Every movement we make is but the outcome of the downward transformation of living matter under the influence of oxygen." It will be best, perhaps, to state here that the living matter familiarly known as such to microscopists is as simple a heterogeneous compound as one could well conceive of - not a "complicated affair" at all. And since living matter is not living matter until it is vital- ized by the vitalizing element oxygen (according to the statements of both these writers), and since "the result- ant of vital combustion" is carbonic acid, we think it a mistake to even regard this species of bioplasm "an extremely complicated affair." Having simplified matters thus somewhat, and accepted the chemical theory of life, or the doctrine of spontaneous generation, which is vir- tually the same thing, we suggest that our old school friends administer such chemical compounds as are known to have a strong affinity for oxygen, and thus to devitalize the "too rapidly increasing living or germinal matter" first, and after having effected a cure of the "morbid change," give some such agent as hydrogen dioxide and thus revitalize any matter that may still be adhering to the basement membrane, so that perchance "the downward transformation of living matter under the influence of oxygen" may possibly rehabilitate the INFLAMMATION. 389 parts with their normal epithelial lining instead of car- bonic acid. This would be in perfect accord with their practice in giving iron to enrich the blood, and its successful prac- tical results would mark an epoch in the history of medicine never equaled before. Prof. Stafford secured by the use of this agent a substance that resembled our kind of bioplasm much more closely than carbonic acid does, but as he was not trying especially to gener ate life, it must be admitted that it generated death in- stead thereof. My main object in introducing these last quotations wTas to exemplify the fact that they who en- dorse the combustion dogma - the chemical theory of life - and other allopathic doctrines, will find themselves advocating all the hypothetical propositions founded upon such fundamental teachings, and will therefore come to regard inflammation as essentially a disease, and all the various specific germinal troubles as auto-ge- netic. Indeed, the article in which the sentence first quoted was found contains the following also: "Tuber- culosis, phthisis pulmonalis, consumption, is, in my opin- ion, the ultimate result of impaired function of one or more organs of the vegetative system, rather than a primary specific disease of the lungs." This particular mention of the vegetative system shows that he regards the tubercular product as being due primarily to a change in the character of the pab- ulum, and since it is said to follow in the wake of a cheesy inflammation, it seems to me that he should re- sort to such therapeutical measures as would prevent the absorption of such cheesy matter if he wishes to be consistent. Or if he is called to the case in time to prevent the growth of the living matter, he should do so. I will confess that I would much prefer trusting my life in the care of one who has SEEN LIVING 390 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. MATTER, and by careful observation has learned to know that the BIOPLASM DOES THE CNNVERTING (or rather the life energy therein manifest), and not the pabulum, and one who knows from actual observa- tion that tubercle germs differ in their vital resistive powers and formative capacities from any kind of bio- plasm normally existing in the human organism, and that there is more danger of acquiring tuberculosis from one single act of kissing a consumpted patient, relative or friend, than from all the possible and im- possible functional disturbances of the vegetative system or any other system. I came that you might have the "vitalizing element oxygen," and that you might have it more abundantly. I am the oxygen of the world. I and the Father are one. And the oxygen was made flesh, and dwelt among us * * * full of grace and truth. Someone is egre- giously mistaken in his teachings. A little less closet speculation, and a little more scientific experimentation - after the manner pursued by Prof. Stafford - will af- ford much better practical results in the end, even though we should be compelled by the truths thus made manifest to discard former opinions and precon- ceived notions - as I have been compelled to do in many instances. The high standing, recognized ability, and influential character, together with the grossly mis- leading nature and tendencies of the above statements, is the only apology I have to offer the authors thereof, and to others who have made similar statements, for having thus adversely criticised them. Possessing the most positive evidence that both ani- mal and vegetable bioplasm have been known to exist in a dormant state for months and years under circumstan- ces that forbade that any oxygen should gain access to them except that existing in the original composition of INFLAMMATION. 391 their cell walls, and that they nevertheless* remained living all this time, we may safely treat the oxygen vi- talizing theory as a mere Might of the imagination. Moreover, being assured from actual observation - of- ten repeated - that the organic unit, the cell, consists of BIOPLASM - universally the same in physical and chemical properties and composition - and of FORMED MATERIAL, or organic structure, the condensed pro- duct of the former, and differing one kind from another; and knowing that there is a large class of agents which are eminently destructive of the BIOPLASM, while many of them are at the same time eminently preserva five of the formed material or organic structure, we feel perfectly safe in asserting that the giving of pois- ons will have been proven more consistent with the fundamental teachings of that school which regards dis- ease as essentially "A too rapid increase of the living or germinal matter," than is the giving of sanative rem- edies by those who regard oxygen as a vitalizing ele- ment, animal heat as a resultant of any kind of combus tion-so to speak - and who regard disease germs as a product of auto-genesis. Lest some putty-brained donkey - who believes that "Life, mind, memory, thought, reason, come from organ- ization, are purely physical phenomena, and cease at death " - should be led to the giving or using of pois- ons for their preservative properties, thinking thus to prolong life, it may be best to state that they preserve the organic structure by destroying the living, structure- less bioplasm. In every instance in which we have ex- amined matter undergoing putrefactive change, we have found myriads of living, moving bacteria and allied forms, and consequently it is thought that they are the active agents in the transforming process. I may state here that I do not believe they have anything to do 392 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. with the decomposition of such substances, but that they are present and growing and multiplying because the products of decomposition afford them the necessary and proper pabulum for such growth. As this question will be much more fully discussed elsewhere I need not do more than merely state here that when any poison, acting chemically, is added to the decaying mass the re- sult is to form a new and more stable compound or compounds of a chemical character, and thus not only to render it impossible for the active agents of putre- faction to obtain the pabulum necessary for their growth and multiplication, but the poison actually kills those present, thus reducing them also to the state of dead matter of a chemical character. We see, there- fore, that these two properties which are so peculiarly characteristic of chemical poisons, namely; their de- structive and their preservative properties, are really dependent upon a third property - their constructive tendencies. They do not preserve the organic struc- tures intact, therefore, but generate a new compound at the expense of the combined substances, that even a microscopic buzzard could not assimilate, even did it not kill them also. Moreover, the preservative proper- ties of these agents could not be in scientific demand, did no such chemical union take place, since a loss of formed material can usually be replaced by the forma- tive powers of the living matter in the immediate neigh- borhood of such lesion, while the death of the latter forever arrests developmental change in them. For ex- ample, the cutaneous epithelia are constantly being des- quamated on the one hand, and just as constantly being renewed on the other hand by the germinal matter .be- neath. If the latter should be destroyed by poisons or otherwise the loss cannot be restored, since cutaneous bioplasm comes only from pre-existing cutaneous bio- plasm. INFLAMMATION. 393 Moreover, the serum of the blood, which is caused to constantly traverse the formed material of almost every cell of the entire body so long as the cell maintains its vital integrity, is the very best preservative known to the practical microscopist, since it preserves the formed material from decomposition without chemically changing it, and from putrefaction by simply prevent- ing such decomposition, so that the active agents of putrefaction have not the pabulum at the expense of which to grow; and fortunately the serum does not even injuriously affect these harmless little vegetable germs, but leaves them vitally intact and ever ready for the specific nutritive purpose for which they were Di- vinely intended - the consumption of any decomposed animal matters which may have come to exist in the economy either of intrinsic or extrinsic origin. Again, even granting the fundamental proposition with regard to the nature of inflammation as stated by Pack- ard, Beale, and others, as being true - which it is not - then surely the giving of poisons need not be excused upon the pretense that they are rendered sanative by attenuation, since the theory demands the destruction of the living or germinal matter which is supposed to be increasing too rapidly. Strange inconsistency ! Your theory calls for the use of such agents as tend to kill living or germinal matter, according to the statements of your highest living authorities, but your consciences - which were derived from the Author of your beings - condemn the use of them as such, and hence you try to convince yourselves that by attenuating these abominations that maketh desolate, you render them sanative. Come out from among them, oh ye of little faith in such a theory and even worse practice. Sup- pose that, instead of disease essentially and in the ma- jority of cases being a "too rapid increase of the liv- 394 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ing or germinal matter" of a part, it should be found to be always and essentially a destructive process, think you we would hear any more of such puerile logic, or rather want of logic, as that quantity alters quality ? No indeed, the entire catalogue of poisons would be left in the bowels of old mother earth, and kept out of the bowels of man even in homeopathic attenuations. Pois- ons, therefore, if admissible at all, should be given for the express purpose of destroying life, or, more properly speaking, for the purpose of so deranging living or ger- minal matter, so degrading it as to render it unfit for the in-dwelling of the pure substantial entity - vital force. In order to get this question of inflammation more clearly before us in practical form, we will suppose that a strong, vigorous, full-blooded man has received a fall resulting in a fracture of the humerus midway between the two articular extremities. A surgeon of undoubted skill is called to adjust the parts, and render such other assistance as he in his judgment may think wise and proper. He correctly approximates the two ends of the fracture, and then applies all the necessary means to effectually retain them in proper coaptation. In other words, he leaves nothing undone that a skillful and judicious surgeon would think proper to be done. He has been educated to believe, however, that disease essentially and in the majority of cases consists of a too rapid increase of the living or germinal matter, and that "inflammation is always, wherever met with, a dis- ease, and the term, ' healthy inflammation ' and all the theoretical views dependent upon it are incorrect," hence he concludes that he has effectually restored his patient to his normal status, and that the only addi- tional services that may be required at his hands is to anticipate and prevent, if possible, the supervention of inflammation. INFLAMMATION. 395 But, from some cause or other - too much blood per- haps- inflammation does supervene, in consequence of which the patient is compelled to maintain his arm in statu quo for several weeks, instead of immediately go- ing about his usual avocation as he was wont to do be- fore such injury. Can any sane mind doubt the state- ment that the surgeon effectually cured him of his in- jury, in view of the fundamental proposition that 4•In- fl animation is always, whenever met with, a disease, and that the term 4 healthy inflammation ' and all the theo- retical views dependent upon it are incorrect ? " The only assistance the surgeon renders, therefore, consists in bringing about increased destruction of the too rap- idly increasing living or germinal matter of the part, and which essentially constitutes the true inflammatory process. We are told, however, that this doctrine is no longer entertained by any school of medicine. Since when was it relegated to the shades of oblivion? It is just as effectually and completely the therapeutical basis of the dominant practice among all schools of medicine - except the Physio-Medical-as it ever was in times past, and is in absolute harmony with the specific fun- damental teachings of these schools at the present time, whatever their more general statements may in- culcate. Now, let me ask, What does that thing we denom- inate the ''vis medicatrix natures" do in the reparative process, and what are the active agents in doing it ? We are correctly informed that the inflammation is the response of a living tissue to something, and as a result of the injury done; and since bioplasm is the only living substance that can thus respond, and since pabulum is the only known stimulant to which it can respond nutri- tively, we conclude that the formed material at the seat 396 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of the injury, together with its contained bioplasm, has been more or less seriously deranged, so much so as to wholly unfit it for the purpose for which it was in- tended, and hence it must be got rid of in some way or other, and new matter substituted instead thereof. Now, the death of such contained bioplasm actually provides for an immediate increase of pabulum to the contiguous bioplasts exactly proportionate to the amount of such bioplasm thus destroyed, and hence these contiguous bioplasts take on increased nutritive activity in harmony with the law governing this matter, and the heat thus evolved not only quickly disintegrates their own exist- ing formed material but soon thereafter that of the in- jured structures also. The effused blood in the' region of the injury, when present, contributes also to the nu- trition of the living germinal elements in the region of such injury. This process of bioplastic growth and multiplication continues until a nutritive balance be- tween supply and demand is established either mechan- ically or otherwise when formative change supervenes, and a restoration of the part is effected. It must be remembered, however, that while these changes are absolutely essential to the proper knitting together of the two fractured ends of the bone, the em- bryonal state is not a very favorable condition for suc- cessfully resisting the tendency to muscular contractions and consequent shortening of the limb. Nature was too wise to leave such work as would be required to pre- vent this result wholly unprovided for, and hence, we find her elaborating materials out of which to construct a combined splint and bandage (the provisional callus) which she adjusts with the most consummate skill. And not only so, but these little bioplasts construct a "dowel pin" which they insert into the medullary canal, extending it for some little distance in either direction, INFLAMMATION. 397 thus lending additional security to the parts for the time being. After the new organic materials thus de- posited between the fractured ends of the bone have been duly infiltrated with calcareous salts the vis med- icatrix natural removes the provisional callus and medul- lary plug, and all trace of injury practically disappears. Now, I do not think that any fair-minded individual would willingly detract from the just meed of praise and honor due the surgeon for' his skill and proper efforts in behalf of the patient; but the real question before us is, Who cured the patient of his difficulty ? Was it Dr. Normal Bioplasm, or the other doctor who alone received pecuniary compensation for his services ? If there is no such thing as "healthy inflammation, " and if inflammation "is not set up as a means of re- pairing the injury," then Dr. N. Bioplasm, who cer- tainly did the main structural work, as also a part of the splinting and bandaging, should get no credit. If, however, the lesion of structure constitutes the dis- ease, then I am in favor of granting him a certificate or license to practice medicine in ever state in the union. Even to say the worst of his character he is at least as good a servant as a saloon-keeper, if not quite equal to a toxadminister of the variegated stripe. Of course, if he is a bad practitioner, causing more disease than he cures, he should be prohibited from engaging in the work at all, and should be severely dealt with if found boot-legging around over the country. I might state in this connection also, that I • am no eclectic or local optionist - if he is a good physician and surgeon, grant him a license or certificate to practice his chosen pro- fession, if not - well, "confound him" - kill him. I have thought it well to present the history of a fracture of the acetabulum in this connection just as it appeared in the Physio-Medieal Journal in December, 1882, 398 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. in order to show the great importance of having a knowledge of histological changes so that we may be able to shun such fatal mistakes as was made in this case by his high-standing professional attendants, all but one of whom were dignified by the title of Profes- sor. The report wTas entitled: "Guess-Work Versus Scientific Knowledge, or. the Penalty of a False Diagno- sis." "For every infraction of law, wTh ether human or di- vine, there is a specific penalty attached. "Mitigating circumstances may modify the degree of punishment, but there is no such thing as complete im- munity for a disobedience of the laws of health, whether such disobedience be due to ignorance, a result of acci- dent or willful in character, the penalty must'be paid. "Inflexible as is this law of laws, it is nevertheless the province as also the duty of man to so temper judg- ment with mercy that the transgressor - though he pay the penalty to the utmost farthing - may ultimately be redeemed from the burden of his sin and restored to his former estate. "He wTho sits in judgment in the legal affairs of men would be considered grossly remiss of his sworn duty did he not see to it that all pertinent facts in the case were made to do duty in determining the true status of the crime and criminal. "The medical man who fails to enquire into the phy- sical condition of his patient, who ignores the diagnostic import of the symptomatic phenomena, who refuses to patiently and exhaustively investigate all the symptom- atic ensemble that he may thereby gain facts in testi- mony of the pathological condition, is culpable of crim- inal neglect or gross ignorance, and is unworthy of the high title - Physician. "Could the drapery of concealment be torn off, the INFLAMMATION. 399 mantle of charity removed and a true and unprejudiced history of the lives of trusting, suffering and perma- nently physically disabled mankind be written, the di- rect and specific result of carelessness, ignorance and willful stupidity on the part of their medical attendants in making up a diagnosis of the case, the world would be moved as it was never moved before, would be shocked with holy horror at the ghastly sight. "For each and every individual who has been convicted and paid the penalty attached to a crime of which he was truly innocent, a thousand, yea, I may safely say ten thousand individuals have been compelled to suffer in the flesh the torments of the inquisition, as the result of a mistaken diagnosis and a worse than mistaken practice on the part of their medical counselors. With the facilities at our command for gaining a knowledge of anatomy, physiology, histology, pathology, diagnosis, materia-medica and therapeutics, etc., mistakes should seldom, if ever, happen. And yet, those who have gained a wide reputation as men of great erudition in their chosen profession; men who look down from their exalted position with sublime contempt upon their less fortunate brethren, especially if that brother be ' irreg- ular,' are constantly guilty of committing just such grave and criminal mistakes. In proof thereof we cite the following case : "Mr. W a prominent and influential citizen of In- dianapolis, had the misfortune in April, 1881. to receive an injury in the pelvic region from a stick of wood, two feet long and about six inches square, which fell a dis- tance of seven or eight feet, striking him on the lower part of the back while he was in a stooping posture. He was prostrated upon the ground by the force of the impact, but immediately regained his feet and went on in the labor incident to the transaction of his usual bus- 400 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. iness for about two weeks, when the pain from which he had suffered constantly since sustaining the injury became so severe as to necessitate absolute quietude. The pain was referred to by him as invariably starting in the hip joint of the right side, then radiating downwards to the sole of the foot of the same side and occasionally also down the opposite limb as far as the knee-joint. The pain would also radiate from the hip-joint upwards along the spine, pass over the crown of the head and center in the left eye, causing a complete closure of the same for the time being. These radiating pains were per- iodically recurrent and so exceedingly severe in character as to render him almost-maniacal unless some narcotic was resorted to, which was done and without stint. He has at no time been free from pain in the acetabular region since the occurrence of the injury, and from a strong, robust man of 205 pounds weight he has been reduced to a mere skeleton - a miserable wreck of his former self. "An"' eminent 'little pill doctor' of this city was called to treat the case and pronounced it one of sciatic rheumatism. He gave a most favorable prognosis - promising a 'complete cure inside of eight or ten days. But mirable dicta the patient grew constantly worse, and while standing upon the floor of his,r;sleeping apartment one day, during this self-same course of treatment, he was shocked by an intensely acute pain in the hip-joint, and fell to the floor, from which he was unable to arise. "From this time on for months he was entirely help- less and a persistent sufferer of untold agony. A fail- ure to get benefit from little pills determined him to make a change in his medical counselors, and conse- quently Professors and and were called in that he might profit by the combined wisdom of their many years of experience, learning, and ' regularity. R-25 INFLAMMATION. 401 All sat in judgment upon his case, and gravely pro- nounced sentence of death as the just penalty of his transgression. "A celebrated physician of Hot Springs, Ark., said it was the worst case of o f he ever saw'. ' ' The case was diagnosed by these eminent men as an abscess on the inside, or outside, of the bladder, they knew not which, and declared that instrumental interfer- ence was not to be thought of - to use them would be exceedingly hazardous, and might prove fatal in three minutes. " 'Drugs were used with a view to make the supposed abscess break and run,' but without success. These learned men say that no such case has been placed on record, that the books do not mention such a case, that it is unique in character. ''Dr. W--of Franklin, Ind., in the meantime, how- ever, met with a case, somewhat similar in history, which proved fatal, ' and a post-mortem showed the trouble was a growth from the bone.' ' ' Forthwith, upon the reception of this knowledge, a reconsideration of the diagnostic phenomena (?) was had, and the case was pronounced inflammation of the periosteum of the bone, not of the bladder. "In December of the same year (1881) the doctors discovered on making a digital examination per rectum, that the swelling situated about two and one-half inches above the anus on the right side of the pelvis had at- tained the size of a child's head. ( ?) "Dr. B describes it as a bony substance with a feathery tip, feathery tumor growing downward until it could be felt per rectum; a tumor located in and grow- ing out of the iliac process and extending upwards with a soft, feathery head, so says Dr. S , who insisted that electricity would accomplish its removal, and that noth- 402 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ing else would. Suppositories lessened its size some- what, but electricity had the effect to reduce it very materially, as was made evident from the fact that un- der its magical influence the tumor became ''fluted." The eminent professors at last concluded that it was a tumor having a neck about the size of one's finger, and then spread out like a mushroom. In February 1882, iodine solution was injected into it, twenty-three days after which a hard lump came on it. About ten drops of the solution were introduced at a time for three or four times, when the professors came to the wise con- clusion that it was doing no good. "In December '81, or January '82, he took zinc pills, and had a blister applied over the left eye. The pains were much modified in severity after taking about fifty electric baths at Hot Springs. There has been no acute pain since March last. "After sitting a while the knee joint becomes stiff. Suppositories, principally composed of morphine and iodine are used per rectum every day, and he is in the habit of taking one or more doses of morphine daily also. Prof. F- examined him in March last and said that the tumor was not larger than the big end of a hen's egg, was as hard as bone, felt sure it would never grow again. Still uses electricity every other day locally. Professer F- and Dr. H- state that 'if he can recover strength and vigor it will dry up, the nerves will become adjusted to it, but it will always be painful in damp weather.' Dr. H-, ah ! Professor H-, thinks by using electricity it will gradually go. down until it will become a little patch that will not amount to much. "'When the pain is greatest the left eye becomes blurred from severe pain.' Since the acute pain has ceased, 'there is an aching running from the hip-socket INFLAMMATION. 403 to the ankle. Appetite poor, urinates every hour or so during the day and on an average of every 20 or 30 minutes at night. The morphia he is taking causes a derangement of the stomach, and leads to emesis about once a week.* ' 'During the month of September last three ' irreg- ulars ' of this city were permitted to institute a critical examination of this strange and much diagnosed case. His nervous system showed the ravages of pain and narcotizing treatment, but- what was most striking in its diagnostic significance, as well as in its anomalous ap- pearance, was a marked depression immediately over the site of the hip-joint or socket. Indeed, the relative appearance of the twTo sides wTas so pronounced that the most casual observer could not but have been im- pressed with the evident deformity of the right hip, even though a distance of several paces intervened be- tween him and the patient. A digital examination only confirmed them in their diagnosis of a fracture of the acetabulum, and subsequent displacement of the parts, occurring, no doubt, at the time when he was seized with the ' terrible sharp pain in the hip-joint and fell to the floor in a helpless condition.' "They found an elevation on the inside of the pelvis at a point immediately over and corresponding in size and shape with the right acetabulum. I have already stated that a depression existed externally correspond- ing in location as well as in other diagnostic features with this. They also found a marked enlargement of the prostate gland. All the other structures in this region, seemingly normal. They were led to the con- * The above history and symptomatic ensemble was taken down in shorthand by Mr. Drapier at the time of visitor "Irregulars," and Is given almost verbatum as furnished me. 404 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. elusion, therefore, that the head of the femur had been forced inwards at the time of his fall upon the floor by the weight of his body, carrying before it the now thoroughly softened and embryonal structures. "The evidence of a fracture and subsequent dislo- cation is so conclusive that we marvel how anyone making pretentions to a knowledge of even the rudi- ments of surgery could possibly have failed to at once detect the true nature of the difficulty. Upon mature deliberation we have been compelled, in charity, to assign their fatal and vascillating diagnosis to ignorance of the laws of physiology, of pathology, of the import of symptomatic phenomena, and especially to their ignorance of histological changes incident to the repair of an injury. Vanity begets carelessness, and careless- ness is the father of ignorance, of stupidity, of criminal neglect and a breeder of contempt for the sacred rights and interests of others. "Because this man was able to continue his work for a few days after receiving the injury (not without pain, however) they assume, no doubt, that no lesion, no so- lution of continuity had occurred, not knowing, perhaps, that a fracture of the acetabulum could, and, no doubt, had occurred, all sufficient to necessitate histological change as a means of final reparation, and yet not suffi- cient to allow the head of the femur to slip inwards. A union of these fragments can only be effected by a return of the impaired parts to the embryonal state. The living matter of the bony structure, as also the other tissues take on increased activity, they consume* the cartilaginous matrix of the bone, the formed material of the impaired structures, converting them into their own substance, f The effete matters are car- ried away in the venous blood and new material is * Disintegrate. t Or they are converted into white blood-corpuscles. INFLAMMATION. 405 brought to the parts for the purpose of renewal. The rim of bone remaining, and which wTas sufficient to sup- port the head of the bone in its proper place, is being transformed into a soft, transparent, living substance. The work is partially or entirely accomplished. Force is brought to bear upon the femur; the head of the bone and acetabular structures are carried inwards ; no effort is made to correct the malposition of the parts. Provisional matter is thrown out; a small and soft in- equality becomes a large and firm tumor. The embry- onal matter has undergone formative change ; this formed material has, in part, become infiltrated with calcareous salts, the provisional matter is absorbed, and lo ! we have a small tumor 'as hard as bone,' 'which will always be painful in damp weather.' "Had the means used by these learned gentlemen (?) accomplished the purpose for which they were pre- scribed, even the acetabulum in its abnormal position wTould not remain to tell the tale. Instead thereof we should ffnd the head of the femur wandering around in the pelvic region as a drunken man staggereth home- wards at the wee small hours of the night. "One has not learned all when he has gained the title of Doctor of Medicine, nor does blustering egotism, self- exaltation or scornful treatment of a professional, though 'irregular,' brother, constitute medical science. It is only by persistent study, close attention to duty, not neglecting the small things, honesty of purpose and an earnest desire to honor our calling and ameliorate the sufferings of humanity that will save us from commit- ting such crimes against our fellow man and bringing ourselves and our profession into disgraceful repute. ' ' This man, through gross ignorance, criminal neglect, or willful stupidity on the part of his trusted counselors, must go through life a maimed and suffering witness to 406 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the shameful and reckless infirmity of the medical pro- fession ; his life a burden to himself and destined to soon be spent by virtue of the unnatural strain cast upon him. * He must pay the penalty of his own in- fraction of the law, but incomparably worse than this, he must also pay the penalty, the result of mal-practice on the part of those to wThom he naturally had a right to look for succor. "Let us strive for a higher medical education, for greater medical wisdom. "Let us learn the processes of nature, even in her most minute workings and thus shun the abyss of cru- elty to our trusting friends." Again, a man, an eminent man, a good man, a man whose initials were J. A. G.. was shot by the assassin and seriously but not fatally wounded. The ball be- comes encysted ; the track of the wound is rapidly be- ing filled up with granulation tissue, and all things promise a speedy and complete recovery. The encyst- ing membrane is formed material, and bioplasm is the only matter in the w7orld that can produce it. The same is also true of granulation tissue. We know, therefore, that Dr. Normal Bioplasm has been practising his profession here, and apparently if something is not soon done he will ere long have the entire track of the wound filled up with this granulation tissue, and thus get credit for the cure effected. Well something was done, and the published record of the case will tell you just what it was, and will show that the reparative pro- cess suddenly ceased - the individual sinking lower and lower, day by day, until, at last he who was before the very picture of health and manly vigor was finally con- signed to the tomb "as the safest refuge from suffering and disease." * He lived but a few months after the publication of this article. INFLAMMATION. 407 What constituted the disease here, the wound or structural lesion, or was it the inflammatory action ? If the latter, then science would demand the local ap- plication of such agents as carbolic acid, corrosive subli- mate, etc. For internal use alcoholic liquors would per- haps be the best selection that could be suggested both as a regular diet and as a medicine, since there is an increased demand for pabulum on the part of the grow- ing and multiplying germs that can be better anticipated and antagonized with alcohol than any other known remedy. But to make a sure thing doubly sure, apply cold externally-since this has a marked influence in producing condensation of the fluids and solids, dimin- ishes the calibre of the arteries and capillaries, thus still farther restricting the access of nutrient materials, and also tends to render it less fit for general nutrition by allowing it to become impregnated with a supera- bundance of excrementitious matters. Indeed, since thinking of how much can be accomplished in this way to defeat Dr. Bioplasm of any credit in the premises, I am inclined to think that rendering the temperature of the entire room markedly frigid had something to do with the final outcome of the case. On the other hand, should it be conceded that Dr. N. Bioplasm's course of practice was scientific, then the course pursued by the high-priced Doctors was pernic- ious in the extreme, and the final result was inevitable, even though the prayers of the Christian world daily as- cended to a throne of grace in behalf of his recovery. Messrs. Alcohol, Carbolic Acid, Opium, Heat Abstrac- tion, etc., killed the wrong set of doctors, and in doing so killed the patient also. . Again, one has an apoplectic stroke as a result of blood extravasation into the substance of the brain. The clot destroys a small portion of brain substance, 408 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. and by its mechanical influence suspends the function- ary activity of a much greater portion, so that more or less complete paralysis of the opposite side'of the body ensues. /The co-ordinated functions cannot be restored until this clot is removed and the injury repaired. This firm fibrinous clot is not, neither indeed can be taken up by the process of endosmosis, as some are inclined to believe, for in addition to its semi-solid condition, the vessels in its immediate vicinity are occluded by me- chanical pressure, brought about in the manner just spoken of. The capillary, brain and blood bioplasts take on increased nutritive activity at the expense of this clot, and thus it disappears, little by little, until at last it is entirely removed, and the bioplasts have un- dergone the characteristic changes peculiar to their re- spective kinds under existing circumstances - some into brain cells, others into blood-plasma, and others into new capillary vessels to replace those that may have been destroyed - and the patient is restored to his us- ual health, unless it so happen that a caudate cell had been destroyed, in which case the specific function over which it presides will be forever lost, since there is no other particle of bioplasm in the particular locality which is competent to reconstruct, replace or endow any other particle of bioplasm with like powers and ca- pacities. The return of the vessels to the embryonal state is essential to the construction of new vessels where de- manded ; and the course, numbers, and anastamoses will be determined by the bioplastic attractions - the vis a fronte supplemented by the vis a tergo. This could not happen if the vessels were not of the consistency of bioplasm, or nearly so. Which constitutes the disease in this case, the rapid increase of the living or germinal matter, or the lesion INFLAMMATION. 409 of the vessel and extravasation of blood ? If the former, then science would dictate bleeding, starving, and pois- oning ; but if the contrary be true - if the lesion of structure, etc., be the disease, and the inflammatory process be reparative, then we should favor the in- crease of this matter by resorting to sanative means to secure as free a circulation of uncontaminated blood to the part as possible, and thus hasten the removal of the mechanical interference as quickly as may be, and thus restore the normal functions of the entire economy as perfectly as possible. One more example will not prove devoid of interest, I trust, and hence we will present a typhoid case-the difficulty resulting, perhaps, from the destructive in- fluence of unwholesome f ood or impure water, due to the presence of animal ptomaines probably. The duct- less glands of the bowels undergo molecular decomposi- tion and are in greater or less numbers completely des- troyed. Cornil and Ranvier state that: "It is the most ele- vated part of the follicle or Pyer's patch which first mortifies. * * * The mortified part is soon cut off from the rest of the morbid tissue by a narrow border, then by a furrow, and it is subsequently eliminated in small fragments.'' The most elevated part is the part which necessarily first feels the impress of the destructive elements which constitute the exciting cause of typhoid fever, and hence the early death of these bioplasts. The bioplasm constituting the greater part of these glands complements the blood bioplasts and those of the liver in the absorptive process, so that all of the bioplasm specifically connected with the absorption of food sub- stances in which there may exist ptomaines or other poisons are greatly endangered, but those with which these poisons first come in contact necessarily suffer first. 410 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Just in proportion as the whole number are affected by the poison, in the same relative degree is the total absorptive energy of these bioplasts diminished. Herein is found the true reason why the opium-eater can ulti- mately take such enormous quantities of the drug with so much apparent impunity. And herein is a very marked instance of the wonderful conservative provis- ions of nature as made manifest in the constitution, physiological relations, etc., in the construction of man and animals. What was said of opium applies in like manner with regard to all poisons, and hence we see that the tissues and organs which perform an animal function - in contradistinction to the vegetative - have posted in front of them a picket line of guards to pro- tect them from the enemy, even though they should be cut off from their base of supply for the time being. Now, the only matter which can establish a line of demarkation, which can throw up a dyke between the mortifying and the comparatively healthy tissue, is liv- ing matter. And it is this matter that constitutes the active agents in eliminative inflammatory process, and subsequently repairs the injury after the glands have been cast out - if repair be effected at all. Statistics will show that just in proportion as a poisonous and deplet- ing course of treatment has been modified by a course approximating more and more closely to a more rational system of practice the death rate has been diminished. You only need to consult such works as Flint's Theory and Practice of Medicine to obtain un- disputed evidence of this fact. This shows that many deaths under the older course of management were directly attributable to the poisons and starvation in- flicted upon the patients by their physicians, or mur- derers, more properly speaking, Thousands still die annually from the use of alcoholics and other poisonous INFLAMMATION. 411 drugs, according to Dr. Davis of Chicago, who might recover if left wholly to the professional care of Dr. N. Bioplasm ; and thousands more if his Divinely commis- sioned work was supplemented by a proper course of sanative treatment. It is useless to ask - Which constitutes the disease here, for, in addition to the above facts, those advocat- ing the doctrine which is the foundation of a poisonous therapeutics, confess the falsity of a proposition in the statement that the disease must run its course, that is, nature must accomplish the cure, if recovery takes place ; and yet, forsooth, they claim the honor when the patient gets well, and give the credit to Providence or Dr. Bioplasm - if you prefer - if the patient dies. Why must typhoid fever run its course ? Of all internal inflammatory difficulties this is one of which there should be the least trouble to get at with your bioplasm killers, without endangering the life of those you do not wish specially to kill with your poisons; then in the name of science why must typhoid fever patients lose the benefit (?) of your infallible skill and judgment as to the proper choice and amount of the poison to effect increased destruction of "the too rapid growth of the living or germinal matter ? " Is it because these pa- tients are already on the verge of the grave from the effects of "an over-dose" of a poison you did not "skillfully administer" that endangers the giving of remedial poisons by licensed regulars ? Strange inconsistency! Nevertheless, they dishonor their own pretensions, to the serious injury of the pa- tients' chances of recovery, by dosing them first with one poisonous agent and then another and another, thus not only counteracting the curative efforts of the vis medicatrix natures, but by actually killing the workmen engaged in this and other necessary processes and ren- 412 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. dering a curable case, perhaps, incurable. They are honest in so far as regards the pretended purpose for which these agents are ostensibly given; namely, "To guard against complications," - that is, to guard against an indefinite something that only exists in the prolific imagination of the prescriber; and consequently the treatment will be vacillating and uncertain in the choice of drugs just in proportion to the imaginative capacity of the author of said treatment-and complications are almost sure to follow, not precede, their course, for mark you well, the anticipated complication is always vital in character - pneumonitis, or some such complication- which, when it actually comes in the wake of their dos- ing, pans out a congestion instead thereof, and death closes this part of the scene. Now, taking into consideration the seat and nature of the pathological condition constituting enteric fever, the poisonous character of the causative influence and its probable source and frequent repetition of doses, to- gether with the specific nutritive and elaborative char- acter of the function of the bioplasts directly and im- mediatly affected by this poison, as well as by all other poisons to a greater or less degree, and the great army of bioplasts which must depend upon the completed work of these vegetative bioplasts, as the main body of an army depends upon its base of supplies for pabulum over and above what little it may have with it in addi- tion to that which may be obtained by foraging, I ask, is there a man or woman of ordinary intelligence living today but that can give a clear and logical reason for every symptomatic phenomenon, from the most obscure to the most prominent, of a case of typhoid fever ? Where are the bioplasts to demand and assimilate the proximate compounds ? Many of them killed; hence defective or no appetite. Where, then are the substan- INFLAMMATION. 413 ces out of which to elaborate blood-plasm ? They must be found mainly in the disintegrating products of the formed material of the muscle, cells, etc., if found at all, since the above source of normal supply is abolished for the time being, at least. How can you have a free secretion of gastric juice, etc., without pabulum to nour- ish bioplasm out of which to construct formed material out of which to obtain gastric juice, etc., by the disinte- gration of its substance through the heat evolved in bioplastic growth and formative change ? The secre- tions and excretions being greatly diminished or sus- pended explains the retention of heat and the gradually augmenting temperature. And thus we might continue to show the causative influence operating to produce every symptom, even to the sordes on the lips and teeth. Do this, and then ask your own better self if "Our best remedies are the most virulent poisons?" We have tested the influence of a large number of Physio-Medical remedies under the microscope and found them entirely free from destructive properties. We are able to observe the precise influence of each agent and each class of agents upon living matter in this way, and consequently are not required to adopt the provings or cut and try rule that is so much in vogue with other schools of medicine, and which is not scientific but empyrical. Under the influence of cap- sicum, ginger, xanthoxylum, and all other agents belong- ing to this particular class, but more especially the first named, the living matters seemed to be endowed with an increase of vital energy, so that their movements be- came more and more vigorous until their internal gran- ular commotion, and in the case of naked bioplasts their external transfigurations, were almost /tumultuous, and this active state was maintained for hours (five to six) under the influence of a drop of the strongest decoction 414 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of capsicum that could be made - added to a drop of blood, pus, etc., and in no instance was the stimulating effect followed by a depreciation of vital movements, vigor, or bioplastic integrity below the normal after the agent had become exhausted in strength or virtue. These statements can be put to the most rigid test by any experienced microscopist, and I pledge my honor as a man and a Christian that in no instance will there be any failure to witness the results above recorded from the use of these pure stimulants - providing due care be observed to maintain the temperature at or near the normal of the human body when human bioplasm is be- ing experimented with, nor will there be any depression below the normal following their use, as always happens when the falsely so-called alcoholic and other narcotic stimulants (depressants) are used. The calling of such agents •'stimulants," however, is but another instance of the natural tendency of the "regulars" to reverse the natural order of nature and call black white, and good bad, and vice versa. They condemn Lobelia because it is "a vile poison," and de- nominate opium the great " Magnum Dei Bonum," with which they slay their thousands annually. They have willfully and maliciously falsified the records of courts of justice in their insane desire to traduce the charac- ter of Lobelia and its first and warmest human friend, and they have told lies enough about it to damn the whole regular fraternity, and yet when a drop of the very strongest decoction that could possibly be made was applied to a drop of human blood, a drop of pus, of mucus, etc., also to the blood of the frog and other cold-blooded animals, it absolutely refused to kill a single particle of bioplasm of any kind, notwithstanding the fact that we kept them under its "poisonous" in- fluence for many hours at a time. It flattened them INFLAMMATION. 415 out terribly, I must confess, and the sight would have scared "regulars" into fits - assinine frolics - no doubt, but with us it was the bioplasm that seemed to be in the "alarm"-not the experimenters, if you please. They came out of the "alarm" beautifully every time, "and don't you forget it," and Bro. Ellis and myself felt in the inmost recesses of our hearts and brains that the man who believed any proposition laid down by a regular poison-giver without submitting it first to experimental research was very much like the foolish virgins, no oil in their lamps. Phytolacca dec. causes the naked bioplasm with which it comes in contact to assume a densely spherical form, and to thus remain for hours. The normal condition of naked living matter is a constantly changing state of transfiguration, but when they cease to be nourished, even temporarily, from any cause whatever short of death, they become spherical in form. If dead they cannot possibly change their status in any way, shape or form whatever; nevertheless, when we first observed the phenomenon, we said: "Oh, thou thief that stealest the life of our being away," etc., but subse- quently Prof. Davidson very wisely suggested that a dose of capsicum was "a rouser of the first magni- tude," and perhaps they do "but sleepeth " - try its magical powers on them. It was done, and presto'. they quit "possuming" immediately or sooner. No, phytolacca does not kill bioplasm, but it makes them shut up their ' nutritive aspirations in threatened mam- mary abscess most beautifully. Under the influence of solidago, lycopus, hydrastis, sanguinaria, and the astringent class of agents also, the living particles became more dense on their outer sur- face, and many of them ultimately undergoing forma- tive change. The change was in all particulars in per- 416 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. feet accord with that which occurs in the natural pro- cess of tissue formation, so far as wTe could determine with a power of eight-hundred diameters, and the fact that internal granular movements continue after such change had been effected in their outer substance proves conclusively that these agents are non-poisonous. Now, let us draw a comparison between the only two systems of medical practice that now exist, or ever did or can exist - the Poisonous system and the Sanative or Non-poisonous system - and see which seems to be most in harmony with the facts of science. We ask you to believe nothing that is not susceptible of actual demon- stration, or else necessarily, essentially and logically deducible from such demonstrable premises. And let me say that if you have even the honesty of the evil spirits, you will confess the truth, for they con- fessed that Jesus was the Christ. Suppose we take the first condition treated of, since it was under considera- tion at the time Dr. Beale gave to the world the best and most plausible proposition ever offered by man for the use of poisons as remedial agencies. I ask first, if the poison, on reaching the kidneys, will not come in contact primarily or first with the bioplasm lining the basement membrane of the tubules, killing it, even though the dose be ever so small, providing it is large enough to not have become exhausted previous to reaching this point ? And if that were the case, then it were useless to give it for the purpose theoretically in- tended. Well, if it kills the bioplasm lining the base- ment membrane, then whence will you obtain bioplasm competent to generate new epithelial cells to rehabili- tate the tubules with their only specific functional ele- ments ? You confess that it is through the specific agency of these cells that the "specialized function" of these organs is affected. Do you not, therefore, in kill- R-26 INFLAMMATION. 417 ing these bioplasts, subject the entire organism to the deleterious influence of the retained excrementitious mat- ters, and at the same time provide for the supervention of the fibroid condition of the organs just so soon as the mass within the tubules can be forced out by the accumulating water above ? They know and have already confessed that such is the result following in the wake of these poisons, and the microscopical examination of the urine from day to day, and of the kidneys after having been subjected to such a course, proves the fact beyond the possibility of doubt. Yes, they taint every drop of blood circulating through the entire economy with their destructive agents, and convert a condition which was easily cura- ble into a most fatal malady, as is evinced by the fact that all the leading authorities, as well as the lesser lights who advocate such a course, boldly assert that Bright's disease - so-called - is incurable. This may be true, and is, of some forms of Bright's disease, but it is not true of inflammation of the kidneys, and Their pois- ons are responsible for the great majority of the incur- able cases. They are so wedded to their insane pois- onous fallacy as to be utterly blinded to the necessity of enquiring into the real specific causation of such a rapid increase of the living or germinal matter, and then diverting such excess of pabulum to its normal channels when it has been forced from them. No, on the contrary, they seem to be filled with unutterable joy on discovering such a superficially apparent scientific demand for the services of a destroyer of human life, and at it they go with the disposition of a hungry cat or a ravenous dog - growling at one even created in the image of his1 maker should he manifest a disposition to look on "a leetle." Physio-Medicalism teaches that the cutaneous function 418 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. should be restored by diverting the blood to its normal channels, when this is the source of the excess of nutrient supply to the renal bioplasts. And to do this, it teaches us to stimulate the cutaneous bioplasts to in- creased nutritive activity so as to create a vis a fronte, since it would be useless to have the blood there with- out the conditions necessary to get the substances out of it which should be eliminated. Ginger will stimulate them. But stimulation will be difficult to effect without the muscular bioplasts of the vessels are relaxed so that the blood can freely flow through the vessels of the part. Asclepias will relax, and will not kill. The renal blood-vessels will likely have become embryonal ere you are called to administer to the case. They will then need the influence of such agents as helonias, solidago, uva ursi, etc., to induce formative change, so that they may regain their power of contractility and their normal tonicity as speedily as possible, thus en- abling them on the one hand to reduce their calibre, and on the other hand rendering the capillaries less permeable to the blood substances. The influence of this latter class of agents, together with the pure astringents, are absolutely necessary to the cure of the chronic catarrhal troubles to which the nasal, laryngial, cystic, vaginal, and other such mucous surfaces are so prone, because of their environments-rendering natural mechanical pressure impossible to be secured to divert the blood to other channels after embryotic change has supervened, and the growing bioplasm still drawing upon the vessels for an over-plus of pabulum -not be- ing needed any longer since the injured cells have long . since been provided for by the increased growth of bio- plasm. To use carbolic acid, iodine, etc., is to kill these bioplasts, and thus create a demand for more bio- plasm with which to restore the lost tissue, and. also to INFLAMMATION. 419 actually bring about the only possible condition that can produce inflammation - an excess of pabulum to the contiguous bioplasm, - if any such be left, and if not, your patient is rendered absolutely incurable for all time to come. The thing to do is to use such agents as will condense the superficial elements, favor a forma- tive change in the epithelial and muscular bioplasts, thicken and condense the walls of the vessels, and in every proper way strive to divert the blood to other channels. Don't kill any part of the bioplasm, and thus create an actual necessity for increased nutritive activ- ity, and at the same time provide for it by diverting the pabulum going to nourish those you killed to those remaining contiguous thereto, if such there be left. But these agents are very much like poisons after all, in one respect, namely ; they will exert the same in- fluence respectively, whether their therapeutic effects are indicated or not, and hence, it is very essential that we have an accurate knowledge of the histology, the histological physiology, the pathological histology of man, and the therapeutical value of our remedies, if we would be called scientific in practice, and not empyrical. With the facilities at our command, there need be but little difficulty in obtaining this knowledge, and hence, the therapeutical measures instituted, can and should be just as truly scientific as is the practice of chemistry or even mathematics. The chemist may be ignorant of the general principles or leading truths relating to this subject, and consequently fail to obtain satisfactory re- sults in many instances - some of his anticipations be- ing obviously incompatible with the laws of chemistry, and the result necessarily fatal to his hopes. But chemistry is no less a science because an ignorant pre- tender misapplied his energies in trying to obtain he- patic formed material, or its disintegrated product - 420 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. bile - from bichloride of mercury. Neither is medicine, when founded upon general principles or leading truths relating to physiology, pathology, and therapeutics, ren- dered unscientific by the failure of one or any number of its votaries to apply remedial agencies in conformity with these laws and principles, nor by any number of failures to cure incurable cases. We conclude, there- fore, that medicine as taught and practiced by those who resort to the use of poisons, under the mistaken idea that disease "consists essentially, and in the ma- jority of cases, of a too rapid increase of the living or germinal matter," or in harmony with any other pre- conceived notions and opinions of like import, is erron- eous, unutterably pernicious, eminently destructive, and, in the language of Prof. Chapman of the "regular" school: "Horrible, unwarrantable, murderous quackery." But medicine, as taught and practiced by the well in- formed and truly conscientious Physio-Medicalist, is justly entitled to rank first among the sciences. * For it is a system of medicine founded strictly upon the laws of Biology and Physiology, and which, therefore, recognizes the inalienable rights of the architects and defenders of our bodies to our protection and assistance, and obeys the divine injunction-" Let the dead bury their dead." It is a system of medicine that does not inculcate the foolish and utterly absurd doctrine that the best means of preserving co-ordinate vitality is to kill the units of which the former is the aggregate re- sult and co-ordinated expression. It is a system of * The time has fully come, In my opinion, when the name - " Physio-Medical School of Medicine " should be merged into the more euphonious and literally correct expres- sionScientific System of Medicine/' ' College of Scientific Medicine," "Journal of Scientific Medicine," etc. " Medicine in harmony with the Laws of Nature " is synon- ymous with Scientific Medicine, and it is therefore eminently proper that we thus de- nominate our System in contradistinction to all Toxadmlnlstratlve schools of practice, and which are "regular" transgressions of Natural Law as regards remedial pur- poses, and make no claim of being scientific. It is far better to be Scientific than to be "regular." INFLAMMATION. 421 medicine that inculcates the doctrine of Biogenesis - '•Life only from life" - as now recognized and advo- cated' by all educated men of every school, and also the fact that it is the source of every cell, tissue and organ in the universe of the organic kingdom, and therefore rejects the doctrine that requires that we kill these lit- tle workmen in order to secure the restoration of lost structure or the reparation of an injury. CHAPTER VII. DISEASE GERMS:-THEIR NATURE, ORIGIN, AND THE BEST MEANS OF COUNTERACTING THEIR DES- TRUCTIVE INFLUENCE. It is a matter of common observation that amongst the most fatal forms of disease to which the human family and the higher animals are subject are those which are denominated contagious or infectious. We learn from the health statistics of England and Wales, that out of a then existing population of about 22,000-, 000 souls, upwards of 111,000 die annually from the so- called zymotic diseases alone. The total deaths from all causes are stated at a little less than 500,000 souls annually, and yet scarlet fever alone is said to average about 18,000 victims per annum; and, not unfrequently, the mortality due to the ravages of these germs alone, or the combined influence of the germs and the thera- peutical measures instituted to effect a cure, has reached the comparatively enormous sum of 30,000 human beings in one single year. If to this presentation be added those who die annually from tuberculosis, syphilis, can- cer, epithelioma, and allied difficulties, which I shall en- deavor to show are due to similar causes, the aggregate mortality from the destructive ravages of disease germs alone will closely approximate, if it does not act- ually exceed 200.000 individuals annually, being two- fifths of the total number of deaths from all causes given in the above table of statistics. I have not the health statistics of other countries at hand, but taking it for granted that the relative pro- portion of deaths from these germs would not differ DISEASE GERMS. 423 materially in the aggregate throughout the entire civil- ized world, we see of what vast importance this subject becomes, not only with reference to their thera- peutical management, but with regard to prophylactic measures also. Indeed, it becomes our imperative duty as professed conservators of the public health, to exert all the energies we possess, together with all the neces- sary means of investigation and research at our com- mand, to ascertain the true nature and origin, and mode of acting, of this material substance which is capable of gaining access to the healthy organism, and of being transmitted from one individual to another previously free from such germs, and whose ravages man has shown himself so almost wholly incompetent to stay, and the fatality which is almost as great amongst the cleanly as it is amongst those who live in filth and squalor ; for it is only through the possession of such essential knowledge that we can ever hope to successfully com- bat their onward march in the work of death to the race of man. Dr. Beale, of whom I can truthfully say, I do not be- lieve a more able or competent microscopist now lives or ever did live in the history of the world, says: "Of all the poisons which cause the death of man, the most subtile and the most difficult to isolate and investigate are those which give rise to certain forms of disease which spread from person to person." The truth of this statement will be quite apparent when we come to realize the fact that the contagious particles are act- ually composed of naked living germinal matter - bio- plasm, pure and simple - for it can be demonstrated be- yond successful contradiction that they grow and multi- ply as bioplasm alone can grow and multiply, that they move as naked living matter alone can move, that they increase at the expense of nutrient materials in the very 424 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. same manner peculiar to all other kinds of living mat- ter, changing that which does not resemble them in the least in physical properties or organic composition into their own unique substance which is universally the same; that, in other words, it is simply impossible to distinguish or differentiate the substance of these dis- ease germs in their naked condition from any other kind of naked living matter, normal or otherwise. It is a favorite view with a large number of medical men, if not indeed with the vast majority of the pro- fession, that microscopic fungi really constitute the matter in question, and some ten years since this con- cept obtained a new impetus in consequence of some supposed discoveries made by Prof. Robert Koch, of Germany, in reference to which he stated that "It was in the highest degree impressive to observe in the cen- ter of the tubercle cell the minute organism which had created it." He did not state, however, the precise modus operand! by and through which this God-like bacillus created the tubercle cell, and hence we were left to adopt the American style of guessing at his meaning for the time being. Subsequently this matter was cleared up to some degree, at least, but of this we will have to deal farther on. It must be admitted that many vegetable germs are so very minute that they could easily obtain entrance into the human organism by way of any of the numerous pores all over our bodies, through the soft mucous covering of the alimentary canal, or even penetrate the delicate capillary walls of the pulmonary alveoli. Indeed, vegetable growths have been found in every part of the economy of man - in the blood, the interstices of the tissues, and even in the very center of old epithelial cells - where they may, and do under cer- tain circumstances, grow and multiply at a rapid rate; nor is this at all strange, since they are constantly to DISEASE GERMS. 425 be found in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and in the food we eat. Surely no one need think this remarkable, when we consider the fact that living beings, a thousand times larger than these, not only find their way into the organism of man, but travel long distances through the tissues and organs of his body, until they reach that particular locality which is most suitable to their nutri- tion, growth and developement into a higher or more perfect stage of existence - as for instance, the trichina spiralis. I have seen these vegetable fungi in immense num- bers in the sputa of consumptives of a very degenerate type, in ichorous pus. in the excretions from those afflicted with dysentery, diarrhoea, and other bowel de- rangements. I have seen myriads upon myriads of bacteria and vibriones in the urine which had been con- veyed directly from the bladder of patients suffering from malignant scarlet fever, and other severe urinary disturbances, into a thoroughly cleansed phial by means of a perfectly clean catheter. I have found them in the decaying particles of food removed from the chinks and crevices of the oral cavity, where they had been grow- ing and multiplying rapidly in consequence of having been richly supplied with pabulum suitable to their nu- tritive capacities, and in one very remarkable case of rupture of the spleen of a young man near Richmond, Ind., in which there was a persistent extravasation of blood into the cavity formed by the rupture until death supervened, thus forming an immense blood-clot, I found the blood during life teeming with these little organisms. Indeed. I have never failed to find them in greater or less numbers, and usually actively increasing, in every decomposing organic substance in which oxygen and 426 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. moisture were present, in all the numerous examinations thus far made by me; and I doubt not that in every in- stance in which they are found actively growing and multiplying, and, in fact, I might say with equal pro- priety perhaps, in every case in which they are found in any considerable numbers, whether within or with- out the living animal body, their presence is invariably due to prior morbid changes of a completely destructive character of the previously existing organic compounds, thus providing them with pabulum adapted to their nu- tritive capacities. They have been detected in the lacteal fluid as it is- sued from the breast, in the saliva, the bile, the urine, in the blood -in "an aneurismal clot so very short a time after death that I | Dr. Beale] feel quite certain they had been living upon the coagulated fibrin, and growing and multiplying during several weeks pre- viously, and yet they had not passed into the general mass of the blood.'' Dr. Beale also states that "In many very different forms of disease these germs of bacteria and vibriones, and probably of many fungi, are to be discovered in the fluids of the body, but the evi- dence yet adduced does not establish any connection be- tween the germs and the morbid process." I think this latter part of his statement is evidently a mistake, and I base this opinion in part upon the fact that when putrefaction has actually set in in the dead human body, and bacteria germs are being developed in immense numbers, a punctured wound is not productive of the dire consequences which too often results from dissection wounds if inflicted soon after death has supervened - in other words, before the vegetable germs appear the virus, or whatever you may please to call it, is poten- tially present; their growth and multiplication at the expense of this substance more or less rapidly exhausts DISEASE GERMS. 427 it and thus renders such wounds harmless when inflicted subsequently. In an editorial in the August number of the Physio- Medical Journal, 1882, I stated that "Some microscopic in- vestigator has recently discovered that the blood of man is literally teeming with micrococci in cases of malignant scarlatina, while in mild cases none are found. He states that these minute vegetable organisms actually get into the white blood corpuscles, causing them to burst and disappear as pabulum for the micrococci. We are so stupid that we cannot understand how a semi- fluid substance, destitute of a wTall or limiting membrane, can 'burst,' and yet we dafe not dispute the statement since it is offered in support of the views expressed by the great German investigator. It strikes us, however, that the absence of micrococci in non malignant cases of this disease is strong presumptive evidence, at least, that scarlatina is not due to the presence of vegetable germs, (since he positively stated that he failed to find them in this class of cases. ) And it seems equally evident that these germs are found in malignant cases in consequence of prior morbid conditions which render the fluids, and perhaps the solids of the infected body pabulum suitable for their rapid growth and multiplica- tion. Micrococci may be found in the excretions of man. and even in the ' chinks and crevices ' of his tis- sues from early infancy, throughout the entire period of life until old age, and no disturbance in function or lesion of structure specially result therefrom. It is very evident, therefore, that these difficulties have their cau- sation in something else than vegetable germs. "This representative allopathic writer, wThose name I have forgotten, states that his malignant cases all died under the usual course of treatment, viz., digitalis, aco- nite, veratrum, etc., but when these things were left off, and alcohol used instead, some recoveries were made.' 428 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. "We might adduce a great deal more evidence having a like import, but that which has already been stated is sufficient to fully show that these vegetable germs may and do live for even months in the tissues of the human organism in a perfectly quiescent state so long as these tissues are not the seat of regressive changes of an organically destructive character, but that when organic decomposition actually takes place they at once commence to grow and multiply rapidly at the expense of these noxious and deleterious substances, and thus truly become the conservators of the animal economy, and, in'deed, of the general public health. No one has yet succeeded in producing" any form of contagious or other germinal form of disease by the introduction of uncontaminated vegetable germs of any kind whatso- ever ; and there does not exist today one iota of good reliable evidence to show that they have any tendency whatever to derange the health of man or beast by vir- tue of their mechanical presence even, much less by virtue of any other influence whatsoever, except that due to the decomposed organic substances which con- stitute their proper and indispensible pabulum, and which in experimental inocculations is not usually iso- lated from them, as it should be in order to attain any definite and reliable data upon which to base their de- ductions. "Being assured, then, that these vegetable germs have been discovered by numerous microscopical investigators in every part of the human economy, in both a state of comparatively good health as well as in the most malig- nant forms of disease, and that their dormant condition coincides with that of the germ of wheat in the garner, and their actively growing and multiplying condition with that of the germ of wheat in its developmental state, should we not regard them more in the light of DISEASE GERMS. 429 angels of mercy administering to the welfare of the hu- man family in the person or the individual in whom disease has gained the victory over his own tissues, and in rendering harmless decomposing organic substances outside our own bodies '? " An article from my pen was published in the Indian- apolis Daily Sentinal, May 18, 1882, under the caption "Tubercular Disease; A Criticism on Professor Tyn- dall's Recent Letter on Dr. Koch's Theory of the Transmission of Infectious Diseases." I therein stated that "This is a subject of such great importance as to demand our most earnest and careful consideration ; nevertheless, Professor John Tyndall, and I know not how many smaller lights, hastened to en- dorse the views set forth by Dr. Koch relative to this subject on grounds, I fear, which are very imperfect and one-sided. "While I fully believe in the existence of disease-pro- ducing k germs of specific origin and powers, and am aware of the fact that they may, in many instances, be cultivated outside the animal organism, observation, re- search and authority convince me that they are essen- tially different in character from those innocent bacteria, bacilli and allied organisms which Prof. Tyndall as serted years since were the prime factors in the pro- duction of many grave maladies, and advised the use of cotton-wool respirators to prevent their access to the lungs. If we subject freshly drawn small-pox or vac- cine virus to examination under the higher powers of the microscope, we find innumerable particles of living matter having neither form, color, nor structure. We know that it is living because it is possessed of inherent powers whereby it is enabled to move in all parts and in all directions at the same moment, is able to convert other materials into its own substance, and endow them 430 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. with its own wonderful properties. It may undergo condensation in its outer part, and produce a cell, thereby limiting the movements of the living matter which is always found inside the outer non-living formed material. If we introduce this freshly drawn virus into the human body it will grow and multiply rapidly, just in proportion to the number and vigor of the germs present on the one hand, and the freedom of supply of proper pabulum on the other hand, and thus all the phenomena characteristic of variola or vaccinea will result, just as the case may be. If, however, the virus be set aside for awhile, until the living germs have settled to the bottom of the vessel in which they are contained, and then a portion of the supernatant fluid be injected into the human organism, no such re- sult will take place - the matter will prove perfectly inert so far as any specific influence is. concerned. If this matter is freely exposed to the air it will be found, upon v microscopic examination, teeming with bacteria and allied organisms in the course of twenty-four or forty-eight hours, but entirely devoid of the naked liv- ing particles already described. "The fresh virus contains no such vegetable bodies, nor anything resembling them in the leabt, and hence they cannot be the contagious elements. Again, if the matter which has settled to the bottom of the vessel be exam- ined, it will be found to contain, or rather to consist, almost entirely, of naked germs-constantly undergoing their wonderful and varied changes of form or shape ; and if this matter be injected into the body of man, even in exceedingly minute quantities, the characteristic small-pox will be developed in due time - the pustules containing living germs identical in appearance and in specific vital properties with those experimented with. These particles may be cultivated for long periods of DISEASE GERMS. 431 time without in the least losing their specific disease- producing properties. " I have mounted specimens of tuberculous tissue from different parts of the human body, and find that the fully developed tubercle granulations are made up of three zones, namely ; a central zone which has, by vir- tue of occlusion of the blood-vessels, and consequent loss of nutrition, undergone fatty degeneration or cas- eous metamorphosis, largely if not entirely devoid of life, and hence, of contagious or infectious properties. It is here, however, that the greatest number of ' rod- shaped organisms' are found. Second, a medial zone, in which cellular elements in all stages of development, from that of a mass of bioplasm or living germinal parti- cles surrounded by a very thin wall of formed material, to those which have entirely lost their vital properties and are ready to swell the central zone. As we move away farther and farther from the center of the granulation we come to a point where the circulation of the blood is unrestricted - the peripheral zone - and here it is that we find the actively living, moving, growing, multi- plying, structureless, naked germinal matters, which are the real contagium particles, and which grow and in- crease at the expense of the blood-plasma, and possibly of the tissue elements in part also. Bacilli, etc., may be found in the medial zone, and even in ' the center ' of dead cells, but they are only occasionally found in the peripheral zone as accidental entities. Every recent or incipient tubercle granulation is at first iden- tical in character throughout its entire mass with the peripheral zone of -older granulations, and only loses this character in consequence of nutritive disturbances, thus eventually leaving a condition of substance which is known to be highly favorable to the growth and multiplication of bacteria, bacilli, etc. It is a self-evi- 432 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. dent fact that tubercles grow at the periphera, but never at the cheesy center. It is equally a self-evident fact that a living germ enclosed in a cell-wall cannot ap- propriate formed materials-such as the tissue elements --but must rely wholly upon fluid pabulum which can find entrance through such wall. But naked bioplasts, being the same in every part, can by mere contact con- vert the. structures of our bodies into their own sub- stance. This is precisely what happens in tuberculosis, cancer, sarcoma, etc. [The last proposition is, I am now thoroughly con- vinced, wholly incorrect, since vital energy is not in any sense a disintegrative energy, otherwise, having the very elements suitable for its own proper pabulum in the very constitution of its cell-wall, it would most assuredly reconvert this into its own substance on the withdrawal or diminution of fluid pabulum with which to nourish it. The amount of vital energy previously engaged in integrating pabulum, would on the restriction of this supply, have nothing to act upon other than to still farther condense the existing bioplasm on the one hand, or else disintegrate and then re-integrate the formed material nearest the center of the cell, and upon which the over-plus of vital energy is already in possession - condensing it. See Chapter II. I was led into this er- ror by the teachings of Beale and others, and am very confident it is a gross mistake. ] "I have examined the sputum of a number of con- sumpted patients, and thus far have not failed in a sin- gle instance to discover these naked germs. Bacilli were, by no means, always present, and certainly the powers used would have discovered them had they ex- isted, since the very same powers did show them in some of the specimens of sputa thus examined. I have found these naked tubercle germs after the sputum had R-27 DISEASE GERMS. 433 stood for four days in a dirty spittoon - tobacco-soaked at that - and at a time when innumerable bacteria, etc., were present; and having thus shown their vital resis- tive powers under such adverse circumstances, we must conclude that these particles of animal bioplasm may live even in the glycerine cultures made by Koch, and be transmitted along with the other elements contained therein to the body of the inocculated individual with- out losing any of their specific vital powers. '•Bacteria, bacilli, etc., are made responsible for too many distinct difficulties, and are found under too many different circumstances to justify any such inference as that advocated by Pasteur and others, and endorsed by Tyndall, Koch and the entire host of bacteriologists, even if there did not exist much stronger evidence against such a view, which there does. It is claimed, however, that there is a large variety of these organ- isms, and that this fact will account for their presence under so many different circumstances. They are com- pletely organized bodies, and hence, if a great many species really do exist, they must certainly have pecu- liar characteristics whereby they can be differentiated. The fact that only a very few species have been seen and described thus far, and that they are almost invar- iably found associated together in the same morbid con- dition, is presumptive evidence that there are but few species, and that they are not the causation of the in- fectious disorders to which man is heir. Dr. Koch, fully realizing the importance of this fact, and feeling that something must be done soon if he would maintain his hold on the Government teat, makes the startling an- nouncement that he has discovered a 'rod-shaped or- ganism,' as the cause of tuberculosis, and says: 'It was in the highest degree impressive to observe in the center of the tubercle cell the minute organism which 434 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. had created it.' This would give us a new and remark- .ably anomalous species, were the wdiole statement true. It is by no means uncommon to find a smaller within a larger organism, but it is contrary to every known law of generation and to the facts of universal observation to ascribe the existence of the latter to the procreative powers of the former. It would be a startling state- ment if an individual should announce the discovery of a tape-wTorm in the center of a human organism and then assert that the former had created the latter. It seems to me that no one who has any regard for the facts of analogy would pretend that the tubercle cell did not previously exist as such, or potentially in the form of naked living matter, and that your 'rod-shaped' bacillus became englobed in the latter, or subsequently gained entrance in some way or other into the center of the cell, somewhat after the manner of the embryotic tape worm. We must conclude, therefore, that Dr. Koch was rather hasty in adopting the view that the bacillus in the center of the tubercle cell was actually the pro- genitor of such cell. Such ill advised statements as this reflect discredit upon his 'penetration, skill and thoroughness " as an experimental investigator in the field of biology and histology, beset as they are with so many difficulties. The tubercle cell was there, and in order to give the vegetable germ theory, which he had espoused, even the semblance of truth, he could do noth- ing more nor less than to assert that the bacillus created it. It wTas there, and something must have produced it. It wTas there, and its animal character showTs as nothing else can show that naked living animal bioplasm pro- duced it. It was there primarily as naked living bioplasm, and while in this state it englobed the bacillus, just as an amoeba often englobes one or more diatomes, and it was found there by him for the very same reason that DISEASE GERMS. 435 we often thus find diatomes in the substance of amoeba hours after they have englobed them, simply because they could not be disintegrated at the temperature of the body in which they existed, and could not be used as pabulum, perhaps, even if thus disintegrated." This was the first and only adverse criticism of Koch's theory with reference to the causation of tuber- culosis, from the time it was first promulgated until about the time the " tuberculine " excitement was at its acme, so far as I have any knowledge, and I tried to obtain all the information possible relative to the mat- ter. I believe at the time that he really intended to in- culcate the idea that the bacillus was the progenitor or builder of the tubercle cell; and shall here quote one or two eminent writers and representative members of the allopathic wing of the medical profession to show' that this view' was in harmony with the general con- sensus of the profession. C. Falkenhorst, of Germany, says : "To the question, Are the bacilli killed by the treatment ? the answer is, no! The tissue they have woven and in w'hich they reside is destroyed, and the patient has now to get rid of it. In so doing, he gets rid of the bacilli also. * * * Robert Koch has struck out a new path for himself, and, by patient, scientific labor, achieved triumphs w'hich will render his name illustrious. The various disease germs are of kindred race, and may be combatted with similar weapons. The veil has been lifted from those terrible scourges of humanity - the epidemic diseases - disclosing the human frame as a bat- tle-field in w'hich the animal germs keep watch and ward, and do lusty battle to avert or arrest the inroads of the plant germs, the bacteria. Science has now7 taken part in the struggle, and the triumphs achieved by Robert Koch over one of these insidious foes appear 436 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. only to have guided us to the threshold of a new era." The Literary Digest, Feb. 14, 1891. I trust, in view of more recent developements, that science will have introduced a new era indeed, in which the medical profession will exercise their mental facul- ties more and their imaginative powers of mind less, in the search after truth. But what is the standing of Robert Koch with the medical profession on this great question ? The Cultus Minister, V. Gossler, said in his great speech on the Interpellation upon the Koch matter in the Prussian Congress: "Our German clinics have in our native and in foreign lands the reputation that they do not lie, but that whatever has been published by them has been thoroughly recognized and investigated. One is accustomed to exactly discover in their publication where observation of facts exceeds speculation ; for a commingling of speculation and exact research must never occur in one clinical publication in such manner that any well-informed man may not easily separate these elements."* "The tissue they have woven and in which they reside," then, is in harmony with what has been pub- lished by Koch, after having been thoroughly recognized and investigated by him ? If so, then he found "in the center of" every "tuber- cle cell the minute organism which had created it." And if he did not find every individual cell so consti- tuted, then he mixed up his facts and his speculation in one clinical publication very badly. "In the first place the medical profession fully and freely trust Koch (just as our patients trust us) on the ground that he is fitted for the work by his training and his personal character." [God pity both the medical pro- fession and their poor, deluded patients.] "Can the med- * The Dietetic Gazette, New York, January, 1891. DISEASE GERMS. 437 ical world demand a more lofty, a more secure guar- antee of good faith than the encomiums spontaneously rendered to Koch before the representative men of his own nation, assembled as a legislative body ?" * And it is upon just such flimsy scientific pretentions and eulogistic flights of fancy as the above that this school of medicine attempts to foist into general favor a sim- ilia similibus curanter preparation in allopathic quantities, with the curanter a farce in the very nature of things. In the Literary Digest we find the following; "It has long been known that diphtheria is an infectious dis- ease, and its origin has been attributed to bacteria; but among the innumerable species which inhabit the mouth and throat, the isolation of the diphtheria germ was a work of considerable difficulty. Dr. Loftier, of Berlin, got on the right track in 1884, and followed it up until he secured satisfactory evidence that he had found the creature he was in search of. The diphtheria bacillus is about the same length as the tubercle bacillus, but twice as broad. * * * Loftier has, moreover, demon- strated the existence of infectious bacilli in the mouth and throat of the patient, as late as three weeks after the disappearance of the fever;" which in connection with that which immediately follows indicates very clearly that diphtheria is not due to the presence of the bacilli. "The Loftier bacillus is peculiar to man. Diseases of the throat of birds and animals, which have been re- garded as diphtheria, are due to other causes." Birds live partially at the expense of such vegetable organ- isms, no. doubt, hence their absence. But to continue : "Bacteria, as is well known, flourish by the decomposi- tion of the substance on which they subsist, precisely as yeast decomposes grape sugar into alcohol and car- bonic acid." - Feb. 14, 1891. * Tlie Dietetic Gazette, New York, January, 1891. 438 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. These few and partial quotations will clearly indicate the status of this subject up to the beginning of the pres- ent year, soon after which a remarkable subsidence of the wide-spread and somewhat peurile excitement took place, for reasons familiar to all. I suppose the great majority of the medical profession, if not all, are in possession of Koch's own personal communication rela- tive to his treatment for tuberculosis, and hence I need but to quote a single paragraph to get before the reader the particular point I wish especially to discuss, without any risk of being charged with misrepresent- ing him, and his endorsers. He says: "In what way this process of cure occurs cannot as yet be stated with certainty, as the necessary histological investigations are not complete ; but this much is certain, that there is no question of a destruc- tion of the tubercle bacilli in the tissues, but only that the tissue inclosing the tubercle bacilli is affected by the remedy. Beyond this there is, as is shown by the visible swelling and redness, considerable disturbance of the circulation, and, evidently, in connection therewith, deeply-seated changes in its nutrition, which causes the tissue to die more or less quickly and deeply, according to the extent of the action of the remedy. To recapitu- late, the remedy does not kill the tubercle bacilli but the tuberculous tissue, and this gives us clearly and definitely the limit that bounds the action of the rem- edy."- Extra Edition, Medical News. The first point I wish to notice in this connection is, that he clearly represents two kinds of organic exist- ences in a tubercle granulation, one belonging to the vegetable kingdom and the other presumably belonging to the animal kingdom, and that both are living prior to the destructive action of the remedy. It must, indeed, have been "in the highest degree im- DISEASE GERMS. 439 pressive to observe in the center of the tubercle cell the minute organism which had created it," owing to the rarity of such relative positions obtaining. If the bacilli actually did create the tubercle cell, how comes it that the remedy kills the living product of these tu- bercular bacilli, and does not kill the bacilli themselves? The extreme pertinancy of this question will be the more apparent when we take into consideration the manner in which the living tuberculous tissue was killed. He says: "It can influence living tuberculous tissue only, and has no effect on dead tissue; as, for in- stance, necrotic cheesy masses, necrotic bones, etc., nor has it any effect on tissue made necrotic by the remedy itself. In such masses of dead tissue living tubercle bacilli may possibly still be present," etc. In the name of "Our German clinics," then, did the bacilli create the tubercle cell in which it was so impressively' im- bedded ? or were you commingling speculation with exact research - which "must never occur in one clinical pub- lication in such manner that any w7ell-informed man may not easily separate these elements?" The tubercle cell is an organic body, and must have been produced through the operations peculiar to organic genesis, namely ; pre-existing bioplasm growing at the expense of pabulum, producing formed material at the expense of the bioplasm, and if belonging to the animal kingdom the latter disintegrating at the expense of the heat evolved in the two former processes. If the bacilli produced the tubercle cells, then they must have pro- duced them in one of two ways; either in the direct manner just stated, or else they must superinduce a change in the pabulum with which the normal bioplasm of the part thus affected is supplied, and degradation in the latter follow7 as a consequence of such change in the pabulum. If the bacilli created the tubercle cell in 440 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the manner first mentioned, then they are one and the same thing, and all this peurility about killing the one and not the other is but a manifestation of the diseased imagination. If the bacilli produced the tubercle cells in this manner, then they must have produced them at the expense of some kind of proper pabulum, and this pabulum must normally exist in almost every part of the human economy, since tubercle can be produced by inocculation, and is actually found to exist in almost every tissue and- organ of the entire body. This pab- ulum, therefore, must be blood-plasma. If, then, the remedy kills the living tubercle tissue by cutting off its supply of pabulum at the expense of which it LIVES, and Grows and Increases, it must kill the only thing known to science that can thus Live, and Grow and In- crease at the expense of pabulum - the only thing that has life to be destroyed or deposed - Bioplasm. The very fact that the remedy kills the tubercular tissue by effecting coagulation of the blood in the region of such granulations, and where the tendency is already so pro- nounced in this direction, and does not kill the bacilli, proves unmistakably that bacilli are not the direct gen- etic cause of tubercle, and that they either cannot live and grow at the expense of any of the normal sub- stances of the human body, or else that no one but a fool or a knave would administer any kind of a culture of bacilli sub-cutaneously or otherwise - except for the avowed purpose of effecting such changes in the com- position of the nutritive substances as would tend to produce degradation in the normal bioplasm, thus engen- dering tubercle bioplasm - if the second proposition be true. If they can live at the expense of the blood-plasma or other normal constituent of the animal body, and if they do sustain a causative relation of any kind whatsoever DISEASE GERMS. 441 to tuberculous tissue, then the internal administration of these bacilli is synonymous with giving the cause of an effect to destroy the effect - with the great scientific probability that it will act as a causative influence in fields not previously cultivated and exhausted by des- truction of the very Conditions most favorable to their nutrition and growth. The very fact that pure glycer- ine cultures of bacilli - if such there be -does not pro- duce general disseminate tuberculosis when thus admin- istered, is very strong presumptive evidence, at least, that they cannot live and grow at the expense of blood- plasma, on the one hand, and that they sustain no causa- tive relation whatever to tuberculosis on the other hand. In the Chapter on Biogenesis we saw something of the absurdity, inconsistency and specific contradictory char- acter of the fundamental basis of the doctrine of "deg- radation of bioplasm,'' and all the facts and arguments there advanced obtain in all the potency here, which- ever proposition be endorsed. It was shown that con- formity to type was directly dependent upon the inte- grative energy, and not upon the matter constituting the bioplasm per se, since this latter is universally the same. For a vegetable cell like bacilli, or any other kind of cell, to produce tubercle bioplasm, or its forma- tive product, either directly or indirectly, would involve the necessity of first effecting a change in the integra five energy of either the normal bioplasm of such part or of that of the bacilli itself, in order to secure con- formity to a new type. This might be done by a union of the two distinctive energies, possibly ; but in such an event both of the previous forms would have to disap- pear in order to effect this result. Suppose such a thing as this did actually occur, then what would you think of a man or men who would deliberately implant in the human body the elements necessary to attain this result ? 442 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Now. it will be well to take a retrospective view of the relative position these vegetable germs are made to sustain theoretically to our bodies by the different writers, before proceeding to a different line of thought. Micrococci were said to be found in the blood of malig- nant scarlatinal patients, and, notwithstanding the fact that they could not be found in the non-malignant cases, it was forthwith concluded that they were the cause of malignant scarlatina. Ptomain generators, I suppose the writer means, but of this matter he left us in the dark. They were seen within the white blood corpuscles, and were said to have caused these structureless little semi-fluid bodies "to burst" and become scattered to the four corners of the microscopic world. Here again we are left in ignorance as to whether the integrative energy was present in pristine condensing or cohesive power, or absent be- cause of prior morbid conditions of the human body. He failed to tell us whether the corpuscles were caused to burst because of inflammatory swelling of the micro- cocci, owing to a free supply of their special kind of pabulum, or whether they became greatly puffed-up be- cause of their exalted environments, as some doctors do. Of course, if these blood corpuscles had previously lost their vital integrative energy, physical influences would already have come into control of the mass, and would meet with no resistance in effecting the disintegration of the organic combination of molecules, dissipating them and thus reducing them to the very condition in which they pre-existed before they were primarily integrated into vegetable bioplasm. I wonder if it was not at the expense some such discrete molecules (which chemistry had formed before vegetables came into existence per- haps) as these that micrococci lived and grew and in- DISEASE GERMS. 443 creased at the expense of previous to the existence of animal beings on the face of the earth. Let this be as it may, the hypothesis renders these micrococci fear- fully destructive - when complemented by "the usual course of treatment, viz., digitalis, aconite, veratrum, etc.," nevertheless they cannot generate or evolve heat in quantity sufficient to even disintegrate their own outer formed material, much less that of any other substance or kind of substance under the dominion of the vital in- tegrative energy. But even granting that they had the power to disintegrate living or dead white- blood corpuscles, this very suppositious fact would tend to disprove the Koch proposition, since in order for them to sustain a causative relation to any form of con- tagious or infectious difficulty, there would be left nothing living and under the power of their dominion to be changed in formative type or bioplastic capacity ex- cept themselves, and they would have to incorporate the vital energy of the destroyed bioplasts in order to effect such change in formative capacity. Do they thus lose their own individual identity? Oh. no! They are found in the blood, and the bacilli are found - bacteria, cilli, and all - in the necrotic mass even after the living tubercular tissue has been starved to death. Then, again, we must remember that "The Loftier bacillus [which] is peculiar to man." and which is a pot-gutted affair at the best, is only one "among the innumerable species [of bacteria] which inhabit the mouth and throat," and that they all. "as is well-known, flourish by the decomposition of the substance on which they subsist," or, more properly, at the expense of the decomposed substances on which they subsist. Does any one suppose a man can convert his mouth and throat into a regular vegetable menagerie, or a Noah's ark sort 444 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of place, for forty days more or less, without making all necessary provisions for their sustenance and that of their progenc ? What are they all there for, if not for the reason that the necessary pabulum is present at the expense of which they grow and multiply ? Do they effect the decomposition of the substance on which they subsist ? or do they simply subsist upon matter already fully prepared for their nutritive capacities ? If the former be true, then how do they effect such decompo- sition in the first place, and why do they not continue their ravages so long as there is a particle of such structure, susceptible of being thus decomposed, left in a single mouth and throat in the family of man ? This great German philosopher, C. Falkenhorst, and who can- not, therefore, commingle speculation and exact research, says : ' ' Chemistry has also demonstrated that bacteria generate poison. This poison has been produced pure, [thank God] and is capable of inducing some of the symptoms attending the disease caused by the bac- teria which generate it. The poison of the diphtheria bacillus has been isolated by Brieger, as a whitish al- buminous mass, soluble in water, and termed Toxalbu- min. Hypodermic injections of this poison in animals produce symptoms of diphtheria." Is it not "just barely possible" that the bacillus and other forms of bacteria actually live and grow at the expense of this poisonous albuminate, since it has been found to produce symptoms of diphtheria when isolated from the bacil lus ? Let me ask this German who "cannot tell a lie," whether his "exact research" extended far enough to enable him to state positively that bacillus is competent to disintegrate either its own substance or that of the mouth and throat, and thus to produce Toxalbumin ? or was this statement a species of speculation commingled with your exact observation that innumerable species of DISEASE GERMS. 445 bacteria exist in this locality ? How did you find out that this pot-gutted bacteria was the only one in the menagerie that could effect this result? - by exact ob- servation and research, or by a species of speculation ? Is there a German philosopher living today, or that ever has lived on the face of this earth, that has ever seen any kind of vegetable growth whatever attain to a cer- tain size and then maintain such definite size during the remainder of its vital existence through the natural pro- cess of waste and repair as observed in man ? Nay, more, has anyone who "cannot tell a lie" ever seen a naked living bioplast of vegetable origin resulting oth- erwise than by the forcible crushing or rupture of its cell-wall by extrinsic influence ? In other words, has anyone ever seen vegetable growths return to the em- embryonal state in consequence of a "too rapid growth of the living or germinal matter," and the consequent increased evolution of heat ? Did anyone ever see a vegetable bioplast normally in a nude state ? How do you tell us that they grow and multiply -by fission or other division of the cell-wall and contents, or after the manner peculiar to animal bioplasm? There is an abundance of exact research in this direction, and the facts all point in one single direction. Even the cold- blooded animals, and especially the reptilia, do not evolve heat sufficient to disintegrate the outer formed material of the general structures of the body, and hence they continue like the tree to grow larger and larger during vital existence. It even takes them days and days to disintegrate a square meal. What specula- tive nonsense, then, to even talk seriously about bacteria, cilliated or otherwise, having the power to disintegrate the structures of the animal body, or of their own sub- stance, and thus to generate Toxalbumin or other ani- mal ptomains. But this question sinks into comparative 446 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. insignificance relative to the other question involved in the above hypothesis, namely ; how in the name of "exact research" these germs are to evolve heat out of nothing in order to start the disintegrative process upon which decomposed substances they depend for their subsistence ? We find that the micrococci investigator, and the pot- gutted bacillus investigator, are agreed as to the modus operandi of these vegetable germs, and that they differ from Koch, who regards them as tissue constructors, not destroyers. This gives two tails to the vegetable germ-theory kite, and if we can find a third tail we will get our trinity, and a trinity that cannot fly is an "in- nocuous desuetude." "True, M. Pasteur, in 1863, promulgated the theory that animal bodies in health are sealed against micro- scopic organisms, but is it not somewhat difficult to tell exactly just what this'great savant means? Surely a man in 'health' is not sealed against the specific mi- crobe 'syphilitica.' [Not if he monkeys around the premises where the naked living animal bioplast that produces syphilis is entertained, since this condition and extremely filthy habits coexist and cohabitate.J Neither is a man in health sealed against the microbe of small-pox or leprosy. It is a fact well known among medical men that degraded living matter of ordinary nutrition becomes bacteria. That which con- stitutes the bioplasm of nerve nutrition* may, through slight functional perversion, produce the microbe patho- genic of typhoid fever. In fact it is now well known that nearly, if not all, neuroses are the product of de- graded, diverted nutrition, developed in men and women of fair health, whose bodies M. Pasteur would fain have * " Bioplasm of nerve nutrition " is not the same thing as pabulum for nerve bio- plasm. DISEASE GERMS. 447 us believe were 'sealed against microscopic organ isms.'" - J. A. Miller, D. D., M. D., in Medical World, Sept., 1891. Now this man has furnished us the missing link in our search for a theoretical trinity, by having read Beale's statement: "A doctrine asserting that by con- tinual retrogression through ages, the descendants of the highest forms would gradually deteriorate until their only remaining representatives were monads, would not be very easily disproved, and might be supported by many ingenious arguments," and he forthwith tackles the Pasteur bull for a speculative fight, on the supposi- tion that these countless ages have already passed, and that it is a proposition fraught with much ingenious argument and hard to disprove. Poor Miller, when he took his mental grist to the mill he got the bioplastic shorts and nutritive flour badly mixed. No, Doctor, there is no such thing as "That which constitutes the bioplasm of nerve nutrition." Bioplasm is not pabulum while in its living condition, and only becomes such by disinte- gration- when it ceases to be bioplasm, dead or alive. Of course, if it were a mere question of change or deg- radation in pabulum, that may be effected in much less time than Beale assumes would be nececessary in bio- plastic degradation so as to form a monad out of even your brain. Can't you see '? After all, I think tire collateral evidence much the stronger and much more numerous in favor of this last proposition than is the case with reference to Koch's proposition. In other words, I would be more easily convinced by the facts we now possess that a man's brain might become degraded in the course of time to the level of a cabbage head, or even a monad, than that a bacillus could possibly generate a tubercle cell, a small-pox germ, or even a syphilitic bioplast. 448 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Victor C. Vaughan says in Medical News: "Wherever man pollutes the soil about him, the air he breathes, and the water which he drinks with his own excretions, there enteric fever will be found." See Medical World, as above. Now these eliminated excretions are not sealed against the nutritive inroads of the vegetable germs - typhoid bacillus, for example-since they do actually grow and multiply at the expense of such substances, as I know from "exact research," and hence, no more can we seal the animal body by the preservation of health against the ravages of such germs, if there is even the shadow of truth in the vegetable germ theory of disease from anyone of these three standpoints, or from any other standpoint whatsoever. We can truthfully say with M. Pasteur, however. "That animal bodies in health are sealed against microscopic organisms" of vegetable char- acter effecting any injurious results whatever, as also against growth and multiplication in such prganism, but not against their presence entirely in such organism. But just let his food, his secretions and excretions, or any of the fluids, semi-fluids, or solids become organically de- composed, and then they will revel in filth and rot un- til they have grown fat and numerous at the expense of these substances just as the buzzards grow fat at the expense of carrion, and the patient will be never any the worse for their presence. I admit that it would be "somewhat difficult to tell exactly just what this great savant means " in the above enunciation, if these vegetable germs do actually sustain any causative relation whatever to anyone or more of the bodily diseases of man. It would not do for him to seal his mouth and throat against the necessary food and drink we partake of; nor would it do to seal his nostrils against the air we breathe. And even if he R-28 DISEASE GERMS. 449 did, they would still find access to his internal organ- ism through various other channels too numerous to mention. I only wish that the mental bore of the aver- age medical brain was sufficiently large to admit of a moderate sized load of common-sense truth relative to this whole matter being rammed home to the inner end of the breech-pin of intellectual thought and reason. What in the name of science did these pot-gutted diph- theritic bacilli live, grow, and multiply at the expense of before God breathed the breath of lives into Adam's nostrils, I should like to know, if your theory be true ? What was the vegetable world created first for, pray, tell us ? Was it not that it might elevate and inte- grate the inorganic elements into that condition which would tit them for the purposes of animal pabulum ? I think so. All the reported cases of carnivorous plants are of exceedingly doubtful authenticity, and if true would constitute one of the most anomalous freaks in the world of matter. These so-called carnivorous plants are all found indigenous to the torrid zone, where de- composition of animal substances is very rapid after death has supervened, and it is in all probability upon this decomposed matter that such plants are in some degree nourished. So far as any evidence yet furnished of a positive character is concerned, we do not know that they appropriate even the decomposed animal mat- ter as food. All the parasitical plants of which we have any definite knowledge live at the expense of the plant pabulum, and not upon the organic substance of the tree or other organism thus infested. It is in the highest degree probable that the entire vegetable kingdom is wholly nourished at the expense of the in- organic kingdom, and that the entire animal world is wholly nourished at the expense of the proximate prin- 450 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ciples or some one or other of their admixtures. Such evidently being the case universally, and in harmony with the plainest and most profound teachings of Na- ture, we are forced to conclude that there is absolutely not one iota of evidence of a reliably scientific charac- ter in favor of the vegetable germ theory of disease, but that the presence of these little organisms in the animal economy is wholly due to the fact that by virtue of some prior morbid condition, decomposition of some of the organic elements of such body has taken place, and they are present as little microscopic buzzards, liv- ing, growing, and multiplying at the expense of such substances. The next theory with reference to the nature and ori- gin of disease germs, to which I wish to invite your at- tention is, in the language of Dr. Beale, "the doctrine that the germs originate in man's organism, and that they have descended from the normal bioplasm of his body." - Beale on Disease Germs. Indeed this author says: "It is the main object of this work to show that a disease germ is probably a particle of living matter derived by direct descent from the living matter of man's organism." Anyone who is acquained with his work on disease germs, will, I think, see an ulterior object in view, namely the making of a theory (since the vegetable germ theory was so very untenable in his judgment) to conform or harmonize with a poisonous therapeutics. Wishing to do the Doctor no injustice, but rather to give him full credit for the grand conception of his ex- alted imagination, and with a hope of escaping the im- putation of being a disciple of his, as ignorantly charged with being in open convention at Chicago, I shall, even at the risk of being thought tedious, give him the benefit of a clear and comprehensive statement DISEASE GERMS. 451 of his views, and freely commenting upon them as oc- casion may suggest. He says: "It is not probable that disease germs have sprung from insects or animalcules, or any kind of vegetable organism, neither have they originated in the external world and seized upon man, but they have been derived by direct descent from the normal living bioplasm of the organism. They have originated in man, and if man is not indeed responsible for their origin, he has cer- tainly himself imposed the conditions favorable to their production and dissemination. Human intelligence, en- ergy, and self-sacrifice may succeed in extirpating them, and may perhaps discover means of interfering with the origin of new forms not known to exist at this time." I trust this language is sufficiently clear to be com- prehended by every one who has secured the legal right to practice medicine, especially wherein he states that Disease Germs "have been derived by direct descent from the normal living bioplasm of the organism.'" This is a fundamental proposition of his, and upon it must rest or fall the whole superstructure which he may have budded. He does not mean to say that the normal bio- plasm of man or animal has become degraded to the level of a bacteria, a micrococci, or other form of monad, as some Millers were erroneously led to believe by getting the two germ theories mixed. Now, couple this fundamental proposition with: "So far from dis- ease being universally a destructive process, a disinte- gration ; it consists essentially, and in the majority of cases, of a too rapid growth of the [normal] living or germinal matter, of an addition to a part rather than a subtraction from it; and if in many morbid changes increased destruction could be brought about the dis- eased state would cease." 452 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Those who possess Beale on Disease Germs are re- spectively aware of the fact that he consistently advises the use of poisons all through Part III of his work, not only for the purpose of killing these disease germs when present, but also for the purpose of killing the normal living bioplasm lest it should become "a very highly contagious bioplasm." He says on page 414, "The surgeon 'stimulates,' the wound with caustics, and fancies that he 'increases' the 'vitality' of the sur- face just below; the physician pours in brandy, and supposes that he ' increases the vitality' of the affected tissues. But it is easy to prove that by these meas- ures, many cells that were alive are killed, and that those that escape death live and grow more slowly than before. This diminished rate of growth and life is really what is required."* (See Chapters V and VI as to what happens in the contiguous structures when caustics and other destructive measures are made use of, and then ask yourselves whether or not "those that escape death live and grow more slowly than before.") He says on page 257, same work-"In certain forms of erysipelas, purulent ophthalmia, and analogous con- tagious diseases, which sometimes originate in an iso- lated population living under certain conditions adverse to health, it is almost impossible to doubt that the liv- ing germs are developed in the same manner as the virulent pus bioplasts produced in peritonitis from the bioplasm which was once in a normal healthy state. And the same reasoning leads to the inference that the generation of the poison of many contagious diseases, and all contagious fevers, occurs in the same way. It is certain that many cases of blood-poisoning, and var- ious forms of idiopathic fever, depend upon the passage into the blood, and its dissemination through the sys- * The italics are his. DISEASE GERMS. 453 tem of a poisonous bioplasm which has been generated in the body, the virulent bioplasm itself having resulted from the growth and multiplication of generations of particles derived by continuous succession from the nor- mal bioplasm of the organism." And this is the funda- mental basis upon which he consistently advocates the use of poisons, believing that ' ' This diminished rate of growth and life is really what is required." If any such degradation in the normal bioplasm of man's body were even possible, surely no one of ordi- nary intelligence would be so foolish as to suppose such degradation could occur without an adequate cause or actuating impulse. This greatest of living biologists and microscopists freely admits, as was shown in the Chapter on Biogenesis, that there is no difference whatever in the material substance of which bioplasm is composed, aqd that, therefore, all the various differ- ences and shades of difference in vital resistive power, in nutritive capacities, and in all the marvelous and in- numerable differences or shades of difference in form- ative capacity - conformity to type - is essentialhj due to a difference in vital power. This fact alone renders the investigation of the subject of the ORIGIN of disease germs, from this point of view as to their true nature, most difficult of attaining to anything like certainty or definiteness, even with the most careful, conscientious and painstaking scientific investigation and research. Should I place a mass of living bioplasm from a small- pox pustule, and another mass from a syphilitic patient, and another from a cancerous, a tuberculous, or any other form of malignant growth, and with them some of his own normal bioplasm, upon a slide and put it under the microscope, there is not now living a single individ- ual that could possibly tell which was which, or detect any characteristic difference between any two of them ; they are precisely alike in all their ascertainable physi- 454 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. cal and chemical properties. No wonder, then, that Dr. Beale, on dropping his dogmatic style of asserting what he wishes to believe, should be brought to a realizing sense of his duty to the exact truth, and say: "With- out therefore pretending to identify the actual particles of the living bioplasm of every contagious disease, or to be able to distinguish it positively from other forms of bioplasm, healthy and morbid, present in the fluids, on the different free surfaces, and in the tissues in such vast numbers, I think the facts and arguments I have advanced prove - first, that the contagious virus is living and growing matter; secondly, that the particles are not directly descended from any form of germinal mat- ter or bioplasm of the organism of the infected animal, but that they have resulted from the multiplication of particles introduced from without; thirdly, that it is capable of growing and multiplying in the blood ; fourthly, that the particles are so minute that they readily pass through the walls of the capillaries, and multiply freely in the interstices between the tissue ele- ments or epithelial cells ; and lastly, that the particles are capable of living under many different conditions - that they live and grow at the expense of various tis- sue elements, and retain their vitality, although the ger- minal matter of the normal textures after growing and multiplying to a great extent, has ceased to exist." Now I subscribe to every one of these five proposi- tions, and regard them as a truthful presentation of the scientific teachings of "exact research," and while they antedate my own theory of disease germs, they nevertheless constitute the very foundation upon which it is builded. Dr. Beale, however, seems to have quite forgotten the main object of his work on "Dis- ease Germs," and in the language of tbe poet felt: " For here forlorn and lost I tread Among the living and the dead." DISEASE GERMS. 455 It is remarkably strange that a man of his great in- to] lectal attainments, and usually clear discriminative powers of mind, should, in the face of all the facts to the contrary, and of his own honest admission and truthful summing up of the actual facts in the above five propositions, have been led to attribute man's greatest bodily ills to the degradation of his own living matter or bioplasm - matter without which he becomes a prey to the most lowly organisms; organisms which delight in the most loathesome cess-pools of corruption; organ- isms which live and grow on the decomposing matter of his own body, but which are incapable of producing disease; organisms which were designed in fact for his comfort and preservation-Bacteriologists to the con- trary notwithstanding. To recapitulate: He wishes to prove that disease germs have originated in man's organism. He believes that they have been derived by direct descent from the normal living bioplasm of his body. He finds, on sum- ming up "the facts and arguments advanced," that "they have,not directly descended from any form of ger- minal matter or bioplasm of the organism of the in- fected animal, but that they have resulted from the multiplication of particles introduced from without." It is fortunate that he inserted the saving clause-"of the infected animal" - otherwise he would have convicted himself of a gross inconsistency. Even as it is, he ren- ders extremely questionable the consistency of prescrib- ing poisons as remedial, whatever they may accomplish for others in the way of prophylactic measures to pre- vent such bioplastic descent in the patient. I would prefer being treated in harmony with the best interests of my own special economy, and trust to the "sealing" process as regards my friends and others. Moreover, since it is conceded that the normal bioplasm does not 456 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. become degraded in the organism of the infected ani- mal, we may safely assume that it does not become de- graded in the body of any animal, but only suffers such degradation after being deprived of the fostering care of the organism from which it was descended and has been cast out upon a cold and selfish world. This con- cept of the origin of disease germs reminds me very forcibly of a circumstance that I once heard related, in which a Dr. Thompson's colt was said to have left its mother and swam the Ohio river in order that it might draw lacteal pabulum from a horse of the male gender. But unfortunately for this concept the similitude ceases here, for, although the colt may perhaps have been ren- dered more vicious and eccentric in disposition in con- sequence of a change in diet, it nevertheless was sus- ceptible of being identified by its owner-otherwise the Doctor could not have been sure the colt was his; - whilst the normal bioplasts, after having forsaken their progenitor, crossed over the river of adversity and par- taken of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowl- edge of good and evil, and thus violated the first great fundamental law of nutrition given by the Omniscient Creator, and thus become degraded in character, viciated in disposition, and corrupted in formative power, refuses to die, in harmony with, the penalty attached to a viola- tion of the Law enunciated by God, and thinks to es- cape being fully identified or differentiated from the in- numerable hosts of similar particles existing all over the world. No indeed, we cannot tell whence it came from a mere inspection of the bioplast per se, but of one thing we may be sure, and that is-"In the day thou eatest thereof," of the forbidden pabulum, "thou shalt surely die." No, verily no! I am not prepared to sub- scribe to the doctrine that "the germs originate in man's organism, and that they have descended from the DISEASE GERMS. 457 normal bioplasm," since the Law of generation, of nu- trition, of conformity to type, etc., all forbid any such a belief. If it was derived from a small-pox germ it will produce small-pox, and nothing else; if from a cancer germ, it will produce cancer if provided with pabulum adapted to its nutritive capacities, and its other physi- cal environments be suitable, otherwise it will either die or remain dormant until thus properly supplied and situated. And the same thing is equally true of every mass of bioplasm in the universe; they each have their own respective and definite parentage whose vital resis- tive powers, nutritive and formative capacities and all other specific endowments are invariably handed down or entailed upon their offspring. The microscope has enabled us to delve down into the previously unsolved mysteries of created and ani- mated nature and watch the marvelous phenomena of that most wonderful, transparent, colorless, entirely structureless living matter, as it came from the plastic hand of God, and having the indelible impress of his first great Law of inheritance-"Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind," etc., "and it was so." And so it will continue to be as long as time shall last, Doctors and Philosophers to the contrary notwithstanding. Nevertheless, no one has thus far been able to classify bioplasm, nor to point out any dis- tinguishing features, by any or all the means at our command, by -which we might be able to know what the result of their having lived would be if the source of their origin was unknown. The mere fact that the earth was in its primitive state, formless, voidless, a mighty deep, a vast waste of waters and in darkness, convinces us at once that the mind of finite being could not have told what was to be from that which was. And so it is with the transpar- 458 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ent, colorless, structureless, living germinal matter. Metaphorically the Author of all things must have first said "Let there be light," and then have "divided the light from the darkness," before we could have known the nature, the origin, or the vital capacities of any particle of living matter, much less have distin- guished one particle of bioplasm from another, even though they do possess entirely different vital powers. These germs, after having received the omnipotent impress of God's creative wisdom, can no more change their respective vital endowments and nutritive and form- ative capacities, than can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin. "By their fruits ye shall know them," is pre-eminently true of germinal matter,"-for it is only after they have undergone formative change and thus at- tained to the dignity of cells that there exists any positively distinguishing features by which we can cer- tainly differentiate them. It is true, a partial classifica- tion may be made with some degree of accuracy by a knowledge of their nutritive capacities, but this at the very most would be an exceedingly broad classification, and without any scientific moment whatever so far as the question under consideration just now is concerned. And even this broad classification would entirely fade out of sight if the doctrine of the degradation of bio- plasm, or of "infinite advance and infinite retrogression in multitudes of parallel lines" were true. The countless number of germs that have fallen to the ground, taken root, and grown, have not failed in a single instance to produce organisms respectively the same as that whence they sprang. And were this not so there could in the very nature of things be no science, no progress, no cer- tain definite individuality, or even generic existence on the face of this earth. The farmer knows, however, from his own personal observation and never varying DISEASE GERMS. 459 experience, that the proposition is absolutely false ; he knows that the grain of corn, however perfect in out- ward appearance, must contain a living germ within before it can develop a new plant like that whence the grain was derived ; he knows that if the germ is living, and the conditions suitable to its growth and develop- ment are supplied, he will reap an abundant harvest like unto that which he sowed; he also knows from observa- tion and experience that the formed material, not only constitutes the proper and only true index to the nature, origin, and formative capacity of the contained germ, but that this formed material has no higher endowunent than that of pabulum for the animal kingdom, and that it must be "rotted" or decomposed ere it can become pabulum for plant life. It is only when we reach the level of ' ' Our German clinics" in the publication of which the "commingling of speculation and exact research" occurs "in such manner that any well-informed man may not easily separate these elements " that doubt and uncertainty prevails in an eminent degree. And it is just because of this interminable commingling of speculation and research, that we are asked to accept on the mere dic- tum of authority, the doctrine of "infinite advance and infinite retrogression in multitudes of parallel lines," the doctrine that the germinal spot advances upward to produce the masterpiece of God's creative wfisdom, and downwards, by some hocus pocus or other, so that the normal bioplasm of this "image of God," and which was pronounced "very good," .becomes so degraded that, instead of conserving the health of the body, it actually afflicts him with a terribly malignant excre- scence or a loathsome and disgusting eruption. Beale says: "Many cancers and other morbid growths probably originate in these masses of embryo 460 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. bioplasm which remain for a long time in a quiescent state embedded in some of the fully-formed textures of the adult."-Disease Germs, p. 115. A matter that will be discussed more fully farther on. Cornil and Ranvier lay down "two general laws," which it will be well to reproduce here, since there are many individuals that seem to have a very pronounced aversion to the very name-"Beale" - because of his incorruptible and fearless honesty in stating what he believes to be the truth, I presume. The first of these two laws was announced by J. Muller: " The tissue which forms a tumor has its type in a tissue of the organ- ism, either when the latter is in an embryonal condition or in a state of complete development." The second is from Virchow: " The cellular elements of a tumor are derived from the pre-existing cells of the organism." Vischow adds that "they are derived from the cells of the connective tis- sue."- Pathological Histology, p. 71/.. It is unquestionably true that we can find the type of every kind of disease germ, however benign, however malignant, their nature may be, for they differ not one from another in their embryonal or naked state so far as their physical and chemical properties are concerned. But this affords no evidence whatever that the malig- nant germs were derived from man's own bioplasm; and if they produced tissue after the type of his own they would cease to be malignant, or even susceptible of differentiation. We are told that "By their fruits ye shall know them," - and hence when we find a tissue or a structure within or upon the human organism which differs in its nature and structural peculiarities from that of any of the tissues and structures of the economy, we may rest assured that the bioplasm of his organism was not the progenitor of such morbid growth, but that such growth had for its builder bioplasm of DISEASE GERMS. 461 specific and extrinsic origin, and definite and specific formative powers different from any kind of bioplasm normally existing in man's body. Dr. Beale states that he has often seen bacteria within vegetable cells as well as in the interior of the cells of of animal tissues, "and in the very center of'cells with walls so thick and strong that it seems almost impossi- ble that such soft bodies could have made their way through from the surrounding medium." And we have already seen that Koch claims to have seen them in the center of tubercle cells. Did these vegetable cells man- ufacture an animal substance out of their pabulum and cause it to exude through the old vegetable wall as an animal deposit on the outer surface, and thus generate animal tissue'? Is this the way Nature operates, her wonders to perform ? No ! No one but a consummate speculator would advocate such an absurd idea for a single moment. Be not astonished, then, when I posi- tively assert that cancer germs, sarcomatous germs, syphilitic, tubercle, scarlitinal, small-pox, and all other specific disease germs, are of extrinsic origin, and that they may and often do gain entrance into man's organism by virtue of their amoeboid powers, and there grow and multiply in the interstices of his tissues at the expense of his fluids and possibly the solids after they have been disintegrated by the heat evolved by the germinal growth. Is there a better reason for attributing carcinoma, epithelioma, gummata. tuberculosis, etc., to the degrada- tion of the normal bioplasm of his body, than there is for assigning the presence of bacteria in the very cen- ter of the cells to a like cause ? Nay, more, is it not much more plausible to suppose, in harmony with my view of life energy, that some one or more of the specific forms of life energy, constitut- 462 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ing the normal aggregation of such energy has forsaken the premises because of the absence of their special kind of pabulum, and that thus the remaining aggrega- tion of such energy can only integrate a bacterium ? That is to say that, owing to a disturbance in the elab- orative system, the quality of pabulum is such that the tissue is "only half vitalized." If anyone can find in- tellectual consolation in such an hypothesis, he is wel- come to appropriate it wholly as his own, but the facts of conformity to type are eternally against the accep- tance of such a view. But what about the second law, enunciated by Vir- chow, as already quoted ? On page 100, of same work, we have it stated that "At the present time most pa- thologists, and especially the German, are inclined to consider carcinoma as of glandular or epithelial origin rather than as developing from the cells of the connect- ive tissue. In support of the former view, Rindfieisch says, ' the majority of carcinomata proceed primarily either from the epithelial clad surface of the body, from the skin and mucous membrane, or from secreting glands. They depend upon an abnormal growth of the epithelial tissue.' Billroth, in his work on 'Surgical Pathology,' 'maintains a strict boundary between epithe- lial and connective - tissue cells,'and says, 'true carci- noma have a formation similar to that of true epithelial glands (not the lymphatic glands), and whose cells are mostly actual derivatives from true epithelium. * * * Waldeyer defines carcinoma as an 'atypical epithelial neoplasm.' Birch-Hirschfield also accepts this definition of Waldeyer for the histogenesis of schirrhus; but de- scribes as endothelial cancer a tumor developed from the endothelial cells existing in tissues, and therefore of connective tissue origin. S. Samuel, Conheim, Klebs, and Lucke, all consider carcinomata to have their origin DISEASE GERMS. 463 only from epithelial cells, and not from the connective- tissue cells. Rudnew, of St. Petersburg, in his work on general and special pathology, expresses himself as be- lieving in the epithelial origin only of carcinoma." And the translators of the work from which I am quoting, Cornil and Ranvier, say: "Perhaps all of these di- verse opinions present a part of the truth concerning the nature and origin of carcinomata. But these are problems which should not, in the present state of our knowledge, be dogmatically decided. It remains for fu- ture investigators to determine the relative influence of proliferation of the connective-tissue corpuscles, of the endothelial cell, of the epithelial cell, whether glandular or investing, of the wandering white corpuscles, and of the infective power of certain elements, upon the gene- sis and the extension of carcinoma." What has been stated here of cancer is in direct har- mony with all their teachings relative to other specific forms of morbid growths ; and hence we see Dr. Beale is in direct accord with "the whole tendency of modern thought," on this subject of the "degradation of nor- mal bioplasm," only he is much more consistent with himself in not denying the possibility of any kind of human bioplasm becoming degraded under certain ad- verse circumstances. Now, as a matter of fact, does not this diversity of opinion indicate very strongly that speculation was much more prevalent amongst these " eminent author- ities" than was "exact research?" They have prob- ably seen these malignant growths existing, some in one locality, and others in another locality, and each investi- gator- like the poor, stupid Indian, who on first be- holding a white man on a horse - thought the twain were one flesh. Oh, but this germinal spot, small as it is, is an affair 464 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of immense magnitude in the way of leading speculators astray. The vegetable germ theory, either directly or indi- rectly, involves the idea of degradation of bioplasm as a result of nutritive disturbances; and the very same thing occurs as a fundamental proposition when we come to examine the special theory now under consid- eration. And here again I shall briefly show that har- mony exists between Beale and others. Many quota- tions to this effect might be given, but one from Cornil and Ranvier will be sufficient. "The cheesy inflamma- tion and suppurations of numerous membranes elaborate a poison which, when absorbed, produces tubercles." "A scrofulous child has a protracted arthritis, from which the joint becomes the seat of a softening caseous mass. The detritus in contact with the diseased syno- vial membrane is absorbed. There results from this absorption first a local then a general tuberculosis." - Page 115. (Absorption means the taking up and converting into bioplasm the substance thus absorbed. You get the point, I trust.) Now take this in connection with the following from Beale, and see if there be not harmony between them. "The following diagram may perhaps assist in ren- dering my meaning clearer: White blood- corpuscle. Healthy bioplasm. Formative. a b c d e f Contagious disease germs. Morbid bioplasm. Destructive. Successive series of living particles resulting from the growth and multiplication of a single white blood-corpuscle. Each series grows faster than the one from which It originated. In the plan, the process of multiplication is represented as if R-29 DISEASE GERMS. 465 It only occurred in the case of one particle in each series; but in order to afford an accurate conception of the process, similar radiating' lines must be supposed to di- verge from every part of the circumference of every particle, a Is a white blood cor- puscle ; 6. c. <7, and e, successive series of particles which produce others, until at last contagious disease germs, /, result. In this particular instance we seem to almost succeed In demonstrating the manner in which a very highly contagious bioplasm originates In hospital and camp fever. This is certainly the strongest proof he, or anyone else, has yet adduced in support of this degrading doc- trine ; and they are most assuredly welcome to all the exact research and scientific logic there is therein con- tained. Pus, it is true, is the' product of the organism, if it really be derived from the normal bioplasm, and not from some existing tuberculous or other specific ger- minal trouble, and septicaemia has been attributed to ab- sorption of this material, but there is not one particle of evidence tending to show that anyone has ever been afflicted in this way from the absorption of laudable pus - a statement with which many of our most eminent pathologists coincide - and it only loses this quality when it ceases to be pus in fact, and has undergone or- ganic decomposition, and thus become fitted for the nu- trition of bacteria, etc. Again, no one has yet succeeded in producing anyone of the specific contagious forms of disease by the introduction of laudable or even putre- scent pus into the body of a healthy person or other animal, providing, of course, that the former was free from any such derangement at the time. And this very experiment is a matter of "exact research" practiced by Conheim and others. Nor has anyone ever succeeded in producing one form of contagious or infectious disease by the introduction of disease germs from a person laboring under a different form of contagious or infec- tious disease. "And it is established," says Beale, "that there exists different kinds of contagious living bioplasm, each capable of occasioning specific phenom- ena which distinguish it. The poison of small-pox will 466 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. produce small-pox, not typhus fever, or measles, etc., nor will any of these produce small-pox." Oh! Con- formity to Type, thou art indeed rigid in thy laws and operations!! It is a peculiar characteristic of living matter that it possesses the power of transforming pabulum differing very much from itself in physical appearances into mat- ter universally the same in these respects, and of en- dowing it - so to speak - with its own vital attributes, its own formative capacities, its own power to move and grow and multiply, and thus to perpetuate its own re- spective species indefinitely. • Such being the case then, it would be manifestly false to attribute the supposed degradation of bioplasm to a change in the quality of the pabulum; yet this is precisely the position occupied by the advocates of both these old theories, and essen- tially so, too, if we may really call them two, since they both involve degradation in bioplasm, and differ merely as to the causative influence of such degradation. And yet there is no evidence forthcoming which would justify us in assigning properties to the pabulum by which it could possibly change the vital power or formative ca- pacity of a single particle of living matter-unless it be the change of death, since this would be a direct re- versal of every known fact of biology and biogenesis ; and yet it is to just such "external circumstances" as this proposition inculcates - the elaboration of a poison, and the conversion of this new product into bioplasm in the act of absorption - that these old theories are founded upon. Bioplasm, as is well known, and universally conceded by biologists, when not discussing a pet germ theory, lives upon the nutrient materials most suitable to its growth, converting the latter into its own substance, and failing to obtain this it either dies and is no more, DISEASE GERMS. 467 or else it remains dormant until such time as more favorable nutrient environments supervene, when it be- gins to grow. The pabulum does not convert the bio- plasm into pabulum, nor does it modify the bioplasm in any way, shape or form whatever, but the bioplasm does modify the pabulum by integrating it into a new and vitalized compound by virtue of and in harmony with its own peculiar and specific endowunents. The pabulum is absolutely inert, as is also the material sub- stance entering into the bioplastic compound, and it is the vital energy alone that does the integrating, and a given, definite form or combination of integrative energy must produce a given definite result. And since it is the very same energy acting both before and after any special act of nutrition, there can be no such thing as degradation in bioplasm. The bioplasm of one animal cannot be converted into that of another animal as such bioplasm; nor can it be endowed with powers and capacities peculiar to the bioplasm of a different spe- cies other than by ceasing to be bioplasm and thus be- coming- pabulum for such bioplasm ; thus is provision made against the possibility of interference in the rigid working of the law of conformity to type. If it were so that bioplasm could or ever did become intimately mixed then, indeed, strange and anomalous results would likely ensue, but we know from the united testimony of all observers that such a thing was never known to happen. Noxious materials may get into the blood and thus derange the tissues and organs of the body, lead- ing, perhaps, to the formation of an abscess, and pos- sibly the destruction of a gland, but the noxious mater- ials can neither be converted into bioplasm nor convert the bioplasm into a disease germ or anything else - ex- cept a mass of dead matter. Poisons have actually been known to kill living or germinal matter when 468 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. brought in contact with such matter, but the absorption of a poison, or in other words, the conversion of a poison into bioplasm (whether auto-genetic or not) is not so frequent as to have become a matter of "exact research." Moreover, the only real painstaking ob- server amongst the entire number of investigators - so called - in this direction, says, as we have already observed, that disease germs "have resulted from mul- tiplication of particles introduced from without," hence we should like to know just how he is able to say that they are the lineal descendants of the normal bioplasm of man's organism. The husbandman finds it necessary to place a distinguishing mark on his sheep and hogs and other live stock when he wishes to let them run at large, and this, notwithstanding the fact that he may be tolerably well acquainted with their nature, origin, and distinctive features, and yet we are asked to believe, on the mere dictum of authority, in the degradation of bioplasm, when it is fully conceded that there is no means of distinguishing or differentiating one kind of bioplasm from another except by its formative products, and the formative capacity of a tubercle germ - for ex- ample- is definite, specific, and unchangeable, and differs from that of any other kind of bioplasm except scrof- ula, and they are of precisely the same parentage. These disease germs, like the normal bioplasm of man's body, may grow and multiply exceedingly beyond com- putation, and that, too, very rapidly when freely sup- plied with pabulum, and yet the last generation has the same definite vital endowments and formative capacities as the first parent mass. Yes indeed, one may "almost succeed in demonstrating" on paper "the manner in which a very highly contagious bioplasm originates " from the "too rapid growth of the living or germinal matter" of his own body; but this is a very different DISEASE GERMS. 469 thing from the " exact research " necessary to trace the relationship of a mass of living matter having entirely different vital powers, and several generations removed, back to an organism the bioplasm of which has no such vital endowments, in order to remove such hypothesis from the domain of mere speculation, and place it upon the sure foundation of an established truth. Dr. Beale states that "if from any circumstance the bioplasm which is to form a gland or other organ, as a member, is not produced and does not occupy its proper place at the right period of developmental progress, that gland or organ, as a member will be wanting in the particular organism." It follows, therefore, in har- mony with the facts and arguments presented in Chap- ter on Biogenesis, that the spermatozoon has within itself a representative particle of living matter for each and every distinct tissue and organ of the future inde- pendent being, and that that particle which is destined to form one kind of tissue cannot supply the bioplastic elements necessary to the building up of any other part, no difference how much lower or higher the latter may be in the scale of organization than the former. And yet he who makes the above statement - limiting the operation of his beloved doctrine of "infinite ad- vance and infinite retrogression in multitudes of parallel lines" to a particular "period of developmental pro- gress"- must needs resort to such sophistry as the following in the vain hope of bolstering up a system of therapeutics which he has the good sense and scientific consistency to confess is poisonous and destructive of life in any and all quantities. He says: "Embryonic living matter, or bioplasm, gives rise to several differ- ent kinds, not one of which can produce matter having precisely the same endowments as that which existed immediately before it, and from which it sprang. And 470 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. yet every kind of germinal matter exhibits powers of infinite growth. * * * While, however, the process of division is proceeding, as has been described, in some cases a small portion of the germinal matter does not undergo division into masses of the next series, but re- tains its primitive power. This remains in an embry- onic condition after the tissue has been formed, and thus the development of new tissue, even in advanced life, is, in some cases, not only possible but actually oc- curs. Many cancers and other morbid growths prob- ably originate in these masses of embryonic bioplasm which remain for a long time in a quiescent state em- bedded in some of the fully-formed textures of the adult." Now, it seems to me that the nutritive dor- mancy of any mass of embryonal matter would consti- tute the very condition mentioned above as tending to the absence of a member or organ, or at least a stunted growth of such member or organ in developmental pro- gress. According to his own conception of organic gen- esis the embryonic period is precisely the "right per- iod of developmental progress;" that "that gland or or- gan, as a member will be wanting in the particular organ- ism, * * * if from any circumstance the bioplasm which is to form a gland or other organ, as a member, is not produced and does not occupy its proper place at the " very time when the absence or nutritive dormancy of a single bioplast will inevitably be followed by a dwarfing of such special tissue or organ as at no other period during the entire existence of such living organism. In order, therefore, to provide for some malignant excres- cence with which to afflict mankind at some later period of his existence, this germinal spot dogma of authors must reach down into the fond mother's womb, and touch the little embryo with the finger of nutritive ad- versity, and thus dwarf its little body in some part or DISEASE GERMS. 471 other in order to fasten upon its poor frame in after life a damnable, loathesome, consuming curse. And then notice with what powers of "exact research" these toxadmin- isters must be provided to thus enable them to look down into the wonderful phenomena of embryonic life and recognize the mysterious changes in vital powers and formative capacities of each and every individual bioplast as it undergoes division into the "next series," and at the same time keep constantly in view such par- ticles as retain their embryonic state in order to de- velop a cancer or other morbid growth in after life. When we take into consideration the difficulty of differ- entiating one kind of embryonic matter from another, I am led to suspect that these experimenters, in conduct- ing their "exact researches," may possibly have con- veyed the cancer or other morbid germs - syphilitic, for example-into the mother's generative organs, and that they have mistaken one or more of these germs of ex- trinsic origin for a mass of normal embryonic matter - a mistake very easy to be made at this "period of developmental progress," as you must know by this time. There is a conscious pleasure in "exact re- search" unsurpassed by all the speculative castle-build- ing in the world, even though we should thereby dis- cover that if, perchance, a cancer germ, a tubercle germ or a syphilitic germ had gained access to the embry- onic mass, no one not gifted with the powers of Divine perception, could say which was destined to produce muscle and which the morbid growth until after they had each asserted their respective formative power, and even then we would be under the absolute necessity of never losing sight of them while in their naked living state, if we ever hoped to be able to say precisely which bioplast produced this form of tissue and which that. Shall we believe that by growth and successive divis- 472 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ions of the germinal spot, or any other mass of embry- onic matter - so called, one generation will produce liv- ing matter of the next generation possessing endow- ments different from the preceding one, and so on ad in- finitum, just so long as embryonal matter exists in its naked form or subsequently comes to exist as such, as the hypothesis provides for ? Shall we believe that if a brain bioplast divides so as to give us two naked liv- ing particles instead of one that they have lost their former capacity as a single mass to produce brain formed material ? Does the dividing of a grain of ar- senicum into two equal or unequal parts absolutely change the poisonous character of the substance ? Ah, there comes the rub with these Q-U-A'S. Shall wTe believe that such particles as retain their primitive ernbryotic power will not produce tissue like that which would otherwise have resulted had it grown and multiplied "at the right period of developmental progress," when in after life it is supplied with pabu- lum so as to cause it to grow and multiply? How would arsenic act in such a parallel event, do you suppose? Adopting such an hypothesis - and the above is a fair sample of the entire evidence offered in support of the doctrine of the degradation of bioplasm as the source of contagious and infectious disease germs - would not the cancer or other disease germ of spe- cific origin prove its own best means of cure, by simply supplying it richly with pabulum, since the moment this little particle of bioplasm divides it loses its prim- itive, power, and may then form a muscle cell, possibly a brain cell, which would be quite a desirable acces- sion to some exact researchers perhaps? It certainly would not produce a cancer or other pre-existing mor- bid cell. What do you suppose would be the result of such constant mutation of the vital endowments and DISEASE GERMS. 473 formative capacities? In the first place we are said to get highly contagious disease germs because they groiv and multiply too rapidly; in the second case a cancer or other morbid growth because they do not undergo growth and division into the next series for months or years per- haps. But the strangest thing of all is that the mere act of dividing or separating a single mass into two is made the predominant cause of such uncertainty with regard to obedience to the law of conformity to type; converting poison into their own living substance being an occasional causative influence, and hence rendering their use doubly dangerous. It was formerly taught, and indeed is currently be- lieved to-day, that alcohol is a product of chemical in- terchange. Such, however, is only true in a certain sense, as you will readily perceive by referring to Hux- ley and Martin on Biology. It is the product of disin- tegration of the outer formed material of the cell-wall of the torula, and which I with many others believe to be animal bodies. This disintegrated matter did not come to exist spontaneously in the substances to be thus converted, but was of specific and extrinsic origin primarily, and which gained access to the substances to be thus converted, and must have lived and grown and multiplied and acted upon every particle of matter thus changed before new combinations of their elements could have taken place, and the chemical change - if any such did occur-must have taken place pari pasu with the disintegrative >act. May we not with equal justice assert that all conta- gious disease germs, including those present in cancer, tubercle, etc., are of specific and extrinsic origin, and that each of the many millions of germs which are produced from the growth and division of one such bio- plast have the same specific vital power and formative 474 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY capacity as the parent mass, and that it is in this way that conformity to type is so rigidly provided for ? There is no instance on record showing that the tornla or yeast cells have ever experienced degradation in form- ative power, or that they can act in any other way than that which constitutes their peculiar characteristic. The "elm-peeler" of our primitive forests is not so perfectly developed in many respects as the hog of modern times, but they both possess the attributes and instincts of the genus Hog. And yet we are asked to believe that the bioplasm of man - the crowning work of the Supreme Being -is constantly violating every law of his own beautiful type, a type in which the Son of God manifested Himself to man for a brief season - and that the very matter out of which every cel], tissue and structure of his body must be produced - the cell, ' ' the morphological unite of organization, the physiolo- gical source of specialized function" - and it alone of all created things, is a regular flop-over, first one thing and then a very different thing, simply as the result of the mass dividing into two parts, or perchance in con- sequence of getting an over-dose of auto-genetic poison. Look at the encephaloid carcinoma in which the morbid bioplasm increases so rapidly, and then ask yourself if it is not more rational and far more con- sistent with the laws of biogenesis, biology, and con- formity to type, to believe that a minute germ of spe- cific and extrinsic origin has in some way or other ob- tained ingress to the affected organism and has insin- uated itself, by virtue of its vital movements, into the meshes of the connective tissue, where, in consequence of having found the proper conditions, it has grown and multiplied freely, and that by virtue of the distension of the connective tissue meshes the appearance of alveoli have been produced. Suppose you should discover a DISEASE GERMS. 475 worm, a bug, or even a mole thus situated, do you think you would attribute its presence there to degradation in man's own bioplasm ? If my proposition be true, then we have the greatest encouragement for hoping to effect a permanent cure by a thorough and complete ablation of the morbid mass, if done early and before a single particle of ger- minal matter may have found its way into some other part of the economy out of our reach or jurisdiction. If, on the contrary, such germs are derived by descent either directly or indirectly from any kind of normal bioplasm of man's body, then we have no assurance whatever that other members of the same family of bio- plasm originally thus effected may not suffer in like manner, and reproduce the difficulty, even in a more ex- aggerated form. Indeed, the cutting ofT of the nutrient supply to the growth by its ablation actually does pro- vide for the very condition Beale considers essential to the degradation of man's own bioplasm, by thus divert- ing this excess of pabulum to such contiguous bioplasm. And I have often wondered if it was not largely due to the fact that such growths do often reproduce themselves very quickly when thus removed - in part - that has led to such a nearly universal endorsement of the above hypothesis in some one of its many forms or shades. All the various writers on this subject of whom I have any knowledge, regard the actively growing germinal periphery of every morbid neoplasm as inflammatory in character, the bioplasm of which is supposed to be directly derived from man's own organism, and hence some of these germinal elements are almost surely left in connection with the body when surgical interference is resorted to, and these really being the only elements to which such growths owe their specific character and malignancy - indeed their very existence - we need not 476 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. marvel that removal has come to be looked upon with very grave doubts as to its propriety. I have advised in several instances complete extirpation of the entire growth - malignant periphery and all - and this advice has been acted upon in every such instance, and in no case has there been a recurrence of the morbid growth to the best of my knowledge and belief. The so-called inflammatory zone, the periphery, is the only zone that renders any of these growths malignant, since were it not for the constant encroachments of this zone upon the surrounding structures, stealing their pabulum and disintegrating their formed material, the cellular zone would soon fall into a fatty granular state and be elim- inated along with the central zone, or else both would remain as such limited and inactive mass of foreign matter. Some years since I was called to attend a post-mor- tem upon a lady who had suffered for about five years with a growth of some malignant character involving the substance of the left humerus for about six inches in extent, and had at the time of her death attained to a diameter of three inches at the point of greatest cir- cumference. On microscopical examination of a section taken from near this point it proved to be an alveolar sarcoma, a form of tumor of rare occurrence, second in malignancy only to the genus carcinomatar and indeed closely allied to the latter in both a clinical and histolo- gical point of view. Alveolar sarcoma are composed of a fibrous, or a fibro-vascular, stroma, which constitutes the walls of the alveoli in which are found the germinal elements, either in the form of naked living matter, in the form of more or less fully developed cells, or in the form of degener- ated products of the latter, just owing to the stage of the difficulty. So far this description does not differ DISEASE GERMS. 477 essentially from that of the carcinomata, but the former have some distinguishing, features which very clearly differentiate them from the latter. In cancer the alveoli are not traversed by those delicate bands of fibroid structure which we see in alveolar sarcoma, and w'hich divide the larger cell-nests into smaller alveoli. These delicate bands constitute one of the most pro- nounced diagnostic features of alveolar sarcoma, and are derived from the walls of the alveoli proper, and in their course intersect the masses or cells, thus dividing the larger cell clusters into smaller ones. Another very important diagnostic feature of these tumors is the inti- mate relation existing between the stroma, or rather the fibroid portion of it and the germinal matter, every thread of this structure being terminated at its distal extremity by a mass of naked germinal matter in the more recent growths, and clearly indicating that the stroma proper - not the vessels - is a product of these malignant germs ; in other words, ' ' the stroma and cells are intimately interwoven into a single tissue, whereas, in carcinomata, the cells and stroma are easily separable into two distinct tissues."-Cornil and Ranvier. Again, the cells of cancer are, as a rule, much larger than is the case with the sarcomatous cells - which lat- ter measure about the one-two-thousandth of an inch in diameter on an average. These tumors also possess a fluid more or less abundant, but not as great a quantity relatively as do the cancers. They have been found in the skin, in the muscular structures, the bones, lymph glands, testicles, kidneys, the dural cover- ing of the spinal cord, and, perhaps, in other localities. Metastases are said to be frequent, and such most cer- tainly proved to be the case with the lady from whom the tumor I am describing was taken. The first evidence of a disease germ having gained 478 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. entrance into her body was made manifest by the ap- pearance of a small tumor situated immediately below the left mammary papilla, and had it been properly re- moved as soon as discovered it is quite probable that this would have been the end of the difficulty. But her physician suspecting no malignancy, thought it prudent to institute measures which soon caused it to disappear, evidently by translation or transmigration, to soon reap- pear in the locality already mentioned. These parasit- ical germs were not destroyed by his discutient meas- ures, as the sequala clearly shows, but on the con- trary they were simply driven to seek new fields for their future operations, and finding lodgment where they did, and conditions suitable to their growth and multiplication present, it was here that they were after- wards discovered in such immense numbers. But it is not my purpose to give a complete history of this case, but simply to introduce such facts as are specifically related to the question under consideration. "The tissue which forms a tumor has its type in a tissue of the organism." and that "The cellular ele- ments of a tumor are derived from the upre-existing cells of the organism," and hence the course of treat- ment instituted tending to accomplish the very thing that happened, was in harmony with this most perni- tious doctrine. By referring to the wood cut, which is a fairly good, though roughly executed representation of what appeared under different fields of the microscope, you will observe that the fragments of osseous tissue which had not yet disappeared contained within the lacuna small, shrunken, oval bodies - bone corpuscles - which show a very small nucleus or bioplast, the re- mainder having undergone condensation into formed material. In many of these bodies I could not detect the presence of even a minute particle of bioplasm re- DISEASE GERMS. 479 maining under a power of eight hundred diameters, and notwithstanding the fact that the specimens were all stained with the carmine fluid, some of them double stains. It is but just, therefore, to conclude that these bioplasts had been starved into formative submission to their environments. Some of the lacuna in the speci- mens or sections of older portions of the tumor con- tained nothing but fatty degenerated elements, but such remianing fragments of bone in this locality were very small and few in number. The question of paramount importance, however, is, whence was derived the bioplastic elements which effect the removal of the bony substance, and how do they 480 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. effect this result ? There are certainly but few ques- tions which are of greater interest to the physiologist, and especially to the pathologist than this. It has been shown that during the entire period of adult life osseous tissue is being constantly removed by the disintegration and partial or complete elimination of old Haversian systems on the one hand, and formative change and subsequent calcarious infiltration of the elements which had come to occupy the place of the previously existing Haversian rod on the other hand. It is by virtue of this process of disintegration and renewal that the elasticity of bone is maintained, sometimes even into old age. ■ O. Weber and Volkman believe the removal of bone to depend upon fatty degeneration of the bone corpus- cles. We found this condition to obtain to some slight degree in the specimen under consideration, and un- doubtedly fatty degeneration of these corpuscles does occur in caries of bone also, but the structure thus ef- fected cannot be removed in the manner in which it oc- curs physiologically or normally, but must be removed en masse or in fragments. Others attribute the physiolo- gical phenomenon to the influence of some acid, but they have thus far failed to discover the acid, or to ex- plain in harmony with such an hypothesis how the dis- integrated substance comes to be substituted by living naked bioplasm. Beale says: "In the case of adult bone it is probable that the first change that occurs is the softening of the bone tissue close to the vessel of the Haversian canal by imbibition. In this way the passage of nutrient material to the little bioplasts en- closed, or partly enclosed, in the incompletely formed osseous tissue is favored. Then the little particles of bioplasm themselves grow and multiply in the space in which they lie. The walls of the space (lacuna) are R-30 DISEASE GERMS. 481 eaten away and the lacuna becomes enlarged. As the hard material disappears, instead of a lacuna occupied by a single bioplast, we find a greatly enlarged space, a gigantic lacuna, containing several bioplasts. * * * The bioplasm of adjacent lacuna increase in the same manner, and by degrees lamina after lamina of the os- seous tissue of the Haversian rod disappears, and in place of hard bone we find soft, pulpy, growing bioplasm occupying what is now the Haversian space, and filling up the interval between the vessel of the Harversian canal and the boundary formed by the circumferential portion of surrounding Haversian systems, which will in their turn have to undergo the same process of dis- integration. The bioplasts do not effect the removal of the bone, as might be supposed, by the formation of an acid fluid or by developing some substance that posses- ses solvent properties. Upon the wdiole, it is the more probable that the change is due to a mechanical rub- bing away rather than to the action of a chemical sol- vent. It seems to me most likely that by the incessant movements of the bioplasm in very close contact wfith the material to be removed, excessively minute particles are gradually rubbed off, as it were."-Beale on Bio- plasm, p. 16L. Let this be as it may for the present, I want to specially invite the attention of the reader to the very remarkable difference which obtains in the histological appearance of bone in which its removal is being ef- fected by the agency of the bone corpuscles or bioplasts on the one hand, and its removal by bioplasm, of ex- trinsic origin on the. other hand. It is very evident that the appearances described by Beale must obtain in every instance of bone removal in which the bone cor- puscles are the active agents concerned, and hence that the removal of the bone substance in the tumor above 482 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. described was not, and could not possibly have been due to bone corpuscles, degraded or otherwise. It seems to me that stronger or more positive proof of the extrinsic origin of disease germs, even had the pri mary tumor on her breast not have existed, could not well be furnished than this. And yet every law of bi- oplastic growth and formative change is in harmony with this view of the matter. Just think of it, an en- tire Haversian rod displaced and re-builded by and through the direct agency of bioplasm - bioplasm which cannot be distinguished from pus corpuscles developed in any other locality, bioplasm which, nevertheless, builds up the new Haversian rod after the same specific and determinate plan as that which preceded it. Away with the erroneous and contradictory hypothesis, then, which inculcates the idea that pus corpuscles are degraded in formative capacity ! The bone corpuscles are rep- resented in my drawing just as they appeared under the microscope - shrunken oval bodies, and nearly des- titute of living matter - a very different picture from that described by Dr. Beale as occurring in the process of physiological renewal, as, indeed, in every case of rarefaction of osseous tissues as the result of intrinsic cause. It is clearly evident, therefore, that the embryo- nal or bioplastic elements contained within the alveoli were not directly descended from the bioplasm nor- mally inhabiting the lacuna; on the contrary, we are forced to conclude that the latter were actually starved into a state of nutritive inactivity by the nutritive ac- tivity of the sarcomatous germs which had gained ac- cess to the parts involved, and which thus grow and multiply, and eventually produced tissues different from anything normally existing anywhere in her entire econ- omy. These germs have thus declared their extrinsic origin, as regards the bone at least, by the manner of DISEASE GERMS. 483 removal of its substance; they thus declare their ex- trinsic origin, as regards the economy by their forma- tive products; their immutability by their metastatic phenomena, especially the never-failing reproduction of the peculiar organic fruits by which we shall know them ; and thus they re-affirm the fact that they have not descended from man's organism either directly or re- motely ; and, tinally, they declare their malignancy by the abundant and rapid growth and multiplication of the naked germinal matter at the expense of the nor- mal elements, and their animal character by their naked condition when increasing, their inability to assimilate inorganic and their ability to assimilate organic sub- stances, and by the power of evolving such a quantity of heat as is necessary to effect the disintegration of the pre-existing formed material of the structure whose removal they have thus effected. In an article on this subject, published in the Physio- Medical Journal, October 1881, I stated that "We should constantly keep in mind that actively growing bioplasm (animal) is entirely destitute of anything like a limiting membrane or wall ; that it is entirely naked, and that no particle of its substance differs in any respect what- ever from any other particle of the same bioplast. We will thus be prepared to grant the possibility of simple contact effecting all the changes that can possibly re- sult from the intussusception of the same matter, only that in the former case the rapidity with which the change is effected will not be so marked as in the lat- ter (the mechanical attrition as mentioned by Beale), since the substance is only acted upon on the exposed side, while in case of its complete incorporation or intus- susception every part of its circumference is exposed to their transforming influence. A substance in a state of minute division will dissolve much more quickly, per- 484 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. haps, than would be the case if it was in larger parti- cles, nevertheless its solution is effected in precisely the same manner in both cases. I opine, then, that mere contact of rapidly growing germinal matter with the substance to be dissolved is ah that is required to effect the disintegration and conversion of the animal sub- stance into bioplasm. And that the mineral salts, being thus liberated from their entanglements, are washed away by the nutrient current - which under such cir- cumstances is always in excess of the demand - either in a state of complete solution or as extremely minute granules, which at last find exit from the body through the urinary or other channels." I reproduce this here in order to disabuse the mind of any misapprehensions that may have come from the reading thereof. Vital energy cannot exert a disinte- grative effect directly, but it does so remotely or indi- rectly through the evolution of heat, and it is to the latter that the disintegrative effect is directly due. The former statement, misleading as it was, was much more plausible than anything previously offered in solution of this much mooted question. Whatever view the reader may still entertain relative to this matter of disintegra- tion, there is one thing absolutely certain, namely ; veg- etable bioplasm cannot under any circumstances evolve heat in quantity sufficient to effect the disintegration of its own formative products, and hence we never find it in a naked condition normally, therefore it cannot even come in contact with the structural elements of the an- imal body, much less effect their solution as a primary source of nutrient supply, even if they had the power to effect this result on the supervention of such nutri- tive activity, which they have not. Here is a form of malignant growth, then, that has not the remotest rela- tion to vegetable germs in any sense whatever, and DISEASE GERMS. 485 "one fact against a hypothesis is as good as a thous- and/' so says the rule of logic. It would be highly interesting to know by what oc- cult powers of mind, other than speculative, we might be enabled to follow embryonic development in such a case as that of this poor woman, and in after years identify a minute particle of living matter which had retained its primitive power, and per consequence developed a twin-brother to a cancer. Or, on the other hand, what magic influence can be brought to bear that will enable us to follow up the devious wanderings of the prodigal children of a white-blood corpuscle, a pus corpuscle, or any other mass of normal bioplasm, either in its migrations within the economy of the infected body, or its journeyings up and down the by-ways and forbidden paths of the outside world, and finally to identify them as the lineal descendants of man's bio- plasm, notwithstanding the fact of their increased vital resistive powers against adverse circumstances, their de- graded formative capacities and their general malig- nancy of disposition. The bioplasm of man can live away from the body but for a few hours at most, and even then under the most favorable environments as regards temperature, etc. This is just as true of pus corpuscles as of other bio- plasm descended from man's body, while disease germs may live for months, and even for years, under the most varied circumstances, and then when brought in contact with the human organism, manifest their most virulent powers, providing such organism is in a con- dition which will supply their nutritive and other proper demands. Flint states in his Principles and Practice of Medicine, if I remember correctly, that scar- let fever has not unfrequently been communicated to one, who had not been thus afflicted previously, by en- 486 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. tering a room where the disease had not existed for more than six months prior to the time of such visit, and the room had been subjected to the use of disin- fectants- so it was stated. It is currently known that the germs of small-pox may live on the point of a lancet even for weeks, and then, if introduced into one who has not had the disease, will produce all its speci- fic phenomena ; and I recently heard it stated by a very reliable man that he knew personally of the disease having been contracted by a young man by simply be ing exposed to the germs contained in a pair of "gen- tleman's drawers " which had been placed between an upper floor and the plastering underneath, where they had lain for nearly twenty years unmolested, until at last the plastering gave way precipitating the draw- ers to the lower floor. Syphilitic germs may retain their vitality for many years in the human organism in a perfectly quiescent state, and then from time to time, as circumstances be- come favorable to their growth and increase, develop all the pathological phenomena characteristic of this kind of morbid bioplasm. Many, and perhaps all kinds of disease germs possess vital resistive powers greatly exceeding that of any kind of bioplasm peculiar to the human economy, and this is a matter that should not be lost sight of by the busy practitioner, since there is great danger of transporting these germs in a living state from one patient to another and thus multiply these forms of difficulty. Of course, if it be conceded that disease germs are descended either directly or remotely from the normal bioplasm of man, and the origin of new forms were ex- tremely liable to occur, as would most assuredly be the case if there was any truth in this hypothesis, then it would be useless to take any such disinfective precau- DISEASE GERMS. 487 tions as indicated above, since the absolute uncertainty connected with this whole question of biogenesis, biology, and conformity to type would leave us in extreme doubt as to what we should anticipate from the pres- ence of any kind of germinal matter from whatsoever source it might be derived. But Dr. Beale virtually states that "It would be as unreasonable to expect an amoebia to result from a pus corpuscle, or from a yeast particle, or to suppose that by any alteration in food or management a cabbage would spring from a mustard seed, or a modern white mouse from the descendant of an ancestral white rabbit, as it would be to maintain that" disease germs or contagious bioplasts "might be produced indiscriminately by any mass of bioplasm of the human organism." Oh, no; Nature is not thus in- discriminate and uncertain in her ordinary operations as to forget and develop a cabbage from the seed of mustard, or a white mouse from the germs of a white rabbit. It is only wrhen a question of a Poisonous Ther- apeutics is involved that she forgets her uniformity of operations and scientific precision in the resultant phe- nomena. in order that she may discriminate in favor of the toxadminister in harmony with the action of these United States of America. Did not the laws of Nature reverse their operations in obedience to the mandates of this great Moloch, and thus cause man's own normal bioplasm to become de- graded in formative capacity, and increased in vital re sistive powers, so as to give rise to highly contagious and dangerously infectious disease germs, they could hardly have secured the special Government favor which empowers them only to resort to such means as "may succeed in extirpating them [the normal bioplasm of course] and may perhaps discover means of interfer- ing with the origin of new forms not known to exist at 488 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. this time." Were it not for the disposition on the part of Nature and the Government to change the Laws, otherwise in universal operation, for their special bene- fit, they would hardly be justified in killing the normal bioplasm, or even retarding its growth very materially, in order that they may, perhaps, destroy a few inno- cent bacteria or vegetable buzzards on the one hand, or even a certain proportion of the disease-producing germs which they suppose to be present, much less to kill the confessedly normal bioplasm present, lest it too should become degraded in like manner, when it has been so thoroughly demonstrated that a directly oppo- site course is by far the most successful in quickly and completely eradicating the disease, and most assuredly not so destructive of co-ordinate vitality. These poison-givers emphatically state that the most minute particle of any kind of contagious, infectious, or other character of disease germs is sufficient to produce the specific form of disease peculiarly characteristic of its kind, and that, too, in its most virulent type, provid- ing the state of the economy is favorable to its rapid growth and multiplication. There is no indefiniteness here as to results, no variableness or shadow of turning in the nature of these germs and their specific results, no question as »to quantity changing quality, no suspi- cion of their having been degraded into new and more virulent characters by virtue of auto-genetic or extrin- sic poisoning; no, no, that would spoil their infernal game of trying to prove "that this diminishing rate of growth and life is what is required," and that the surest way of preserving the patient from the dire con- sequences of disease is to kill him as quickly as pos- sible. Now, in concluding this lecture, we may properly sum up the teachings of this school of doctrine, in its var- DISEASE GERMS. 489 ions presentations, and thus ascertain whether or not there be any real fundamental differences between them. We are told by Cornil and Ranvier that numerous mem branes elaborate a poison which, when absorbed or, in other words, when converted into bioplasm, generates tu- berculosis and other morbid growths. This doctrine is held and advocated by all the older writers, and is sub- stantially the same doctrine as taught by Beale. Then comes Pasteur, Koch, etc., and tell us that this poison- ous material is due to either an excretion from the bodies of bacteria and other vegetable germs of extrin- sic origin, or else to the decomposition of the animal substances by virtue of their nutritive selections or af- finities, and thus tubercle and other infectious and con- tagious diseases are engendered. Both these schools, therefore, attribute all this class of difficulties to the elaboration of a poison out of the animal substances, either directly or indirectly, and makes this poisonous matter responsible for the supposed degradation of the normal bioplasm of the animal economy; and both in- volve the use of such agents as will tend to kill not only the germs, whether vegetable or embryonal, which are supposed to elaborate such poison, but that tend to kill the normal bioplasm not supposed to be thus de- graded. From a scientific and practical point of view, then, there is no very material difference between them, and they are both diametrically contrary to the univer- sal facts and teachings of Nature relative to the Laws of Biogenesis, biology, conformity to type, and the na- ture and source of the pabulum at the expense of which all such germs must look for their respective nutrient supply. The pabulum is and of necessity must be present in every instance in which any kind of germinal matter is found growing in the human economy or elsewhere, and 490 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHV. it must have pre-existed, therefore, before such growth and increase could possibly take place. The vegetable germs, in harmony with the universal law governing vegetable nutrition and growth, can only assimilate in- organic substances, hence decomposition of animal mat- ter must have previously taken place before these scav- engers can grow and multiply in the economy of man, and the clinical history will and does afford absolute proof of the truth of this statement. It is the presence of this decomposed animal matter in connection with the conditions leading to such a state that constitutes the disease per se. Vegetable germs, then, are not dis- ease producing in any sense of the word whatever, but are conservative in their nature and tendencies, and all the benefit ever derived or to be derived from antisep- tic measures is wholly due to their influence in prevent- ing the introduction of the noxious elements into the general circulation at the expense of which these inno cent germs grow. As regards the other theory, there is no sucn thing known in the economy of nature as a change in vital resistive power, formative capacity or nutritive capacity (I do not mean digestive capacity), and hence the doc- trine of degradation of bioplasm as the source of dis- ease germs is but the grossest speculation, with not a single fact of nature in support of it, but with the uni- verse of biological, biogenetic, and physiological, philos- ophical and scientific facts adverse to it. We conclude, therefore, that these germs are of ani- mal character, of extrinsic origin, of specific and un- changeable nature, of definite formative powers and nu- tritive capacities, that they grow and multiply at the expense of the nutrient substances of the infected body, thus tending to starve the normal bioplasm, of such lo- cality at least, and that the heat evolved in the process DISEASE GERMS. 491 of their growth and subsequent formative change tends to and does disintegrate the devitalized normal elements, and thus is substituted a new and abnormal structure for that which normally existed as an integral and functional part of the economy proper. The best means of cure will be found in the use of such measures as tend to improve the general nutrition, thus increasing the bioplastic attractive energy so as to starve the disease germs if possible, if they are so sit- uated as to forbid their removal otherwise. Consolidate the structures involved in such morbid process, and thus render the nutritive process as defective as possi- ble at this point, and in all you do, do it with a view to divert the blood from the morbid growth and attract it to the normal structures to be nourished. It is not the province, how'ever, of this work to treat specifically of the remedial measures to be made use of, and hence it is only necessary to add that proper exercise should always complement every effort to secure general nutri- tive activity when possible to be taken. EXPLANATION OF PLATE III. Fig. 1 represents striated muscular fibrillae in a state of relaxation or rest; the bioplasm B having its normal or elongated shape. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of same. Fig. 3 shows the fibrillee in a state of contraction; the bioplasm B having assumed a spherical form, result- ing in a shortening of the cells in their long diameter and an increase in their transverse diameter. The nu- trient matter N flows more abundantly to the cells. Fig. 4 is a transverse section of same. Fig. 5 represents non-striated muscle cells in a state of rest. The cells are of fusiform shape, enclosing bio- plasm B in a state of rest. Figs. 6 and 8 represent transverse sections of sev- eral non-striated muscle cells; some showing bioplasm, others being cut above or below the center of the cells. Fig. 7 represents the same in a state of contraction ; the bioplasm B approximatively spherical in form, and represents its state during the act of contraction. In all the figures the letters stand for same parts, thus : B. Bioplasm in state of rest. B'. Bioplasm in state of contraction. F. Formed material. N. Nutrient matter. T. Tendon. PLATE III. Fig. 1. lfy.2.. F'<j. 3. F,g 4 F/g. 5. F<a7 Fit)-6- Fig &' CHAPTER VIII. MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. "Notwithstanding the remarkable progress that has been made in physiology daring the last half of the present century, we are still left in comparative dark- ness with regard to the source of the impulse by the exercise of which the phenomena of muscular move- ments are produced. Indeed the only substantial lesson taught in medical literature on this subject is one with which almost every school child is familiar, namely: Muscular tissue has the property of becoming shorter in the direction of its greatest length, under the in- fluence of an exciting cause, and of returning to its former state when such influence is withdrawn, and that it may retain this property for several hours after co-ordinate vitality has ceased. "Now the question presents itself, can it be possible that the force, or forces, which determine muscular movements are of such an extremely subtle nature, or their manifestation so exceedingly peculiar and complex in character, as to completely elude the grasp of the finite mind ? "Dr. Beale states, in his work on Bioplasm, that 'no phenomenon has been discovered in connection with the action of any of the tissues already considered, which at all resembles that which is the peculiar character- istic of muscle. In both muscle and nerve molecular changes remarkable for their rapidity and repetition, take place, the exact nature of which is still doubtful.' And again, 'the phenomena of contractility characteris- tic of this class of tissue is therefore probably due to 494 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. changes in non-living formed material only, and is not in any way dependent upon bioplasm.' ' ' I am certainly a most ardent admirer of Dr. Beale; nevertheless, after careful and repeated examinations of both living and dead muscle, also of bioplasm living and dead, confined and unconfined, limited and unlimited in its movements, I am forced to the conclusion that every muscular contraction is directly dependent upon active and forcible changes taking place in confined bio- plasm ; and secondly, that muscular relaxation is de- pendent upon the flexible property of its formed ma- terial and passive changes occurring in living matter. Indeed, upon this hypothesis, and upon no other, can the occurrence of increased temperature after co-ordi nate vitality has ceased, the occurrence of rigor mortis and all the peculiar phenomena connected therewith, as well as every other phenomenon connected with the muscular system, be satisfactorily and rationally ex plained. "It is stated that the movements of muscular tissue as regards direction, extent and place are limited and are determined by external forces, and that therefore these movements are esssentially different from the movements of living matter, and cannot be classed to- gether. since the movements of bioplasm result from the operation of 'forces acting from within the matter itselfnevertheless, we could, were it thought necessary, or even desirable, conclusively show that the phenom- ena of muscular movements do not harmonize with the ordinary operations of any one or more of the physical forces; that such an hypothesis fails to explain the dif- ferences existing between the warm-blooded and cold- blooded animals as regards the length of time during which they may respectively retain muscular irritability after respiration and circulation have ceased. It fails MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 495 to explain what is really implied by the term 'irrita- bility it fails to explain the difference between the voluntary and involuntary muscular tissue, whereby the former is enabled to contract quickly, under an excit- ing influence, while the latter under precisely the same influence, contracts so much more slowly. "In short, such an hypothesis fails to satisfactorily explain any of the many phenomena connected with muscular movements, either during life, or after co- ordinate vitality has ceased. The chemical theory (which was formerly held in high esteem) would in- volve such a rapid structural disintegration and tissue formation as to not only astonish the world, but even Him who spoke it into existence. "In order that we may clearly comprehend what fol- lows it will be necessary that we briefly inquire into the histological conformation of muscle. See Plate III. "We shall find then that the non-striated muscle cell is fusiform in shape, of transparent, refracting and amorphous formed material, and containing in its inter ior. at the point of its greatest diameter, an elongated, or rod-shaped nucleus, or bioplast. These cells are so united that the body of one is received between the at- tenuated extremities of its four neighboring cells, thus forming fasciculi, or membranes. This description is equally applicable to the non-striated muscle of the warm or the cold-blooded animal. Hence, 'anatomical structure and constitution ' being precisely the same, we are of necessity forced to attribute the remarkable dif- ference in the length of time during which they re- spectively retain muscular irritability after respiration and circulation have ceased, to some other principle, condition, or influence. "A microscopical examination of striated muscle re- veals the same identity of ' anatomical structure and 496 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. constitution' that was found to obtain in the former case, and hence the same remarks hold good as to it. "Unfortunately, however, histologists have been con- tent with a superficial view of striated muscle cell, and have, therefore, come to the erroneous conclusion that these cells consist of anatomical structure only, and hence that they were devoid of a constitution. "I shall endeavor to show, however, that each and every individual striated muscle cell does possess a liv- ing, moving, interior constitution; and, secondly, that herein lies the force, which is the source of the impulse by and through which the phenomena of muscular con- tractions are produced. "Voluntary muscle, then, consists, in its anatomical structure, of bundles of minute iibrillce, enclosed in a membranous sheath, called the sarcolemma. The fi- brillae are composed of cells, averaging about one-twelve- thousandth of an inch in length and one-eighteen-thous- andth of an inch in their transverse diameters, and joined end to end in a minute filament of variable length. It is by virtue of the union of these cells, end to end, that the transverse striation is produced, while the longitudinal marks results from the immediate juxtaposition of the ultimate fibrillas themselves. "Thus far all are agreed; but what of the interior of these cells ? Authors have completely ignored, or, at least, have remained silent upon this subject. And yet I think I am able to establish beyond th$ power of suc- cessful contradiction, that the outer formed material, of perhaps a fibrous character, the cell wall, does contain in an anterior space a transparent, colorless, structure- less, semi-fluid substance, which possesses all the prop- erties of living matter; and that it is by virtue of a change in form taking place in this living matter that muscular contractions are produced. R-31 MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 497 ' ' Analogy teaches us that such is the case; for every organic cell, every anatomical unit, so to speak, is found upon investigation to contain a greater or less amount of bioplasm within its interior, so long as they are ca- pable of performing an active function, or, in other words, unless they have undergone complete dessication. The epithelia, the endothelia, the non-striated muscle cells, the fat vessicles, all contain living matter in an interior space, and this has been dislodged in some in- stances, and has then been observed to undergo all the varied and peculiar movements characteristic of uncon- fined bioplasm. Moreover, there is no tissue or organ of the body, except the lungs, and, perhaps, the depura- tive organs, that is more richly supplied with blood capillaries - certainly a most anomalous arrangement, if the striated muscle cells are entirely devoid of living matter, which alone of all things in nature is capable of being nourished. "Again, the statement by Dr. Beale, "This contractile fiber, perhaps, consists of a passive basic substance of a fibrous character, through which is diffused a soft material, prone to move in directions at right angles to one another, according to the manner in which external forces operate upon it,' and again, 'The changing sub- stance upon which the alteration depends can be ex- pressed from the muscular tissue, and coagulates spon- taneously like a fibrin of blood,' is certainly very strong corroborative evidence of its bioplastic nature, since he has conclusively shown that 'it is upon this material (bioplasm) that the coagulable property of the blood is mainly dependent, and it is this which, in great part, undergoes conversion into what we call fibrin when the blood is removed from the living vessels, or dies.' "It is evident, then, that the material which is sus- ceptible of being expressed from muscular tissue, and 498 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. which has the property of undergoing spontaneous co- agulation, thus being transformed into fibrin, cannot be other than living matter. It is susceptible of being deeply colored with the carmine-staining fluid after ex- pression,. and no doubt it could just as readily be dis- criminated in this way, in situ, had not the formed ma- terial, of which the cell wall is composed, an alkaline reaction. "But, be this as it may. its nature is made evident; and as it is hardly probable that the bioplasm should, contrary to the universal rule elsewhere, be diffused throughout the substance of striated muscle, it follows, as a logical sequence, that it is collected in minute par- ticles in an interior space in the anatomical structure of each cell. "Experimental histologists have shown that the irri- tant qualities of both acid and alkaline solutions, when caused gradually to come in contact with ciliated epi- thelium, instantly excite the slowly moving cilia, and cause them to 'vigorously lash the liquid into which they project; but the effect is soon exhausted, for the alkaline liquid penetrating the cells destroys their vital- ity, and the motion of their cilia stops beyond recov- ery.' These agents have the property of exciting mus- cular contractions also, so long as they retain their irri- tability ; but the experiment proves fatal to a repetition of the phenomenon, as in the case just cited, and, as I take it, for precisely the same reason. It is generally conceded that the cilia vibrates in obedience to the con- fined or limited movements of the contained bioplasm. Analogy teaches us that the phenomena of muscular contractions are due to the presence of, and changes in, living matter within an interior space in the formed material of the striated as well as the non-striated mus- cle cells. MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 499 "We might adduce much more testimony of the same character in support of the anatomical constitution of the striated muscle cell, such as I have described, but, as we are in possession of evidence of a different nature, but of like import, it will be best, perhaps, to take up the latter. "Physiologists tell us that the 'irritability of muscle depends directly upon its anatomical structure and con- stitution,' and for that reason 'muscular irritability lasts longer after death in cold-blooded than in warm-blooded animals.' Now, everyone at all familiar with the use of the microscope knows full well that it can be, and has frequently been ocularly demonstrated that the bioplasm of a cold-blooded animal will live for hours, and in some cases even for a day, at a temperature so low that the bioplasm of man would almost instantly cease its vital movements, assume the spherical form, and, un- less the conditions suitable to its continued vital exist- ence are quickly rendered more favorable, die. Seeing, therefore, that all muscular tissue which is actually dead is equally prone to undergo regressive changes, and that the conditions which are unfavorable to putre- faction, namely, a low temperature, are the very con- ditions which most frequently prove destructive of hu- man • bioplasm and of muscular • irritability, after co- ordinate vitality has ceased, while under precisely the same atmospheric influences the cold-blooded animals retain their muscular irritability, we are led to believe that this difference is wholly dependent upon a differ- ence in the power or capacity of different kinds of liv- ing matter to withstand adverse influences and the dif- ference in the surrounding circumstances under which they normally exist. 'These differences cannot, there- fore, be attributed to the properties of the elements, to physical forces, chemical affinities, or to characters 500 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. which we can ascertain or estimate by physical examin- ation ; but they must be referred to a difference in power which is inherited from pre-existing bioplasm, which we cannot isolate, but which it would be quite unreasonable to ignore.' Reasoning a priori, then, we are again forced to adopt the view that the striated muscle cells do contain living matter within their anatomical structure, and that it is by virtue of its vital existence that muscular tissue re- tains the property of responding to various external in- fluences for an indefinite period after respiration and circulation have ceased. "Moreover, we are able to bring ocular proof of the presence of bioplasm within the cells of striated muscle as well as within those of smooth muscle. "Before doing so, however, it will be best to show that the living matter therein contained ' can and does act in such a way as to not only produce muscular contractions, but also that they experience such changes on the withdrawal of the existing influence as will per- mit the muscle to return to its former state. "The striated muscle cells are found by actual meas- urement to be at least one-third more, and often greater still, in their longitudinal diameter than they are in their transverse diameter; it follows, therefore, that if the bioplasm within these cells can be caused to assume, or even approximate, the spherical form, the cells will necessarily be somewhat abridged in the direction of their greatest length and at the same time increased in their transverse diameter. The aggregate result of such a change will be just what occurs during the act of muscular contraction. "That these cells do possess an individual activity, that each cell does approximate the spherical form, and that too, independently of every other cell at the time MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 501 of muscular contraction, is evident from the bead-like ap- pearance which they then present. "You are all conversant with the fact, no doubt, that the amceba, the white-blood corpuscle, yea, every and all kinds of bioplasm of which we have any practical knowledge, may be seen, even when in active movement, to instantly assume the spherical form when brought under the influence of the electrical current. Muscle quickly and forcibly contracts under the same influence, provided it has not lost its irritability. "If the proper precaution be taken, the experiment may be repeated a number of times, with perhaps the result of materially abridging the period of their vital existence. So may it, also, be repeated, in like manner, in the case of muscle, with constantly decreasing re sponsive power, until at last it becomes rigid in death. "Carbonic acid gas excites the naked bioplasts to more vigorous movements; but this soon ceases, how- ever, and they assume the spherical form, and thus re- main until putrefaction sets in, unless the precaution be taken to displace the CO2 by substituting oxygen, as soon as the spherical form has been obtained. It in- duces exceedingly strong and vigorous contraction of the muscles, and is a favorite agent with many practi- tioners for the purpose of inducing premature action of the pregnant uterus. It is essential to a repetition of the experiment that the same precautions be taken as above. "Many agents possess the property of exciting naked bioplasm to assume the spherical form ; and, indeed, this invariably happens during the transition from active life into the stillness of death, and, no doubt, because in this form less of their substance is exposed to adverse influences, and hence more of their substance is protected by the outer condensed portion. It is by virtue of this 502 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. principle that germinal matter is often enabled to main- tain a vital, though quiescent existence, for months, and even years, when separated from its source of nutrient supply. "In every instance in which these agents have been tested, they have proved equally efficacious in exciting muscular contractions. "Schafer in his work on Practical Histology says: 'But if any object which- possesses the property of re- fracting light doubly is placed upon the staige of the microscope and examined, and then if the field is made dark by turning the analyzer, it will be found that the doubly refracting substance remains bright, unless it happens so to lie that its optic axis is parallel with the plane of polarization of either nicol. And if the object be a muscular fiber at rest, the whole fiber will appear bright and doubly refracting; whereas if it be in a state of contraction the bright stripes only will allow the light to pass, the dark stripes in this condition of the fiber being singly refracting. Transversely striated muscle is not by any means the only tissue which is doubly refracting, for the property is possessed by the white fibrils of connective tissue, and by bone, as well as by the plain muscular fiber cells. But it is the only one which under certain conditions exhibits alternate bands of singly and doubly refracting substance. It has, however, been pointed out by Ranvier, that it is rather the condition of growth and formation of a tis- sue than difference of structure which tend to determine differences in the optical properties of the substance of which it may be composed. And he instances the case of cartilage, the matrix of which, although undoubtedly CQmposed of the same substance throughout, is doubly refracting in those parts where the cells, either from pressure or in progress of growth have come to assume MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 503 either a flattened or an elongated shape, singly refract- ing where they remain round.5' "The cartilage cell, as is well known, is purely and simply a mass of living matter imbedded in a space hollowed out, so to speak, in the matrix ; and hence it follows that the difference in refractive property is en- tirely dependent upon the difference in form which this matter has come to assume. "If, then, we compare the appearances observed in cartilage with the phenomena of polarized light in which we find that the striated muscle cells are doubly refracting when the fiber is at rest, and consequently the bioplasts elongated, singly refracting when the mus- cle is contracted and hence the bioplasts spherical in form, and that the bright stripes in the latter state co- incide with the points of union of the cells, end to end, the dark stripes with the centrally located spherical bioplasts ; and when we consider that this is in no wise dependent upon a difference in ' anatomical structure or constitution,' but wholly upon the peculiar formation, i. e., the operation 'of shaping and giving form,' I think we are clearly justified in stating that we have optical proof of both propositions advanced by us. "By assigning to the cell-wall flexible properties, and allowing the bioplasts to passively resume their elon- gated form on the withdrawal of the exciting influence, we are able to explain how muscular tissue becomes re- laxed after having been contracted, and, also, why the former is properly the state of rest. "This theory furnishes us a rational explanation for the difference which obtains between the two kinds of muscular tissue in the length of time which they re- spectively require to perform their contractile function ; for the rod-shaped bioplast of the smooth muscle cell must necessarily travel over a much greater space in 504 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. order to approximate the spherical form than is the case with the striated muscle cells. And, again, if the question were asked. Why, both being doubly refracting when at rest, the former remains doubly refracting throughout, while the latter becomes singly refracting at certain points, when they become contracted? we would answer, that the first is so constituted that its rod-shaped bioplast cannot do more than approximate the spherical form. "If the question should be asked, Why does muscle retain the property of contractility for an indefinite time after co-ordinate vitality has ceased? we should say, In consequence of there yet remaining in the im- mediate neighborhood of the contained bioplasm suffi- cient pabulum to nourish it yet a little while longer. "Taylor, in his work on Medical Jurisprudence, states, that ' in a case of death from Asiatic cholera Mr. Bumsey observed that half an hour after the complete cessation of respiration and circulation the muscles of the arms un- derwent, spontaneously, various motions of contraction and relaxation, continuing for upwards of an hour, and that, although previously cold, they then became evidently warmer.' He says: 'The restoration of warmth after the body bas become cold, in such cases, can only be explained by supposing that there still remains about it some lingering trace of vital action, although this may not be indicated by the presence of the ordinary signs of active life.' "It is evident that the non-living formed material of an organism cannot manifest any evidence of vitality, except as it is acted upon by living matter; it follows, therefore, that whatever trace of vital action may still linger in the muscle is due to change taking place in bioplasm. It is because the bioplasm is living and eat- ing and forming, that the temperature becomes elevated MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 505 in such cases; or, to be more explicit, during nutritive and formative changes, during the conversion of pabu- lum into bioplasm, and also the latter into formed ma- terial, condensation takes place, and condensation here, as elsewhere, always takes place at the expense of an evolution of an equivalent volume of heat, which thus becomes manifest. "The question presents itself, What produces cadav- eric rigidity? In every instance in which I have exam- ined bioplasm in the last stage of its vital existence (and these observations have been numerous), they have in- variably assumed the spherical form, and thus remained until regressive changes had supervened. The bioplasm of muscle, in accordance with the laws of analogy and with the facts above presented, proves no exception to this rule. " Finally, the question may be asked, Why, the greater the degree of muscular irritability at the time of death, the later cadaveric rigidity sets in, and the longer it lasts, and the later also putrefaction appears, and the more slowly it progresses? "Certainly not in consequence of any difference in anatomical structure or constitution, but because muscu- lar 'irritability' so-called, is directly dependent upon the presence of living, healthy (not shriveled), well- nourished bioplasm, as is clearly evinced by the fact that ' the bodies of soldiers killed in the early part of a battle become rigid slowly, while those bodies killed at the close, or after many hours of muscular exertion, become rigid almost immediately.' And. secondly, this latter fact shows that, in consequence of the pabulum having been exhausted, the bioplasm soon passes into and through the transition change ; while in the former case, there is yet remaining an abundant supply of nu- trient material, the bioplasts are larger, more vigorous, 506 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. able to maintain their vital existence longer, and are therefore better able to resist adverse influences, die harder, and consequently resist putrefaction longer. So soon as the bioplasts have become completely devital- ized. they passively obey the resilient influences of the cell walls, which yet retain their flexible properties, and hence the muscular system always becomes completely relaxed in death. "And now, in conclusion, the old adage, 'Eating the pudding is proof thereof. ' is as true here as elsewhere; and hence if we fail to satisfactorily explain every known fact in connection with the diverse phenomena of muscular movements, either during the continuance of co-ordinate vitality, or after respiration and cir- culation have ceased, we will willingly consign our theory to the fate which has swept multitudes of theo- ries into utter oblivion." - Transactions of American Association of Microscopists, Fourth Annual Meeting. Shortly after the publication of the foregoing article, a criticism appeared ,in a western allopathic journal, in which it was stated that the author of this theory of muscular contractility had evidently "drawn all his conclusions largely, if not entirely, from his drawings." It was also stated that this was merely a question of theory, and of no real practical importance whatever. I have thought it best, therefore, to offer some addi- tional facts of both physiological and experimental im- port in support of this view of muscular movement. When we take into consideration the amount of mus- cular structure relative to the other elements of the hu- man body, and their wide distribution and great func- tional importance, having to do with hearing, seeing, taste, smell, feeling, locomotion, alimentation, circulation, vascularization as regards caliber, the various excretory or expulsion processes, gestation and the expulsion ol MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 507 the child, etc., and that all these muscular functions are susceptible of being disturbed more or less profoundly in various directions both directly and indirectly, we are exceedingly astonished that any medical man should regard such a question of no practical importance. If there was but one mode of treating muscular spasm - for example - and clinical experience had conclusively shown that that mode of practice was eminently success- ful and entirely devoid of drug danger, then I admit that the exact modus operandi of muscular contraction would be of much less practical importance than it now is. We can control muscular spasm with chloroform in some degree, at least, but if it acts upon them as it does on bioplasm generally, and clinical experience abundantly proves that it does, then the sooner all men are taught to adopt a less dangerous and more rational and scientific course of treatment the better for such patients. If lobelia and other such relaxants will act upon this kind of functional matter as it does upon bio- plasm in general, and clinical experience abundantly proves that it does, then the sooner all medical men learn this great fact, and that it is absolutely devoid of toxic influence, the better it will be for suffering hu- manity. Then again, the same comparative statements might with equal justice be made with reference to stimulants - both genuine and the falsely so called - which are made use of .to excite the weak and flagging muscles to increased activity. The day has passed when we can move civilized man by an appeal to per- sonal experience in the use of a few drugs more or less, or at least such should be the case if it is not act- ually true in the main ; and hence the better educated and more erudite members of the profession demand the scientific evidence in support of any new proposi- tion. 508 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. As regards the first criticism mentioned above, I may state that the original drawing was an 18 by 22 inch pen drawing from which the lithographic engraving was copied, and that quite a good deal of labor was ex- pended upon it; but some two years before this draw- ing had an existence in fact I had been studying a much finer drawing made by the finger of God on the broad pages of Nature, some of these investigations of which 1 shall soon present here. Moreover, I had written an article especially on this very subject some months previous to the one that appeared in the transactions of the A. A. of Microsco- pists as above, and this was published in the columns of the Physio-Medical Journal in March 1881, and at a time when no drawing of muscular movements of any kind whatsoever had thus far ever been even attempted by me, or any of my professional friends so far as I know. This criticism, therefore, partook largely of the nature of German "exact research,'" somewhat mixed up with crude speculation in harmony with professional desir'e, the result of preconceived notions and opinions, and would never have seen the light of day had the author of this theory been just exactly "regular" in every re- spect. But to have been "regular" in every respect would have been to assign muscular movements to the operation of "external forces," in harmony with the German idea, for example, to "a coagulation of the al- buminoid substance of the muscles." See Rindfleisch, Pathological Histology. Now, as a matter of "exact research" we know that heat - one of the external forces - will, when sufficiently intensified, coagulate albuminoids, whether these be of pure German manufacture, or simply of American pro- duction ; but since albuminous coagulation is usually quite permanent in its effect, and only yields to decom- MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 509 position, we are inclined to the belief that the subject for "exact research" in this instance at least must have been a case of cadaveric rigidity following in the wake of "regular" treatment for an ITIS. This same Prof. Rindfleisch states that if the femoral artery of a living frog be ligated, a state of muscular rigidity soon fol- lows, from which the limb will recover on removal of such ligature, if the latter be not left in situ too long. On the other hand, Prof. Flint states in his work on Physiology, that if the blood from a living dog or other warm-blooded animal be caused to flow7 into the vessels of a man or other animal in which co-ordinate vitality has ceased, and rigor mortis has supervened, the rigid- ity subsides and muscular irritability returns. These experiments certainly afford the strongest of experimental evidence against the coagulation hypothe- sis vuth regard to muscular contraction; and also dem- onstrate conclusively that there exists a definite and very remarkable relationship of a nutritive character betwTeen the muscles and the vascular system, and which we cannot consistently ignore as professed conservators of the public health. The drawing had nothing whatever to do with the evolution of my theory of muscular contractility, as any sane mind vdio wTas not grossly prejudiced against accepting the truth from any "exclusive" source must have knowm, since the drawing wTas necessarily the visi- ble result of a previous concept. The concept came about in this way: In 1879 I purchased a copy of Beale on Bioplasm, and in my course of reading it I was most profoundly impressed with his general statements relative to the subject of muscular contractility, and especially so as regards the statement that: "Anyone who examines muscle contracting and compares the action with that of the living matter of an amoeba, a 510 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. white blood-corpuscle or a pus-corpuscle undergoing its varied and very remarkable movements, will feel quite convinced that movements, differing from one another in so many respects, cannot be due to one and the same property, nor will those who have actually studied the phenomenon be inclined to class the latter, which have been shown to be vital movements, in the same catagory as movements referred to contractility. * * * The phenomenon of contractility characteristic of this class of tissue is therefore probably due to changes in non-liv- ing formed material only, and is not in any wray depend- ent for its manifestation upon bioplasm.-' - Lecture X. Now, I had previously made numerous microscopical examinations of various kinds of living matter, both naked and enclosed in a limiting membrane of some kind or other, and wdiile I felt sure that such a com- parison as the one mentioned above would be fraught with conclusions such as Dr. Beale arrived at, it never- theless seemed strange to me that the entire muscular system should be so richly supplied with blood-vessels, and should be the subject of waste and repair, if there be no part of their substance living matter, since this same eminent microscopist had already told us in pre- vious- pages of this most excellent little work that bio- plasm is the only thing in the world that can be nourished and grow and produce formed material or organic structure, and that can thus repair waste and renew that which is old and restore that which is lost. It seemed to me that the great mistake he made was in comparing the irregular movements of unconfined bioplasm during its nutritive activity with the move- ments of bioplasm in a state of confinement and per- haps during its nutritive IN-activity. I had frequently noticed that naked bioplasts would invariably assume the spherical form on first disturbing their normal en- MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 511 vironments, and that the same was equally true when their nutritive supply was measurably exhausted, and whenever they were exposed to any adverse influences. I subsequently learned by various experiments that cer- tain agents and external influences would cause them to instantly assume the spherical form, and I said in my mind, surely here is one peculiar change of form that would simulate very closely the phenomenon of muscu- lar contractility if such bioplasm was enclosed in an elongated cell-wall normally, and especially so if the two extermities were attached to jointed movable bodies as muscular fibrillae are in the case of voluntary mus- cle. I have often seen little green-colored worm-like bodies found in semi-stagnant pools that reminded me very forcibly of muscular movements in their grosser aspect. These microscopic worms would frequently suspend their rapid migrations through the drop of water in which they were confined on the slide, and vigorously change their form from the normal to a more or less perfectly spherical shape. They would thus become markedly reduced in their longitudinal diameter and at the same time proportionately increased in their transverse diameter, just as muscular tissue is seen to do under w sufficient provocation. The bodies I have reference to are the Vol vox Globator in their mature form just previous to their assuming the form by which they are distinguished, and the only condition of existence in which they have been recognized as such by microscopists generally. If ahy external force was operating upon them to produce this change it was certainly invisible and ultimately operative upon all alike. It looked to me. however, very much like the contained bioplasm moved first, and that the enveloping membrane was caused to change shape in obedience to the exertion of a peculiar 512 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. force within the contained bioplasm. Indeed, when I first noticed these movements I really thought that I had a genuine case of multiple spasms on my micro- scopic hands, their contortions were so peculiar and vigorous; but after thus struggling for a time, and pos- sibly disengaging themselves from their most external covering, as the snake sheds its old skin, they would again assume their migratory movements as before. This process would be repeated time and again, but finally the form of the Vol vox Globator would be fully assumed previous to other changes incident to multipli- cation by division and a new progeny of worms. In all these changes of shape the internal granular move- ments could leave no doubt as to the source of the im- pulse by and through which such movements were pro- duced being of intrinsic origin. Hundreds of micro- scopical observers have witnessed these phenomena, no doubt, and know that these statements are true ; and they must be convinced that these movements do closely simulate the gross phenomena of muscular contraction and relaxation. I gave some of these little fellows a "regular-' dose of "genuine old bourbon whisky" in the form of dilute alcohol in order to witness its marvelously "stimulat- ing" effects upon them, and with a possible view of having a little temperance speech to mix up with my therapeutics ; but verily, verily, before I had opened my mouth to speak unto them, they, like the many thous- ands of the human family who die annually from the effects of this kind of treatment, were out of the reach of my voice as also of the possibility of attaining to the Globator estate, and yet the only change that I could detect was a slightly increasd density, opacity, and a more granular appearance of the bioplastic con- tents- just such change as is always characteristic of R-32 MUSCULAR CONTRACTILITY. 513 the effects of alcohol on bioplasm - the formed material constituting their protective covering remaining appar- ently unchanged. I examined various microscopic animalcules and often witnessed the movements of the confined bioplasm, many of which movements were precisely identical with those I have since seen take place in non-striated muscle cells, and I now feel confident that these animalcular movements were of this peculiar nature. If it was thought necessary or even advisable I could give a full description of such bodies and their characteristic move- ments, some of which I made sketches of under the microscope at the time, and all tending in the direction of the theory of muscular contractility subsequently fully conceived of by me, but which was not given pub- licity for nearly two years afterwards. I obtained the larva of the blow-fly and time and again dissected out a single muscular fibrilla, which I submitted to the in- fluence of electricity, weak acids and alkalies, etc., under the microscope under a power of 800 diameters, and while I could see the component cells become more or less approximatively spherical as shown clearly by the general bead-like appearance, I could not see the move- ments of the living contents, yet the shortening of the fiber together with the cell-change could be accounted for upon no other hypothesis than that such living mat- ter really did exist within the center of such cells, and that it did assume a spherical shape under such influ- ences, precisely as does naked living matter, and that the contractions were actually due to such bioplastic change; and it was during the time that these experi- ments were being made that my theory of muscular contractility was given birth. The period of gestation was naturally anterior to this. Since the publication of my views relative to this question, I have been able to clearly see the enclosed 514 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. bioplasm of the striated muscle cell - no one disputes the existence of such bioplasm in the non-striated cell - in the partially digested ejecta from the human stomach in which the cells had been rendered discrete or nearly so, and were almost spherical in form. Some of their remaining connections were such as to forbid the possibility of being mistaken as to the nature of the little bodies or their true source, and the change effected in the character of the cell-wall by the gastric juice was such as to produce a difference in refractive index which enabled me to differentiate the bioplasm from its limiting membrane. All these experiments are susceptible of being rigidly tested by others, and until such is done no one who has a higher regard for the truth than he does for his own imaginary notions and opinions will adversely criticise this-no longer a mere theory, but an established fact. I say, established fact, since my own brother, T. B. Redding, Ph. D., a microscopist of international reputa- tion, and a member of the Royal Microscopical Society of Great Britain, and Membre de la Societe Franc d'Hygiene, as well as being a member of several scien- tific institutions of our own country, says that he has seen the heart muscle of the water snail contracting and relaxing in regular successive order, and that under a power of about 1200 diameters the phenomenon is seen to be precisely as described in my article as pub- lished in the Transactions of the A. A. of Microscopists and previously in the P-M. Journal. Much additional evidence could be given of both a physiological and a purely physical character if thought best, but such a statement as the above, by a man of undoubted scientific ability and experience in this par- ticular direction, renders additional analogical evidence superfluous. CHAPTER IX. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. The modus operandi of the formation of the so-called secretions and excretions does not differ in any essen- tial particular from one another, and hence I shall dis- cuss them all together under the one general heading. They are all primarily derived from the alimentary substances which become an integral part of the econ- omy through bioplastic growth and subsequent forma- tive change ; and finally these products resulted in con- sequence of physical disintegraiion of the fully devital- ized outer formed material of the specific functional units or cells of the respective tissues and organs thus directly concerned in such physiological processes. In this way provision is made for a constant renewal of the component elements entering into the specific con- stitution of every individual cell during the entire period of co-ordinate vitality, without involving the necessity of the cell becoming old in substance or necessitating its bodily renewal, which in many instance would be a practical impossibility without resulting in most serious functional derangement. I am well aware that it was formerly believed and ad- vocated that both the secretions and excretions existed preformed in the blood, and that they were either merely filtered from this fluid through some unex- plained and mysterious selective influence of the organs thus specifically concerned, or otherwise that the cells of such tissues and organs absorbed these secretions and excretions into themselves, becoming filled and distended with them, and finally either rupturing, and cell and 516 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. contents escaping together into the lumina of such canal, or that • the contents would be squeezed out by muscular action, leaving the shell-like or sack-like cell to become again filled and distended with its specific secretory or excretory substance. That such a doctrine should have prevailed at a time when the microscope was in its crude and imperfect state is not surprising at all, since it would have been an easy thing for those early investigators to regard an entire peptic gland as constituting a single individual cell, and especially to have thus regarded a mucous gland. The lumina of these glands do become more or less filled with their proper secretion during the empty and contracted state of the stomach, but on the introduction of food the muscle of Bruke contracts, thus dilating the stomach and compressing the glands in the direction of their longest diameter, and in this way rendering their cavi- ties much less capacious than before, the inevitable re- sult being a discharge of their contents. I have exam- ined and made a microscopic drawing (18 by 22 inches) of a transverse section of the stomach of a frog, and which is now in possession of the P-M. College of In- diana. This drawing shows the relative size and posi- tion of all the component structures of the stomach in a state of semi-dilatation, and that the muscle of Bruke serves the very purpose above stated. Under a low power, or a lense of poor resolving capacity, and hav- ing no previous information relative to this question, the investigator might very readily have been led to regard such gland as merely an individual tissue-ele- ment or cell, and that therefore the discharge came from the cell proper. I can conceive of no other way in which such a mistake could have been made. My attention was recently called to a statement re- corded on page 52 of the P-M. Journal, 1884, which reads as follows: "In secretion the tissue-elements simply PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 517 change in condition, i. e., selecting from the blood proper materials they become filled with the secretory fluid, which in turn is pressed out into the ducts by in- voluntary muscular contraction, the result being glandu- lar function, both the result of vital action." If this statement be rigidly construed in harmony with the literal import of the language used, then in- deed will we have proof of the correctness of the above assumption as to the source of this erroneous view of "glandular function.''1 The substitution of the phrase "tissue elements" for that of glandular structure, and the implied relationship of tissue-elements and the mus- cle of Bruke, which actually does obtain between the glands as such and these involuntary muscular bands, but which does not obtain in the sense implied by his language, is another evidence that this unfortunate sub- stitution of a single cell for an entire gland has been made. Had he stated that "In secretion, the tissue-ele- ments simply select from the blood proper pabulum which ultimately becomes transformed into secretory material with which the ducts become filled, and which in turn is pressed out into the lumen of the canal by involuntary muscular contraction, the result being gland- ular function, both the result of vital action," that is, both the nutritive and formative process and the invol- untary muscular contraction, he would have stated the literal truth. I think this was what he really intended to inculcate, and so regarded it at the time when the statement was first made public, and would not have called attention to the matter here at all had not the following query by M. H. Carey, M. D., appeared in the P-M. Journal, November 1890, and which it seems to me is of too much importance to pass by unnoticed : " WHICH IS CORRECT? "On page 52 of volume X, under 'Definitions and Poisons,' Prof. Thurston describes the process of secre- 518 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. tion as follows: 'In secretion the tissue elements (on page 51, under proposition 1, he defines 'tissue ele- ment,') simply change in condition, i. e., selecting from the blood proper materials, they become filled with the secretory fluid, which in turn is pressed out into the ducts by involuntary muscular contraction, the result being glandular function.' Then on page 97, same vol- ume, Professor Redding says: 'Now, I hold that gas- tric juice is not, in the true sense of the word, a secre- tion, but that it is a product of disintegration of the formed material of the heptic cells and of the mucous epithelium also, as I believe. "'The bioplasm, or nucleus of the heptic gland cells and of the mucous epithelium, grow at the expense of the blood-plasma, circulating through the vascular network with which the sub-mucous connective tissue is so richly supplied. But these living particles are prevented from increasing in size naturally by virtue of the fact that they just as constantly undergo formative change or condensation on their distal aspect relative to that of their nutrient supply. And this formed material is pre- vented from accumulating injuriously by being just as constantly disintegrated into the elements of the gastric and other juices of the organ. 'Analogy teaches us that this is the modus operandi of the production of gastric juice.' (Then he refers to 'nephritis,'on page 129, vol- ume VII, by which he surely has special reference to the sentence beginning with the seventh line from the top of page 133.) "Then he says, 'It is not claimed by any one, I be- lieve, that gastric juice already exists preformed in the blood, and no one who is at all acquainted with the na- ture of bioplasm and its condensed product - formed material - will pretend to say that either of these ele- ments is the substance in question. Neither will any PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 519 one who is versed in the truths of biology deny the statement that bioplasm alone (only) can be nourished, and grow, and produce organic structure. Living mat- ter does not convert the blood-plasma or other nutrient elements into gastric juice, but into its own living sub- stance. This is secretion in a physiological as well as in a literal sense of the term.' "Questions: Is it possible for both statements to be true ? If not, which is correct ? "If Prof. Thurston's statement be true, then 'proper materials' must constitute 'secretory fluid' and 'exist preformed in the blood,' which Prof. Redding thought was not claimed by any one. Then on the other hand, if Prof. Redding's statement be correct, food is in no sense vitalized previous to its removal from the alimen- tary canal, and digestion is a mechanical and chemical process. " Whether or not Prof. Thurston said what he meant and meant what he said is a question for him to decide, however, and it is simply my province to try and showT as best I can "which is correct." It is a self-evident proposition that the substances under consideration do not exist preformed in the inorganic world, and that therefore they must be produced some how or other through the agency of living beings. We do not find them as such existing in the vegetable sub-kingdom, and hence we cannot obtain them preformed from veg- etable food. Not one of these secretions or excretions has ever been discovered even in the animal world ex- cept in such organisms as had the specific tissue or or- gan whose peculiar function it is said to be to produce such definite secretory or excretory product, as the case may be. We are thus forced to conclude that such spe- cific tissue or organ has some definite and peculiar of- fice to perform in the production of the respective pro- ducts under consideration. 520 PHYSIOLOGY : iTS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Wherein do these substances differ in their mode of production from the waste or disintegrated products in genera] ? I positively affirm that there is no difference in this respect whatever, and that they were all derived primarily from the food substances, and that all except the bile is derived from the products resulting from the disintegration of the elaborative bioplasts-if I may so call them - either directly or indirectly. In previous chapters we have traced the food substances up to this point, and now we only need to enquire as to whether or not the arterial blood contains these products fully formed and in commensurate quantity to meet the de- mands of the economy. If such be the case, then they are evidently directly produced through the disintegra- tion of the elaborative bioplasts (white blood-corpus- cles, etc.), and should be denominated excretions and not secretions. We can trace the proximate principles of the food up to the lungs as such in constantly diminishing quantity, however, and hence if these products exist preformed in the blood at all, they must necessarily be formed through the nutritive and disintegrative changes taking place in the venous blood. The proposition is so ex- tremely absurd on its very face, however, that it actu- ally causes me a sense of embarrassment to be com- pelled to even record it. Not only is it a fact that the proximate principles are regularly present as such in the portal circulation, and that they have disappeared entirely - as a rule - on or before reaching the arterial circulation, but the same is equally true in part of the principle digestive fluids, especially so of the gastric and pancreatic juices. A portion of these escape along with the feces, but another portion enters the circula- tion along with the food-elements, and like them has entirely disappeared as such before reaching the arter- PHTLOSOPAY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 521 ial current, so that they do not exist in any sense what- ever preformed in the arterial blood - the blood from which all the secreting and excreting organs of the body except the liver draw their pabulum. What, then, has become of these elements on reaching the arterial side of the circulation ? It is quite probable that the pepsin and pancreatine, which are both of an albuminose character, are com- bined with the food-elements in the integrative process, and ultimately appear as component elements of the blood-plasma which is derived from the disintegration of the white corpuscles, lymphoid elements, etc., and that the other constituents of these juices enter the blood as such - the free acid of the gastric juice quickly becoming neutralized by the normally existing alkaline substances of the blood. Let this be as it may, it is certain that neither of these juices appear as such in the arterial blood, but that all their constituents do ex- ist in different molecular, but not chemical, combinations, and that they are essential to the fluid state of the blood-plasma, in some degree at least, as also to the solution or holding in solution of the disintegrated waste products of the animal structures. Prof. Dalton says: "Both the essential constituents of the gastric juice, namely, the pepsin and the free acid, are produced by the glandular mucous membrane of the stomach. It would appear, however, that the mode of their production is somewhat different. Pep- sin is an albuminoid substance formed by the nutritive process in the glands themselves. It probably accumu- lates in the intervals of digestion, and may therefore be extracted from the substance of the mucous mem- brane in the manner already described. On the other hand, the free acid appears in quantity only at the time of digestion, and is poured out with the watery con- 522 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. stituents of the secretion. There is evidence, however, that the acid is not immediately formed by the glandu- lar cells, but is produced by a subsequent, though very rapid, change after the fluid has been secreted. The acid reaction of the gastric fluids is never strongly pronounced in the deeper and middle parts of the mucous membrane, but only upon its free surface." - Physiology, p. 163. Here, then, this able and conscientious investigator recognizes the fact that the two most important con- stituent elements of the gastric juice are "formed by the nutritive process in the glands themselves." And most assuredly no one pretends that the other constitu- ents are formed in the living economy, namely, the water, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride, ammonium chloride, lime phosphate, magnes- ium phosphate and the iron. See table on page 157 of above work. What is said here of gastric juice is equally applica- ble with reference to all the other secretions and excre- tions, and hence this brings us to the main subject of this chapter-the modus operandi of the formation of these most essential constituents of the secretions and excretions. Again we are reminded of the fact that ' ' The cell is the morphological unit of organization, the physiol- ogical source of specialized function." It is to the cell, therefore, that we shall have to devote our attention mainly in the farther discussion of this question, since it is also the true theater of the nutritive process. The following description of the glandular structures and their cells, as given by Cornil and Ranvier, will be both interesting and instructive: "Everywhere upon the mucous surface, tubular glands exist parallel to each other, and perpendicular to the surface where they PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 523 empty into small depressions. Each of these depressions receives the discharges of two or more tubes. These small superficial depressions are separated from each other by circular prominences of the membrane, which in vertical sections appear as slightly elevated conical papillae. These elevations and depressions are covered by a single uninterrupted layer of goblet-shaped cylin- drical cells. These cells present a protoplasm and a nucleus situated at their point of implantation, whilst the remainder of the cell, moulded into the shape of a goblet, contains a transparent mucus, which is contin- uous with the thin layer of mucus that usually covers and adheres to the mucous surface; at other times the free extremity of these cells, instead of being hollowed out, is closed by an extremely thin membrane. The mucus which covers the surface of these cells possesses the reaction of gastric juice. * * * The peptic glands consist of cylindrical tubes which terminate in the de- pressions above indicated. They possess no independent separate membrane, but they are limited by a layer of flat connective tissue cells. They possess tjvo kinds of cells : first, the .peptic cell, described by Kolliker, which is spheroid, granular, and cloudy, and contains at its center a small round nucleus. These cells, whose gran- ules consist of protein material, are placed along the tube near its limit in such a manner as to produce small enlargements w'here they are located. They color deeply with carmine and aniline; second, the other cells found in the peptic tubes are conical, with their base at the periphery and their apex at the center of the tube ; they are finely granular, and are intimately united with each other. From this disposition of the cells of the peptic tubes, we accordingly see, in a section which passes transversely to one of the tubes, two or more round granular cells at the periphery, wdiile the re- 524 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. mainder of the circle is occupied by conical, cells whose borders converge towards the center of the tube, having there a very small central lumen. Each of the tubes is surrounded by a narrow zone of connective tissue, the fibres of which follow the general direction of the gland. The two or more glandular tubes wThich empty into the same depression or crypt of the mucous sur face are separated from similar neighboring groups of tubes by a greater thickness of connective tissue. The mucous glands of the pyloric region are also compound tubular glands, with a general resemblance to the pep- tic glands. They are, however, more voluminous, their tubes are larger, arid they only contain a single variety of cells - the conico-cylindrical. These cells approach in structure those of the surface, but their free extremity is not usually goblet-shaped. They are very long and narrow, their nucleus is ovoid and elongated, and the central lumen is much larger than that of the peptic glands. The glands which we have just described com- prise by far the greatest part of the glandular or superficial tunic of the stomach. They are separated from each other by interlacing bundles of connective tissue, with which, at the lower part of the glandular culs-de sac, smooth muscle fibres are intermingled. These muscle fibres even penetrate the glands nearly to the surface of the membrane. This connective tis- sue is well supplied with a very fine capillary network. The capillaries also form a superficial network im- mediately beneath the epithelium, around the orifices of the glands, and at the summits of the folds which limit the depressions. The capillaries of this superficial network are larger than those between the tubules." - Pathological Histology, p. 461, et segue. The foregoing description of the normal histology is substantially the same as that given and illustrated in PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 525 most works on anatomy and physiology, and which I have quoted thus fully and almost in its entirety for several reasons, one of which is that I most emphat- ically deny the existence of the so-called "goblet- shaped" cells as existing normally, and yet had I given a description of these structures in my own lan- guage, and in accordance with the facts, I would have been accused of ignorance as to the teachings of others relative to these cells, or else of willful misrepresenta- tion of supposed facts. The anatomical conformation of the stomach is such that it would simply be physically impossible for such goblet-shaped cells to exist upon its internal surface - except as an occasional disseminated epithelial monstros- ity. This is the only instance in the entire history of microscopic research where even a suggestion in name or otherwise is made by anyone that would lead us to suppose cells ever had such an interior secretory or ex- cretory cavity or any other kind of cavity except that - figuratively so called-in which the nucleus is domi- ciled. Moreover, you will notice that it is only the free extremity of these cells (and which could not very well be either free or greatly expanded while in .situ, since lateral pressure would counteract any such tendency) that is said to be hollowed out, and that this is not a constant condition at all. It must be remembered that the stomach is a hollow body, and that these cells have their attachment to the sub-mucosa, with their free ex- tremity looking inwards, thus naturally tending to re- duce the internal dimensions of the organ in degree proportionate to their length, hence all such cells would have their base situated upon the sub-mucosa and their apex looking inwards, except where elevations of the mucosa provided for an opposite state of affairs. But the text represents the depressions as well as the ele- 526 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. vations as being thus clothed, a physical impossibility. On detaching these cells from their base of nutrient supply, and removing them, a portion of the mucus of the general surface still adheres to them and thus gives them this peculiar appearance of goblet-shaped expan- sion. but while in situ no such definite appearance can be obtained by any differentiating process - nitrate of silver or otherwise. But, even granting the existence of such cells, this in no wise signifies that the gastric juice-like mucus which "covers the surface of these cells" is derived from the blood other than in the form of pabulum to nourish the bioplasm of such cells primarily. Pabulum is only pab- ulum in the true sense of the word just in so far as it is related to bioplasm as nutrient matter, and bioplasm has no power to convert pabulum into gastric juice, mucus, or any other substance directly, except bioplasm. Never in the entire history of biological research has anyone even pretended to have seen bioplasm produce anything else than its own like substance out of pabu- lum directly. And again, no one thus far has ever known bioplasm to undergo formative change of a dis- integrative character, such as would be characterized by any and all of the digestive fluids-this would be a contradiction in terms. Whence came the peptic formed material, the formed material which constitutes the body of these so-called "goblet-shaped cells,'' of the liver cells, etc. ? The universal answer of biologists and his- tologists is, "Every cell, at its origin, is a mass of naked living matter,'' that is, every animal cell is. There is not today, nor ever has been, a particle of formed material or organic substance of any kind what- soever that wTas not produced through the direct agency of biopjasm. This proposition will not be disputed or even questioned by anyone who has any regard what- PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 527 ever for the teachings of Nature relative to this mat- ter. The cells now under consideration, therefore, came to exist in all their completeness and perfection through the integrative energy of vital force; and hence, the question in controversy essentially consists in this : Does the bioplasm of these cells effect a change in the na- ture of the "proper materials" which ultimately are re- solved into "secretory fluid," and if so, what kind of change does the bioplasm or vital energy really effect. If it be answered that no such change is effected by the bioplasm of such cells, then I ask, do these sub- stances exist preformed in the blood, and if not, then where are they formed? After these questions shall have been answered I shall want to know, first, how or by what occult power, force or influence the "proper materials" are caused to fill these cells-admitting the existence of a cavity to be filled - with the secretory fluid; and secondly, whether or not these cells are the subjects of waste and repair; and if so, then a descrip- tion of such process and of the resultant products from beginning to end would be highly entertaining no doubt. If, on the contrary, it be assumed that the bioplasm of such cells does effect a change in "proper materials," thus leading to the filling of the cells with secretory fluid, then precisely what is the nature of such change ? Does the bioplasm convert "proper materials" into bio- plasm- in harmony with the universal LAW governing- nutrition and growth, or does it convert "proper mater- ials " directly into secretory fluid in some anomalous and mysterious way ? So long as medical men have to deal with disturbances of secretion and excretion, just so long will any attainable information relative to the modus operandi of these processes be in demand by the more enlightened and conscientious practitioner. So far those advocating this peculiar view - and it is the view 528 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. generally taught-have offered us nothing in the way of explanation of the modus operand! of these processes, or anything else relative thereto of a practical charac- ter. Are they thus silent because of their ignorance of such questions? If so, then in the name of "exact re- search" let them not ask us to accept their closet spec- ulations as reliable practical information. There was a time in the developmental history of every gland, tissue and organ of the entire body when nothing but embryonal matter or bioplasm existed as the representative particles whence the fully formed el- ements were to be derived. These bioplasts underwent formative change in obedience to the law already so fully discussed in previous pages of this book, and yet, up to this time not one drop of any of the secretions or excretions had been produced, notwithstanding the fact that the blood contained all the "proper materials" at that time that it subsequently did. Why was this the case ? Why was not gastric juice, for example, produced, especially just so soon as the respective bio- plasts had attained to the dignity of cells ? This ques- tion can never be consistently answered in harmony with the old chemical doctrine of which the "proper materials " expression is an endorsement. We know that this bioplasm, had it, from any disturb- ing cause in developmental progress, failed to undergo formative change and thus to produce cell structure, would have split up into albumen, iibrine, fatty matter, and saline substances, and not into any of the secretory fluids. We know that normally it does undergo forma- tive change, and that thus the cells and structures in general come to exist as such. And yet we have thus far got not one of the secretions or excretions, Whence are they derived then ? Does bioplasm, after having thus grown and multiplied at the expense of "proper R-33 PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 529 materials" contained in the blood until a balance be- tween supply and demand had been obtained, and then grown on the one hand at the expense of these nutrient materials, and undergone formative change at the ex- pense of the bioplasm on the other hand, I say, does bioplasm now cease to grow and form as previously merely in order to accommodate its operations to the claims of a speculative chemical theory ? No indeed, it goes right on in the very same work that it has fol- lowed from the first moment of its existence until co- ordinate vitality has ceased, unless its vital bodily exis- tence is cut short by some adverse influence before this latter event shall have occurred. Why, then, does not the amount of formed material still continue to increase after a certain definite period ' in the history of the cell ? At the moment that a balance is obtained between supply and demand, each individual bioplast has ob- tained a specific size, representing just so much vital integrative energy present, and this energy will be in part diverted to formative work since it can no longer exert its condensing influence upon pabulum, and since pabulum is constantly being supplied, the vital energy concerned in the work of condensing this into bioplasm must withdraw its operations from pre-existing bioplasm, the same remark holding good as to the other portion of vital energy, and thus the fully formed material is en- tirely deprived of such integrative energy, and thus conies completely under the controlling influence of the disintegrative energy of the heat evolved by the two former processes, as has been elsewhere stated. The vital integrative energy continues right on with its con- densing work just as vigorously as before this disin- tegrative process commenced, neither looking to the right nor the left for instructions as to how to act or what 530 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. changes to make ; it is fully acquainted with the intri- cacies of its old pursuits, and cannot be induced to en gage in any new venture, especially of a chemical char- acter, and as for disintegrative work, it has carefully provided for that when it is entirely through with such matter, providing some "smart aleck" does not inter- fere with its operations. The product resulting from the disintegrative in- fluence of the heat thus evolved constitutes the more essential elements of the secretions, and the so-called extractive substances of the excretions. There is no doubt in my mind but that the other constituents of the gastric juice, already mentioned, are derived directly from the blood unchanged, and that they escape into the stomach through the walls of the capillary plexus last described by Cornil and Ranvier as above quoted. It is the mechanical mixture of all these elements that gives us the fully formed gastric juice. I would, there- fore, lay down the following proposition: The bioplasm of these grandular [cells live and grow at the expense of the nutrient materials contained in the blood, converting it into their own substance. The bioplasm just as constantly and in the. same relative proportionate degree undergoes condensation into formed material; and the latter is just as constantly prevented from increasing beyond cer tain definite limits by the disintegrative energy of heat, which heat is regularly and, constantly evolved by the nutri- tive and formative changes. The products of such disin- tegration when mechanically mixed with the transuded water holding in solution certain saline substances gives us the fully formed secretions and excretions. In this way is provision made for a constant renewal of the materials of which the cells of the entire animal economy is mainly composed, so that the cell maintains its normal elasticity, vigor and functional activity throughout the entire period of co-ordinate vitality. PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 531 There is no change in either the nutritive or the formative capacity of any mass of bioplasm from the moment it first came into existence to the last moment of its life. Nor does it produce bioplasm either by growth or multiplication differing in any respect what- soever from the original parent? mass. Any disturbance of the normal process above des- cribed arrests the formation of the proper secretions and excretions at once, and should such a disturbance come about from a diminution of the nutrient supply, or a perversion of its character from any cause whatso- ever, fatty or fibroid degeneration supervenes. For in- stance, Cornil and Ranvier state under the caption of "Lesions of the Glands" of the stomach: "We should mention at this point a lesion of the glands which we have had opportunity of examining several times, namely, a fatty degeneration of the epithelial cells fol- lowing phosphorous poisoning. We do not refer to the local action of the poison which determines gangrene and ulceration, but it is the effect of the systemic in- toxication which results from the absorption of a small quantity of this substance, to wdiich we would call at- tention. Coincident with the fatty degeneration of the liver, kidneys, etc., the cells of the glands of the mucous membrane of the stomach are tilled with fatty granules, and the glands themselves are more volumin- ous than in the normal state. The mucous membrane is thick, yellow, opaque." We thus see that a pathological disintegration of these elements gives a very different product from that which results normally. It is to be noticed also that all the grandular elements of the body, as indeed is like- wise true of every kind of tissue-element of the entire economy, are alike resolved into the same general re- gressive products, the proximate principles plus the 532 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. toxic element or elements, which latter renders their absorption and final elimination practically impossible, so that if removed at -all it must be en masse. There is not known to the practical microscopist and histologist any kind of disintegrative change other that des- cribed in the above proposition that does not give pro- ducts differing in every essential particular from the normal secretions and excretions. It is only through the intimate admixture of certain definite elements in certain definite proportions through the operations of vital integrative energy, and subsequent disintegration and mechanical admixture with certain other elements, that the secretions and excretions can be produced. It is foolishness, therefore, to inculcate the idea that a change in bioplastic growth and formative change ever takes place so as to produce gastric juice, bile, or any- thing else than that which is definitely characteristic of its cell-formed material. The liver does not take up "proper materials" from the portal blood and convert them directly into bile, but converts them primarily into bioplasm, then into hepatic formed material-"animal starch," etc., and the heat thus evolved disintegrates the devitalized portion of the latter, which, when mechanically mixed with the water and its dissolved constituents which transude through the walls of the capillaries, gives us fully formed bile. If, therefore, we wish to increase the quantity of any one of the secretions or excretions in harmony with the normal processes, and with the best interests of the in- dividual, we will use such measures as tend either di- rectly or indirectly to increase the nutritive activity of such tissue-elements. This may be done by relaxing the vascular muscular bioplasts, and stimulating the specific functional bioplasts to increased nutritive activ- ity ; or it may be done by enriching the blood by the PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 533 ingestion of such substances - whether food or vegeta- ble remedies - as are relatively rich in such nutritive substances, or in both of these ways. Such a course of procedure naturally tends to maintain the normal status of the individual cells as regards size, relative propor- tions of bioplasm and formed material, etc., notwith- standing the increased disintegrative change thus super- induced. Such a course of procedure will not leave a debilitated and atrophied organ as a result of our pro- fessional management, but just the reverse of this must necessarily follow. Such a course as the above provides also for the in- creased transudation of fluids in the same relative pro- portionate degree, so that all the conditions necessary to obtain fully formed and perfectly normal secretory fluid are secured. Disintegration of the devitalized formed material can be effected almost as effectually by hot drinks, such as tea and coffee, or by the heat of fevers, etc., but here no provision i& made for bioplastic growth and forma- tive change, nor for the increased afflux and transuda- tion of fluids, etc., and hence the fluids are abnormally thick and viscid, the cells are equally acted upon by the heat so that many of the relatively smaller cells will have almost or entirely disappeared while others having a larger amount of formed material, actually but not relatively as regards the constitution of the cell per se, will still remain, much reduced in size however. Thus there supervenes an atrophy of the organ, which can only be recovered from in the manner above indicated, namely, by increasing the nutritive activity. Then again, any agent that tends to interfere in any manner whatsoever with the nutritive activity of such tissue-elements so as to render the pabulum more dense or less fluid, or in any other manner to interfere with 534 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the normal amount of heat evolved, or which tends to abstract a greater or less proportion of this heat after it has been evolved, will naturally have the effect to render the fluid abnormally thick and viscid, and ulti- mately to lead to fatty or fibroid degeneration and con- sequent atrophy of such tissue or organ. Mercury is given - on the sly - for its supposed good influence on the liver, and it has this effect in a remarkable degree, so much so that it is the most prolific cause of hepatic calculi or gall-stone known to the profession. A very remarkable fact, and one that is far-reaching in its bearings, is that of the peculiar behavior of pod- obihin when given uncombined with sugar or sugar of milk, as compared with its influence when thus combined in the form of a triturate. In the former state of pur- ity it has the effect - even in small doses-of exciting the bowels to increased action, and produces more or less irritation of their mucous lining, but has no percep- tible effect on the functional activity of the liver. If the same quantity be given in the form of a thoroughly well prepared triturate, as above stated, it has but little direct influence on the bowels, but is largely or entirely taken up into the portal circulation, and not only in- creases the flow of bile, but renders it more fluid ; and is a specific for gall-stone-whether produced Toxad- ministratively or otherwise. Now. why is it that this difference obtains ? Evi- dently the drug would produce its specific influence upon the bowels when mechanically mixed with some form of sugar as when uncombined did it pass on down the lumen of the intestine, but being prevented from this by entering the portal circulation, enables us to ra- tionally account for the phenomena relative to both structures thus far. It could not affect the liver with- out first entering the blood, nor could it affect the bow- PHILOSOPHY OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 535 els to any considerable extent if quickly taken up into the portal circulation. The only mystery -if mystery it be - is relative to the reason for its being absorbed in the one state and not in the other. The only possi- ble explanation that I can conceive of that is in har- mony with what we know7 of the nutritive attributes and functional processes of the liver, is that in its un- combined state it has some of the elements necessary for the nutrition of this organ, and possibly all of them, but not in the proper proportions, nor in a state to be assimilated. When thoroughly triturated with sugar the necessary components, proportions, and conditions are secured to render it susceptible of being used as pabu- lum for the hepatic bioplasts, and thus the nutritive, formative, and disintegrative changes are increased in the physiological manner already indicated. Sweet oil is another excellent agent for gall-stone, and it also increases the flow and fluidity of the bile. All oils contain a relatively large quantity of heat. CHAPTER X. ALCOHOL: - THE ABNOM1NATION THAT MAKETH DESO- LATE. In a series of four articles on the subject of alcohol, published in the P-M. Journal, 1884, and from which I shall draw largely in discussing the subject here, the following introductory remarks were made use of by me: "The subject of intemperance has been so ably and so fully discussed from a moral, financial, political and re- ligious standpoint as to almost forbid that anything new, or even interesting, should be said in this direction. The strong arm of the civil law has been implored in behalf of the temperance cause; crusades have been equipped and sent forth to do battle against the vile demon and insatiate enemy of mankind ; the prayers of the Chris- tian world and the agonizing tears of the stricken and distressed have ascended to the throne of God for an abatement of and relief from this accursed evil; never- theless, the traffic in alcoholic liquors continues una- bated, if not in increased prosperity. This most unfor- tunate negative result need not astonish us in the least when we consider that the physically degraded, and mentally, morally and spiritually depraved inebriate cares not for the doctrine and precepts of morality and Christianity, but rather seeks the haunts of sin and in- iquity, there to revel more and more in deeds of un- righteousness ; cares not for political economy and financial prosperity only in so far as they enable him to gratify his vitiated appetite and unholy passions. "Seeing how utterly futile the efforts heretofore put forth have been in arresting the onward march of this fell-destroyer, are we to give up in despair and tamely ALCOHOL. 537 fold our arms and let the enemy hold the fort? No! certainly not!! There is a cause or causes operating to perpetuate the crime of intemperance, so all-pervading, and so very respectable (?) in character, as to pale into utter insignficance all other causes combined when com- pared with these. It seeks the homes and firesides of the rich and the poor; the devout Christian and the ar- rogant knave; the humble farmer and the aristocratic '•city dad," and even the new made mother on her couch of confinement and the very babe in her arms are not free from its seductive wiles. But worse than all else - yea, a thousand fold more disastrous in its damnable influence - it even penetrates into the preg- nant womb and there grasps the unborn babe in a vice-like grip and, sad to say, may never let go either throughout time or endless eternity, for has not God said 'a drunkard shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven?' I have reference to the use of alcoholic liquors as a therapeutical agent in the treatment of dis- ease, and in a lesser degree, to be sure, from the use of this abominable and soul destroying poison as a fit em- blem (?) of the shed blood of our crucified Redeemer in conducting the ordinance of the Lord's supper." It may have seemed to some of my former readers that the above charge of responsibility was an exagger- ated statement of the truth, the result of sectarian bias against the internal use of any kind of poisonous agent in the treatment of disease, and that, therefore, it should be taken cum grano satis. I presume that almost every- one is more or less prejudiced in favor of the position which he honestly entertains with reference to any great question which is a subject of controversy, and hence I do not care to lay claim to being an exception to the general rule; nevertheless the above charge pre- ferred against the medical profession especially, was 538 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. only dictated as the result of years of close professional observation and research. Moreover, Dr. N. S. Davis, of Chicago, who has been educated into a belief and general acceptance of the doctrines and precepts of a school of medicine which declares that "The most viru- lent poisons are our best remedies," says: "I wish to say further to the members of that most important and humane profession, in whose ranks I have diligently labored for more than half a century, that if you, one and all, will patiently and boldly verify the truth of these several propositions as I have done, by acting in accordance with them at the bedside of the sick, you will not only soon realize a marked diminution in the ratio of mortality from all those diseases for which you have heretofore prescribed alcoholic liquors, but by uni- formly characterizing such liquors as depressing, par- alyzing and poisonous, instead of stimulating and tonic, whenever they are alluded to. you will save many thousands from death annually, and do more towards banishing the terribly destructive habit of liquor-drinking from every circle of human society in one decade than has been accomplished by legislation in a century past. By thus quietly and persistently designating all the various fermented and distilled drinks simply as diluted poisons capable of impairing cerebral and nerve sensibility, muscular force, metabolic tissue changes and secretory activity, in proportion to the quantity taken, you will more rapidly and effectually educate the people cor- rectly on this all-important subject than can be done by any other agencies. You, more than any other class of persons, have free access to the individuals and fam- ilies of every grade of human society. It is to you that all classes look for guidance in all matters relating to the preservation of health and the prolongation of life. Not only the common language you use in rela- ALCOHOL. 539 tion to alcoholic liquors, but your individual practice also, are capable of exerting a mighty influence over the maxims and habits of all other classes. And it must be remembered that in proportion as the influence of your precepts and your practices is great, so is your individual responsibility for actively exerting that influence in the right direction." - Closing paragraph of his address delivered on the occasion of opening the great Medical Congress at Staten Island, N. Y., 1891. This is a very strong indirect affirmation of my state- ment relative to the responsibility of the medical pro- fession for the extensive use of this pre-eminent pro- genitor of crime, misery, woe, envy, hate, poverty, dis- tress, physical and mental degradation, depravity and death; and yet wTe are assured by this same eminent Dr. N. S. Davis, and in the very same address just re- ferred to, that ''Throughout the greater part of our medical literature they are represented as stimulating and restorative, capable of increasing the force and effi- ciency of the circulation, and of conserving the normal living tissues by diminishing their waste; and hence they are the first to be resorted to in ah cases of sud- den exhaustion, faintness or shock, the last to be given to the dying, and the most constant remedies through the most important and protracted acute general dis eases. Indeed, it is this poison and practice of the pro fession that constitutes at the present time the strong- est influence in support of all the popular though er- roneous and destructive drinking customs of the peo- ple." What a fearful and weighty accusation this honest and justly renowned physician and scientist has here brought against the "regular" school of medicine, of which he is its most shining light, charging them of not only being directly responsible for the prevalence 540 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. of this accursed and destructive drink habit, but also of ignorantly betraying the most confiding and sacred trusts imposed in them relative "to the preservation of health and the prolongation of life" by stupidly, blindly, and most erroneously inculcating the use of* "dilute poisons" as being " stimulating and restorative, capable of increasing the force and efficiency of the circulation," etc., and delusively prescribing them accordingly, when in fact they are "depressing, paralyzing and poisonous," "capable of impairing cerebral and nerve sensibility, muscular force, metabolic tissue changes and secretory activity, in proportion to the quantity taken," and by forsaking the use of which "you will save many thous- ands from death annually." If it be true that the teachings of this "regular" school of medicine wTith regard to the therapeutical properties and tendencies of this destructive poison are as erroneous as Dr. Davis informs us they are, then is it not quite probable that, in harmony with the laws of cause and effect - the natural and definite relation of things -all their teachings with reference to the sup- posed remedial properties of poisons in general are like- wise false and misleading in character? The editor of the Dietetic Gazette, September, 1891, says: "Such con- clusions as the above are certainly startling ;* if the venerable scientist and philanthropist is right, where does our teaching of the past belong !!! " If these teachings of the past, and present time also, according to Dr. Davis, are erroneous in precept and de- structive in practice, they should be hastily buried in the grave of the thousands slain annually by their death-dealing potencies, and you ought to earnestly pray for forgivness for the irreparable injury done to your deluded friends and patrons, and that the scales of in- * The propositions referred to will be given soon. ALCOHOL. 541 tellectual blindness may drop from your mental vision, as the scales fell from the eyes of Paul after he had been blindly consenting unto the death of Stephen and other true believers, and thus persecuting the Savior of mankind, and then do as he did - become an earnest, fearless, and uncompromising preacher and practitioner of the gospel of sanative medicine. Your ignorance of "the way, the truth, and the life," will no more excuse you because of your honesty of belief and sincerity of purpose than it did Saul, our Paul; nor than it did Dr. N. S. Davis, nor David. There can be no just excuse for wishing to retain false doctrines and practices, after they have been proven to be such, nor will any individual who has any regard for human life and happiness hesitate one mo- ment after conviction of the truth of the proposition to banish them into outer darkness as a vile and destruc- tive thing. The only question, therefore, that presents itself here for our consideration is as to the truth or falsity of the propositions of Dr. Davis, as referred to in the excerpt taken from the Dietetic Gazette, namely : "1. Alcohol is a poison. 2. Is not assimilated, but is thrown off unchanged. 3. Disturbs physiological processes and lays the foun- dation for disease. 4. Does not stimulate or strengthen, but depressss and weakens. 5. As it is not assimilated, it cannot be a food. 6. Disturbs every physiological process ; cannot be a medicine. 7. There is no disease that cannot be better treated without than with it." Journal of the American Medi- cal Association, for August 8, 1891. Seven is a wonderful number, somehow or other it seems always pointing poor erring mortals in the direc- 542 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. tion of the only right and proper path, in the directipn of "the way, the truth, and the life," and this fact alone leads us to suspect that these seven propositions con- stitute "the God's truth of the whole matter,'' not only as regards alcohol but as being equally true of al] poisonous agents. I shall take these propositions in the order here given, and see if they be well founded in truth, and susceptible of actual demonstration. If such should be found to be the case, then the longer contin- ued use of such agents is a direct violation of one of the chief and most important provisions of the constitu- tion of the United States, and any violation of this pro- vision should be punished with an infliction of the same penalty attaching to murder effected in any other way. Or in lieu of this, confine such violator of the rights of others to life, etc., in the institutions made and pro- vided for the foolish and weak-minded. 11 Alcohol is a poison." Alcohol is the intoxicating element in every kind of spirituous liquor, whatsoever the name, flavor, color, composition or other physical and chemical properties may be, and, while it is true that it is perhaps one of the very best preservatives of organic material known to scientists, it is no less true that its influence upon the living body is always essentially evil in its nature and tendencies, and that its effects are exactly propor- tionate to the quantity taken, all things else being equal. Alcohol owes its preservative influence to its poisonous properties, or to be more definite in expression, it owes its preservative influence to its chemical affinities for the albuminous substances of both the organic com- pounds to be preserved and that of the living, active agents of putrefaction. Its action, therefore, is precisely the same in kind on all substances of which albumen is a component, whether that substance be simple or com- pound, vegetable or animal, living or dead. ALCOHOL. 543 I know whereof I speak, for I have tested the in- fluence of alcoholic liquors on almost every kind of or- ganic substance to be found in the state of Indiana and susceptible of microscopic analysis. When 98 per cent, alcohol is added to any mass of decaying organic sub- stance it instantly arrests the putrefactive process of every part the moment it comes m contact with such part, and the active living particles - the agents of putrefaction - are just as quickly reduced to the state of dead matter. Alcohol, arsenious acid, corrosive subli- mate, carbolic acid, and the entire list of anticeptic pois- onous agents preserve the dead organic material from chemical decomposition by entering into union with them and thus forming more stable compounds ; and from putrefaction by killing the active agents of putre- faction and likewise chemically changing them. As stated in a former chapter, they all owe whatever in- fluence they may possess to their substantial energy, and only indirectly to their material constitution ; and it is only the penalty of a violation of the law of our vital existence that essentially concerns us as physi- cians. The penalty is DEATH, and it matters not what peculiar product you may discover at the post-mortem, he died from the direct influence of the substantial en- ergy exerted, which energy is chemical affinity in the case of mineral poisons, and consequently a unit in nature and primary tendency, and hence "if ye are guilty of the least of these ye are guilty of all,'' since the law and the penalty are the same in every instance whatever the consequences may be as to the nature of the resultant product - that belongs to another king- dom, a kingdom that properly concerns the chemist but not the physician. I shall discuss this matter, however, in its proper place, because it is this ultimate result that seems to have engaged the attention of the major - 544 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ity of medical men to the exclusion of every other ques- tion, and it seems that they cannot grasp the fact of a lowered vitality, or anything less tangible than the ocular proofs of a change in substance as having any direct bearing in the case. In the address delivered by Dr. Davis on the occasion already mentioned, he asks: "What are the actual effects of this alcohol on the living human system ?" And he immediately answers in part thus: "By all chemists and other scientific men it is classed as an active poison, capable of speedily destroying life when taken in sufficient doses; and if taken pure or undiluted it destroys the vitality of the tissues with which it comes in contact as readily as creosote or pure carbolic acid." And in the very same paragraph he speaks of its loss of "identity by molecular combination with the albuminous elements of the blood and tissues for which it has a strong affinity." Solomon was neither a chemist nor a scientist in the sense in which we use the term, never- theless he possessed that wisdom which enabled him to discover that "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." This profoundly wise man, whom Dr. Davis quotes (the above sentence) approvingly, did not need to examine the pro- ducts of such "molecular combination with the albu- minous elements" either physically or chemically in order to afford an answer to the above question. Not only* so, but his language carries with it the import that the great facts he sets forth were sufficiently evi- dent to the public mind that none but a fool need err therein. It is this looking to the ultimate effect rather than to the real causative influence that has led to the use of such a variety of mineral poisons under the mis- taken notion that they really sustain different therapeu- tical relations to the economy of man, when in fact *41-34 ALCOHOL. 545 they all act alike, chemically, and the product is the algebraic sum of the elements entering into such new compound. If alcohol is to be banished from the table of remedies, then justice demands that the fundamental basis of a poisonous therapeutics go with it. Now, man is a complex being, is composed of matter in three different states or conditions, namely, pabulum, bioplasm, and formed material or organic structures. Each of these three general constituents of his body has its own special physiological properties, relations and functions in the economy, and each is influenced or changed in these properties, relations and functions in a definite and peculiar manner by the action of alcohol. So long as the organism maintains a perfect state of health the relative proportion normally existing be- tween these three general constituents remains about the same. Again, the blood of man and most animals has these three general constituents, and in this sense it is a type or epitome of the entire organism. It is composed of the fluid plasma, holding in solution nutrient mater- ials or food products with which to nourish the living germinal matter of his body; of semi-fluid bioplasm - white blood-corpuscles -which serve a three-fold pur- pose, namely, they exert an attractive influence upon the digested food substances on the one hand, and the tissue detritus of certain structures on the other hand, whereby they are drawn into the lumina of the vessels, and, secondly, they convert these elements into their own substance, and are subsequently disintegrated in part into blood-plasma, a much less number of them, however, undergo formative change, and, thirdly, give us the third constituent of the blood, the red blood-cor- puscles, whose function it is to carry oxygen to the liv- ing germs of the entire economy, and without which they cannot maintain their active vital and functional existence but for a very short time indeed. 546 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. The living matter or bioplasm of man lives and grows at the expense of such elements as are suited to their own respective nutritive capacities, the bioplasm in gen- eral living and growing at the expense of the blood- plasma proper, but this latter is prevented from becom- ing very materially reduced in either richness or in volume by the constant addition to its substance of the fully elaborated food products, which have been prop- erly prepared through the operations of the digestive apparatus for the subsequent changes to which they are necessarily exposed, in order to fit them for the nutrition of the higher forms of bioplasm. And the bioplasm is prevented from increasing indefinitely by vir- tue of certain restrictions as regards suppiy and demand whereby its outer and older portions are condensed and transformed into organic structure, and while this latter is constantly being added to at the expense of bio- plasm, it is prevented from increasing beyond certain limits by virtue of physical disintegration of its outer and older portions, and thus a balance is maintained be- tween these three material constituents of the human ecohomy so long as a normal state of things obtains, and whereby he is constantly being renewed, reinvigor- ated and rejuvinated in every tissue and fiber of his being. The facts and arguments adduced in previous pages of this book relative to the modus operandi of assimila- tion and disassimilation, are such as to leave no- ques- tion as to bioplasm being the primary and controlling source of every one of these processes here mentioned, and even digestion is in all - but the disintegration per se-wholly dependent upon and directly due to bioplas- tic function primarily. It is evident, therefore, that any agent, poisonous or not, that interferes in any way with the proper performance of any one of the functions and ALCOHOL. 547 processes just outlined, must have a detrimental influ- ence. But an agent or class of agents that tends to kill bioplasm strikes at the very root of all these vital pro- cesses, and strikes in such a way that they must indi- vidually and conjointly feel its destructive influence in a four-fold manner. I have experimented with alcohol upon the living stomach of the frog in various ways, and always with the result of interfering most seriously with both its structure and function. I have fed them flies, worms, and other food substances, and then followed this up at different stages of digestion with a teaspoonful of more or less dilute alcohol, and soon afterwards opened the stomach and exposed its substance and contents to view. That digestion was seriously interfered with, and in some instances almost entirely suspended, could not be questioned, the stomach itself, however, was much less affected injuriously than I had previously supposed would be the case from having witnessed its effect upon the empty organ. I could account for this in no other way than that the alcohol combined chemically with the water and albuminoids of the food, and that of the diges- tive fluids thus interfering with digestion, and that the stomach thus escaped in large degree from its direct influ- ence. It is to this fact, I doubt not, that so many who make use of alcoholic liquors at table are enabled to perse- vere in this custom for many months, and even years in some instances, without suffering serious structural de- rangements of the stomach, or becoming unwilling slaves to the drink habit. In other instances I gave the alco- holics on an empty stomach and subsequently examined the tissues both macroscopically and microscopically. I also have opened the stomach of the living frog, and applied the agent directly upon its surface. The result was substantially the same in both instances, the imme- 548 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. diate effect being to thicken and coagulate the mucine and albuminoids of the part with which it comes in di- rect contact, and to render the entire visible surface less vascular and paler than normal. On subsequently examining microscopical sections of the stomach, and comparing them one with another, I found that those tissues with wrhich the alcohol had been brought in im- mediate contact all presented a more dense, granular aspect, and the nuclei or bioplasm of which was evi- dently reduced in size, much more dense in appearance, less transparent than normal and more highly granular in appearance. Some of the sections not taken from the immediate neighborhood of the point at which the alcohol was directly applied did not present any appre ciable change, while others taken from a- point more closely situated, but not directly involved, seemed to have suffered by imbibition of the accursed stuff. I ex- perimented in the same way with dilute muriatic tinc- ture of iron also, and the general effect differed in no wise from the above, except the color imparted to the tissues by the iron. These experiments are easily made, and can be verified by anyone who possesses the nec- essary facilities for conducting such a line of investiga- tions. The point I especially wished to bring out here, how- ever, was that the alcohol not only combines with the albuminoids of both the food elements, the tissue-ele- ments and that of the secretions, and which constitute the most essential ingredients of the digestive fluids, but that it kills all the living matter or bioplasm with which it comes in direct con-tact, changing it into a new compound which is neither bioplasm, pabulum, nor formed material, and hence is a deleterious, though neu- tral, substance to be got rid of as best w'e can; and secondly, just in proportion as the alcohol interferes ALCOHOL. 549 with digestion in precisely the same degree does the entire economy suffer for the want of a proper normal supply of pabulum, even though not a drop of alcohol should gain access to the general circulation. Not only so, but every individual bioplast that is killed in part or totally, either directly or indirectly by its use, inter- feres to just that extent with the normal function of such part, whether it be muscular, nerve, absorptive, elaborative, secretive, excretive, calorific, or whatsoever the function may be. Any substance, whether poisonous or not, on entering the circulation will be distributed to the different tis- sues and organs of the body in quantity proportionate to the relative vascularity and nutritive activity of such tissue and organ. The stomach, bowels, liver, pancreas, kidneys, skin and lungs are all richly supplied with blood vessels, are all remarkable for their relative nu- tritive activity, except the lungs, and all communicate with the outside world, and discharge the disintegrated products of the specific functional elements into the out- side world directly, so that they do not have to re-enter the circulation in order to their final elimination. Na- turally the substances taken as drink, food and medi- cine enter the stomach first, and are thus brought in contact with the absorbent structures of the alimentary canal, and if they be wholesome foods and drink, and the medicines be true remedies, they not only supply our living matter with the elements of growth, and thus enable us to build up a perfect organism and main- tain it in a state of purity, vigor and strength, but they supply the necessary and essential materials out of which the secretions must ultimately be derived in the process of waste. Not so when alcohol and other pois- onous agents are thus brought in contact with these structures; alcohol - since it is a poison-fortunately 550 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. hardens and condenses the formed material of the cells first, and on reaching the living germs combines with them chemically as far as it goes, thus producing a more dense, friable compound and increasing the thick- ness of the cell-wall to the same relative degree, and proportionately reducing the functional capacity and nu- tritive activity of such bioplasts more or less perma- nently. A portion of the abominable stuff, then, enters into combination with these elements, both the formed material and the bioplastic substance ; another portion passes off in combination with the intestinal secretions and excretions and thus indirectly works harm, and yet another portion finds access to the blood current, kill- ing all the living matter with which it comes in contact on its way, condensing and thickening the vascular walls, thus rendering them less pervious to nutrient substan- ces, and at the same time diminishing their calibre, thus diminishing the quantity of blood flowing through them. It kills many of the white blood-corpuscles, and by thickening and condensing the tissue-elements and the walls of the vessels intervening between them and the source of their nutrient supply, it causes those that are not killed directly to live and grow more slowly. It condenses the red blood corpuscles and otherwise changes them and renders them less competent to per- form their function as oxygen carriers. It also thick- ens the blood-plasma, renders it more viscid and less permeable, and thus interferes with the nutritive changes of the entire economy. The alcohol having been thus still farther reduced in quantity by chemical union with the substances of the blood, next enters into combination with the bioplasm of the hepatic cells, first coming in contact with that rest- ing directly upon the vascular walls and killing it, thus increasing the thickness of the intervening substance ALCOHOL. 551 existing between the nutrient supply and the remaining bioplasm to be nourished, more or less permanently re- ducing the specific function of this organ, and vitiat- ing the character of formed material and secretory pro- duct resulting from its disintegration. From here it goes to the right side of the heart, and then on to the lungs, where it continues its work of destruction and death upon the blood substances, and coming in contact with the tissue-elements in these localities it partly com- bines with them, thus enfeebling the heart first and then interfering with both the inspiration of oxygen and the expiration of the carbonic acid gas and other ex- cretory substances, and partly escaping with the dimin- ished expirations, the remainder going to the left side of the heart, thence to the brain, the entire nervous, muscular and bony systems, to all the abdominal or- gans, glands and structures, to the kidneys, where a portion may escape with the transuding water, thicken- ing and condensing the Malpighian capillaries, and seriously interfering with their function thereby, on from here into the inter-tubular capillaries working the same changes in character and functional disturbances as in the liver, lungs and elsewhere; the skin, where it partly escapes as alcohol, partly unites with the tissues and is eliminated by epithelial desquamation and other- wise, as the case may be. A repetition of the dose will not act so quickly or so profoundly, if the first dose consisted of a gill or more, since the quantity will al- most entirely disappear by chemical union with the tis- sue-elements of an average sized man, but little if any escaping as alcohol, and hence the increased thick- ness and density of the formed material, together with the reduced size of the bioplasts in general, and the re- duced numbers in particular, will very materially inter- fere with the absorptive functions, and hence it is that 552 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. a dram-drinker, an opium-eater, a tobacco-chewer, a poison-taker, must resort to larger and ever-increasing quantities in order to obtain the passionately desired impression. There is, therefore, a kind of endurance of the agent established, but it is the endurance that comes about by virtue of death. It is fortunate, then, that the mucous lining of the alimentary canal is the first to feel the impress of these destructive agents; first, be- cause every repetition of the drug diminishes the ab- sorptive powers of the system, or that part of it di- rectly concerned in taking into the blood current the digested food substances, and is therefore conservative of the heart, lungs, brain, etc., and secondly, because the disintegrated products of the poison-soaked cell substance is eliminated directly without having to be drawn into the general blood mass at all. The great laws of nutrition seem to say: If you will persist in dosing yourself with poison, or permit anyone else to do the same, we will confine their action as entirely as possible to your internal skin, as it were, even if you are starved thereby. Better die a man in substance than a mass of chemical filth. Cornil and Ranvier state that it is reasonable to refer gastric ulcer to a molecular death of the tissue- elements, to embolism or thrombosis of one of the vessels. Ecchymosis and capillary embolisms, when they accom- pany ulcerations, give rise to a very superficial mortifia- tion which does not involve the deep tissues. They say: "We may admit, as a general law, that the lesion is caused by an arrest of the circulation. Atheroma of the arteries may in some cases be recognized as a cause of the trouble. The quality of the food, altera- tion of the gastric juice, substances which have a local action upon the stomach, as, for example, alcohol, mer- cury, etc., may also enter into the etiology of the disor- ALCOHOL. 553 der. An ulceration once established, we may suppose that the continuous action of the gastric juice, together with sclerosis of the small arteries, which diminishes the afflux of blood and consequently the nutrition of the part, is sufficient to prevent complete cicatrization, and to occasion the accidents observed." Alcohol not only changes the quality of the food and produces alterations of the gastric juice, in addition to its local action upon the stomach, but it stands in a causative relation to molecular death or death and chemical change, embolism, thrombosis, ecchymosis, vas- cular sclerosis and obliteration of the lumina, atheroma and subsequent aneurism of the arteries, fatty and fibroid degenerations and calcareous infiltrations, and hence it not only favors the occurrence of gastric ulcer in an eminent degree, but it renders them persistently incur- able. Prof. Austin Flint states that acute gastritis may be produced by excessive indulgence in alcoholic liquors, especially when taken without food, "but the alcohol in these cases doubtless--acts as a local irritant." Of sub-acute gastritis he says : "The affection sometimes follows a prolonged debauch. The habitual free use of spirits begets a liability to it. It occurs especially among drunkards. It may be caused by any of the acrid or irritant poisons not taken in sufficient quantity to produce acute gastritis." He also states that chronic gastritis may proceed from excesses in eating or spirit- drinking; that "the habit of spirit-drinking engenders dyspepsia; drunkards after a time become dyspeptic," and finally that most writers concur in regarding indur- ation or sclerosis of the stomach as occurring chiefly in spirit drinkers. One of the most profound cases of induration of the stomach I ever saw was at the post- mortem of an old man who was never known to be 554 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. drunk in his life, but who had for over twenty years taken his regular morning dram just before eating. He took it in the form of a milk-toddy. One of the most profound cases of general tissue deterioration, in which gastric ulcers played a prominent part, was largely due to periodic liquor drinking. For a complete history of this case, including the most distressing symptomatic phenomena, I refer you to the P-M. Journal, 1880. It is also stated by various authors that acute and chronic enteritis are occasionally attributable to the practice of dram drinking. The reader must be careful, however, not to accept the erroneous conclusion that the inflammatory process is a direct and specific result of the action of alcohol. Inflammation is the response of a living tissue, not to a stimulus or irritant applied to it. but to an increased access of nutrient matter. The contracted state of the vessels, the thickened walls and the reduced calibre per- mit less blood to flow through the parts with which the alcohol comes in direct contact, and hence the struc- tures contiguous thereto are supplied with the additional amount of pabulum thus diverted to them, and conse- quently they take on increased nutritive activity. Period- ical indulgence in intoxicating beverages necessitates per- iodical efforts at repair, but a persistent and oft-repeated resort to the fatal cup will not only entirely prevent inflammatory efforts to repair the injury done by the alcohol, but on the contrary will and does invariably lead to fibroid degenerations of the various organs and structures of the economy. The whole tendency of this agent is to produce the most profound nutritive distur- bances and thus to induce fibroid, fatty granular and other retrograde metamorphoses, and it is only during the intervals of abstinence from its use that any repar- ative efforts can be made, consequently it cannot be the ALCOHOL. 555 proximate cause of increased vital activity, either nutri- tive or functional, but just the reverse of this obtains. The so-called chronic inflammations said to be due to its persistent use really consist of chronic congestions of the blood and the essentially concomitant tissue degener- ations which always follow in the wake of a lowered nutrition. Dr. Beale, in his work on Disease Germs, after having described an ordinary abrasion of the cuticle, in which all the usual characteristic phenomena of inflammation of a vascular structure are manifest, says: "Now what happens when a drop of alcohol is applied to such a sore ? Momentary pain, followed in the course of a few minutes by great relief, or complete cessation of pain, and diminished vascularity. But how does the alcohol bring about these striking changes'? If alcohol be added to any serous fluid, as is well known, the albumen is precipitated. If delicate masses of bioplasm are placed in alcohol, and afterwards examined under the micro- scope, everyone knows that they will appear ' very gran- ular,' and they will have become shrunken and altered much in form; and it will be found that they will resist disintegration by pressure to a greater extent than in their natural state. By the action of alcohol, the surface of a wound is much altered, and it soon becomes covered with a dry crust. This results from the hardening ef- fects of the alcohol. Some of the rapidly growing par- ticles of bioplasm are quite destroyed, while others be- come surrounded writh an envelope of hardened matter, which prevents the possibility of their absorbing nutri- ment and giving rise to new particles, and growing and multiplying as rapidly as before. Not only so, but the permeating power of the nutrient fluid itself is reduced by the tendency of the alcohol to coagulate it." Page 421. 556 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. He also states on page 419 of same work, that "It seems to me that we should not ignore the probable chemical action of alcohol upon important constituents of the blood. It is scarcely possible to believe that the large quantity of alcohol taken by many patients does not influence the permeating properties of the fluid part of the blood, and cause some chemical alteration in the soluble constituents which belong to the albumen class, besides exerting a local action upon soft and rapidly growing bioplasts." He adds, "But, of all the remedies we possess, I believe alcohol acts most rapidly in this way," and yet, strange inconsistency, he says: "When absorbed by the blood of a living person, alcohol does not actualty coagulate the albuminous matter." It does not coagulate the blood en masse, it is true, but it does coagulate all the minutely divided dissemin- ated particles with which it comes in contact and enters into chemical union with. Such chemical compounds as are thus formed in the blood mass by the union of al- cohol and the albumen of the plasma and the corpus- cles constitute just so much non-nutrient matter to be eliminated from the body as best it can. I have tested the action of alcohol upon blood, pus, mucus-corpuscles, and indeed almost every kind of liv- ing animal bioplasm, and it kills them all without a sin- gle exception, and even a four per cent solution or di- lution suspends their amoeboid movements instantly and chemically unites with the outermost portions, killing it and confining the remainder inside a wall that is al- most impervious to pabulum, and difficult to disinte- grate. I have soaked grains of corn in alcohol and then planted them in favorable soil and kept them under suit- able environments otherwise, but they invariably failed to germinate and grow. I have tested other vegetable ALCOHOL. 557 products in the same way, and with the same result. Nay, more, a 50 per cent, dilution of alcohol will kill the torula germs themselves, as I have fully proven by sev- eral repetitions of this test. Bioplasm is universally the same in all its physical and chemical properties; commercial alcohol has a definite chemical constitution; alcohol has a strong affinity for bioplasm and unites with it when brought in contact to produce a new. com- pound universally the same for all kinds of bioplasm ; it is the chemical integrative energy that acts, and not the material [substances of which the masses are com- posed ; the type of the new compound is degraded in character, entirely worthless for any of the purposes of human life and human existence, and the end is eternal damnation. Ah, yes! "Alcohol is a poison." of the most infernal character, and "Well did the wise man of old say that 'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is rag- ing and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.'" See appendix B. "2. Is not assimilated, but is thrown off unchanged." Webster defines "Assimilate" thus: "To convert into a like substance; as, food is assimilated by conversion into animal substances, flesh, chyle, blood, etc." I think there can be no scientific doubt but that all true remedies of a vegetable character do possess nutri- tive components, and that they are susceptible of being assimilated by the animal economy. But that inorganic substances can be assimilated, I do not mean apppropri- ated, and become constituent elements of animal tissues, seems to me an absurdity. Especially is this the case as regards those of a poisonous character, since the very first step in every true assimilative process is the con- version of pabulum into bioplasm. Digestion is not an assimilative process, but just the reverse of this. Neither has the products of digestion become assimil- 558 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ated or brought to a likeness or caused to resemble the constituents of the body simply because of their pres- ence in the blood of such animal. The fat of the cow, or the hog, has not become the fat of man simply by virtue of its presence in his blood. It must first be in- tegrated by vital energy into human bioplasm before it can be extracted as human fat. Grape sugar is not muscular inosite until it is made such by muscular bio- plasm. The legumen of the pea is not animal albumen until it has been integrated anew, and perhaps in differ- ent proportions of its constituent molecules, in the pro- cess of bioplastic growth. We cannot have the pro- ducts of digestion assimilated to the blood-plasma until they have been converted into white blood-corpuscles, and other such elaborative bioplasts, and these disinte- grated into such blood-plasma. The food substance must become thus transformed into blood-plasma before it is fitted for the nutrition of a single particle of bio- plasm of the entire human economy, except that belong- ing to the portal side of the circulation and its venous appendages. Alcohol, in order to be assimilated to the animal tis- sues, -would have to enter into molecular combination with the proximate principles resulting from the diges- tive process (fluids are already in that state or condi- tion essential to absorption, and hence do not have to be digested, but are already digested -so to speak - and nothing but the chemical theory of digestion could have suggested such an absurd idea), but so far from doing this they actually enter into atomic combination with the albuminoids and thus form new chemical compounds, which are more dissimilar from the tissue-elements of man than the fat of the hog, the starch of the potato or the legumen of the pea is. The changes effected by the presence of alcohol in the animal economy is by ALCOHOL. 559 far more closely allied to the legitimate results which would essentially follow in the wake of digestion, if this were a chemical process, than it is to an assimilative process. The eminent German chemist, Baron Liebig says: "If a man drinks daily eight or ten quarts of the best Bavarian beer, in the course of twelve months he will have taken into his system the nutritive constituents contained in a five-pound loaf of bread." According to a mathematical calculation made by Dr. N. Davis - our David who slew the giant of the Philistines-"a man must take a whole year and drink twenty-three barrels of beer to get into his system the 'nutritive constituents contained in a five-pound loaf of bread,'" and at an expense of "about $300," and containing "about one barrel of absolute alcohol." Truly we may say, with the wise man of old. "Whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." It has been shown by chemical analysis that these nu- tritive constituents consist of gum, sugar and starch or fecula, but no albuminoids. It would be impossible, therefore, to get blood-plasma out of such elements, even if their alcoholic environments did not exist, hence we will suppositiously test their nutritive value upon the liver only, and discover whether or not they are capable under existing circumstances of being converted into hepatic animal starch. There can be no question as to the capacity of the liver bioplasm to convert su- gar into its own substance, and that on farther conden- sation into hepatic formed material, at the expense of a molecule of water lost, it becomes animal starch in so far as its chemical constitution at least is concerned. But can the liver bioplasm profit nutritively at the ex- pense of these substances thus circumstanced? Or must they first "Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate ? " PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. 560 It has been and is yet claimed by quite a large num- ber of medical men that alcohol per se is both a posi- tive and a negative food; and that it supplies the ele- ments of combustion in part, and thus tends to assist in keeping up the animal heat. Even that usually care- ful and pains-taking investigator, Dr. Lionel S. Beale has endorsed this view on the one hand, while denying it on the other. He says: '*A certain quantity of al- cohol is digested and assimilated. It is most probable that the alcohol is taken up by, and carried with the portal blood to the liver. Much of it is then appropri- ated with other substances by the bioplasm of the hep- atic cells and completely changed. Its elements are re- arranged and added to the constituents which form the liver cell, and which gradually break up to form the in- gredients of the bile, the liver sugar and the so-called amyloid matter. It is the living matter of the yeast cell that splits up to form alcohol and carbonic acid, water and a form of cellulose. We shall not be sur prised to find that another form of living matter - that of the liver cell - has the power of appropriating alco- hol, re-arranging its elements and causing them to com- bine with other elements to form compounds having properties very different from those of the materials out of which they are made. And it seems probable that under certain circumstances other forms of bioplasm of the body are able to take up and appropriate alco- hol," Disease Germs, p. 387. The doctor unfortunately for the theory, is compelled to confound the meaning of words in order to give the hypothesis even the semblance of truth. Moreover, much of his language here used has a peculiar chemi- cal import about it that is perfectly relevant to the real action of alcohol upon the human economy, but mis- placed in the sense in which he evidently intends to be R-35 ALCOHOL. 561 understood, if his universal teachings elsewhere are a criterion to be governed by. He surely would not have us believe that the "split- ting up " of bioplasm into alcohol means the appropria- tion or conversion of alcohol into bioplasm. He cer- tainly does not wish us to adopt the idea that the death and decomposition of bioplasm is synonymous with nu- trition and growth of living matter. Nevertheless, such is the actual import of his language. Splitting up and appropriating are not synonymous terms ; nutrition and disintegration do not mean the same thing, but just the opposite of each other. The product of the death and decomposition of bioplasm is one thing (and a very dif- ferent thing too from the product of merely organic disintegration), and the pabulum, at the expense of which bioplasm grows and multiplies is another thing. Alcohol does not constitute pabulum for torula. They live, grow and multiply at the expense of saccharine and other organic compounds. Neither does the bio- plasm "split up to form alcohol," but it undergoes con- densation into torula formed material, and this, in the very act of being disintegrated, enters into chemical union with other elements present in the mother fluid, thus producing alcohol, just precisely in the same man- ner as urea and uric acid are produced in the kidneys - of a cat, for example. If the bioplasm split up into alcohol, then no sooner would the process of fermenta- tion commence than it would cease, owing to the death and decomposition of the active agents essentially con- cerned in the process. The doctor not only virtually condemns his own pro- position in the very language in which he states it, but he elsewhere states in the most positive terms that '"Alcohol is not food, but is absorbed as alcohol."*-Disease. Germs, p. 411. * The Italics are all his. 562 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Again, on page 429, he says: ' ' Alcohol does not act as a food; it does not nourish tissues. It may diminish waste by altering the consistency and chemical proper- ties of fluids and solids. It cuts short the life of rap- idly growing bioplasm or causes it to live more slowly; and thus tends to cause a diseased texture in which vital changes are abnormally active to return to its nor- ' mat and much less active condition." We see, therefore, from his own presentation of the matter that alcohol is not a food, but a destructive poison, diminishing or suspending the nutritive changes and functional activities of the body, killing the living matter wTith which it comes in immediate contact, and retarding the nutritive changes and disintegrative pro- cesses of the tissue-elements not thus chemically changed, and thus lowering the heat evolving powers and reducing the secretions and excretions, in other words, deranging all the various processes of animaliza- tion in an eminent degree. As stated by him on page 414 of the same work, "It is easy to prove that by these measures many cells that wTere alive are killed, and that those that escape death live and grow more slowly than before." How extremely absurd and con- tradictory it is, then, to characterize alcohol as a posi- tive food substance, when he tells us on page 411 of this same work that "The rate at which bioplasm grows and is reproduced, is determined solely by the facility of access of the proper pabulum; so that, if nutrient matter comes into contact with the living mat- ter readily, the living matter increases rapidly. In short, the more it is fed, the faster it grows." Bile is a product of the disintegration of hepatic formed material, and hence we cannot have this secre- tion without the existence, constant renewal and disin- tegration of the latter. Bioplasm is the only substance ALCOHOL. 563 in the universe that carl afford the necessary condi- tions and molecular arrangement of elements by and through which to obtain formed material. Alcohol first comes in contact with the bioplasm of the liver cells, because the bioplasm is situated nearest the source of nutrient supply. The alcohol coming into contact with the bioplasm does indeed "combine with other elements to form compounds having properties very different from those of the materials out of which they are made," but why Dr. Beale should have endorsed the chemical theory of life in the connection in which this statement is used, (as previously quoted), and in almost the same breath emphatically state just the contrary, I know not, unless it be that the disappearance of about four ounces of alcohol regularly takes place during the course of every twenty-four hours when administered in the "reg- ular" way, and which is not, therefore, "thrown off un- changed," but unites chemically with the tissue-elements, and thus loses its individual identity in the manner just stated. Pabulum never unites with bioplasm "to form compounds having properties very different from those of the materials out of which they are made " as does alcohol, but it unites with bioplasm to form bio- plasm. Alcohol combines chemically with the bioplasm of the liver cells, then, and thus not only diminishes the attractive influence exerted by this matter upon the blood mass and thereby weakening the entire portal cir- culation with consequent congestion of blood of the ab- dominal structures, but it renders the access of nutrient substances to the remaining bioplasm more difficult of being secured, by virtue of the additional quantity and greater density of materials intervening between the pabulum and bioplasm, and thus retards their growth, reduces the formative changes in the same relative de- gree, thus interfering with the evolution of heat in the 564 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. same proportionate degree also, thereby diminishing the quantity of matter to be disintegrated and the activity of the process in the same relative degree also. In other words, there is a relative proportionate deprecia- tion of all the physiological processes characteristic of such cell, hence the temperature of the body remains nearly or quite normal, notwithstanding the fact that less heat is evolved, since less heat is economized or rendered latent in effecting the disintegration of the se- cretions and excretions. In the language of Dr. Beale, as recorded on page 427 of his work on Disease Germs, "This explanation of the action of alcohol is in harmony with many broad facts familiar to all. By it we may account for the shriveling of the hepatic cells, the shrinking of the se- creting structure, and the increased hardness and con- densation of the entire liver, which result from the con- tinual bathing of the gland-structure by blood almost constantly loaded with alcoholic poison. It explains the gradual shrinking and condensation of tissues which occur in persons who have long been accustomed to ex- cess. The tendency to increased formation of adipose tissue which occurs in many of those who live gener- ously, and seems to be augmented by alcohol, may be explained upon the same view, and the stunting in growth which follows its exhibition to young animals is also accounted for." Alcohol, and all other such like agents, tend to increase the density of the cell-walls of all the tissues with which they come in contact, and to produce a thickening of the same just in proportion as they effect the death of a greater or less quantity of the out- ermost portions of the living nucleus within, and how- ever situated this living matter may be, this new com- pound is always interposed between the remaining bio- plasm and the source of its nutrient supply. They ALCOHOL. 565 thicken the serum of the blood so that it cannot pene- trate the vascular walls and the walls of the cells so readily, even if these structures themselves had not suf- fered change and thus been rendered less pervious to this fluid pabulum. They kill all the living matter with which they come in contact and thus diminish or sus- pend the operation of the force which would cause the pabulum to flow to those or such portions of those liv- ing particles yet remaining. They thus permanently weaken the muscular force of the heart's contractions, thereby increasing the difficulties imposed upon the nutritive process. They render the water of the blood with which they enter into, perhaps, cohesive association, possibly chemical union, unfit for the purposes of the economy, and all the alcohol eliminated "unchanged" is removed from the body in this form. They combine chemically with more or less of the plasma of the blood, rendering it unfit for the purposes of nutrition, and thus in every conceivable manner possible interfere with the nutritive, formative, heat evolving and disinte- grating changes of the cells of the body. The secre- tions and excretions are thereby permanently diminished, the physiological performance of all the functions of the economy are seriously interfered with; the intel- lectual faculties become deranged, and "whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise," even if chemistry has fully demonstrated that twenty-three barrels of good Bavarian beer do contain the nutritive constituents equal to a five-pound loaf of bread. Again I say: "Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar," and "Where- fore do ye spend money for that which is not bread ? and your labor for that which satisfieth not ? harken dilligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let you soul delight itself in fatness." "3. Disturbs physiological processes and lays the founda- tion for disease." 566 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. It is an unquestionable fact that those individuals who subject their tissues to the constant or frequently re- peated influence of alcoholic liquors at an early age soon exhibit both physical and symptomatic evidence of tissue deterioration in every part of the body. They soon manifest evidence of enfeebled powers of both body and mind, and, in the language of Dr. Beale, "They look older, and indeed, physiologically speaking, their tissues are considerably older, and have deteriorated in a much greater degree than would have been the case if they had not been exposed to the action of the sub- stances in question." This is the period of life when the young mind is expanding most rapidly ; the time wdien it is the most susceptible to impressions, wdiether for good or evil ; the time when there is a greater relative proportion of living matter as compared writh the formed material than obtains in after life, and hence it is the period of life when the precepts and ex- ample of parents and others are most powerful for good or evil; the time when sickness most abounds, and the time when alcohol in all its upas-like forms, and opium and the whole host of narcotics with their no less ser- pent-like fangs, coil their slimy folds around the unsus- pecting and confiding child or young man or woman, and often thus leads them down to a drunkard's grave, perhaps loathed and despised by the very ones who started them on the downward road to hell. Oh ! what a fearful responsibility rests upon that man who, in the semblance of a friend and the guise of a ministering angel, as it were, puts the cup to his young brother's lips! ! And what shall be the end of that man who, though physician he be, shall, in the face of the most positive evidence of the destructive nature of alcoholic liquors, as furnished by scientific investigation and re- search, superadded to that written on the pages of the ALCOHOL. 567 world's history, and in view of God's retributive justice, by fraud and deception, bring physical degradation and mental depravity upon his fellow-man ? I say, fraud and deception, because the very language used by writers in support of the doctrine that alcoholic liquors are nutrient, stimulating and restorative are contradic- tory, fraudulent and deceptive on their face, and those who have the ability to write such statements are also competent to understand the full import of their own language. They are written in the supposed interest of a pet theory, and not for the grand and most commend- able purpose of true scientific progress; or so it seems to me. "TEKEL." "But let us consider the sins of Israel. One of the most prevalent was drunkenness. This fearful vice seemed common among all classes and existed in most revolting forms. The prophesy of Amos is full of la- mentation because of drunkenness. Hosea wrote just af- ter Amos, and his words also burn against this sin of Israel. The people not only drank wine, but they car- ried their carousals even into the sanctuary itself." - Sermon delivered by Rev. Jno. Alabaster. But we do not have to search ancient history for evidence that this abomination that maketh desolate visits all ages and classes of human beings, and that it exists in most revolting forms; we have the proofs of this fact in our own country and at this very time. Yea verily, this curse of curses is carried daily into the sick chamber ; into the mother's milk, nay more, even into the sanctu- ary of her womb, there to implant the seeds of death and destruction, of intemperance and every description of vice and immorality. Intemperance in the young nips in the bud the aspirations of the mind for a knowledge of that which is good, noble and elevating. There is a vital force or power in man which is sub- 568 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. stantial and peculiar to, and exalts him above every other created thing. It is indifferently known as mind, soul, spirit, intellectual faculties, and its seat or throne is the bioplasm of the cerebral portion of the brain. Bioplasm lives and grows, forms, and performs function, actively when freely supplied with proper pabulum. But if this pabulum be impregnated with alcohol, or other toxical agent, the living matter is killed in whole or in part, and growth and function are arrested or di- minished. The substantial energy is not destroyed or changed into something else, but it can only manifest itself to us through the agency primarily of bioplasm. That the mind, the intellectual or intelligent power in man, the power that conceives, judges or reasons, is de- dendent upon co-ordinated vital action -and hence pre- supposes the existence of an organism for its manifes- tation - is a self-evident proposition, since it is, in a certain sense, largely a creature of education, certainly a creature susceptible of being educated, and can only take cognizance of material things through the opera- tions of one or more of the five special senses with which he is endowed and Which constitute the true ed- ucators. Memory, thought, reason, are specific attributes of the mind, and it is only through a proper exercise of these faculties that the mind can form any just conception of the true character of material things and even approxi- mately judge of the real nature of the forces of the universe and of their special and specific relations to matter. That the mind ceases to operate in a manifest manner after co-ordinate vitality has become extinct is equally a self-evident fact, since all functional activity is the expression of life force made manifest - remotely, it is true, through the invervention of organic material - but primarily upon matter which is everywhere alike ALCOHOL. 569 and universally structureless. Alcohol kills this matter - bioplasm. Memory pre-supposes an acquaintance with the object or thing to be remembered, and, strange as it may seem, the impression or impressions made upon our minds - not our physical beings - may endure not only while time shall last, but even in a future state of existence. Even Indiana's beloved poet, B. S. Parker, says : "Those who confound Liberal Christians with Mater- ialists err widely. The Liberal discovers no jar be- tween Christianity and science. The investigations of thoughtful men. intent on learning all that can be known of nature's operations, have no terrors for him. The Power that can evolve life from chaos and produce species by natural selections is certainly not less, or endowed with less wisdom than that which creates as a man builds a house. The universal law, fitting the needs of the individual, is not less the wisdom of God than a hodge-podge of special providences would be. Under all lies the central fact that whatever is beauti- ful and true is Divine. It is so in the material uni- verse, it must be so in the moral and intellectual. "Nor does he serve the race who teaches that there is no future life. Who would 'take pains,' says Dr. Knott, ' to trim a taper that is to burn but for a mo- ment'?' Men might not, for the sake of their children, sink down into beastiality and vice, if the thought that there was no life after death were accepted; but who would toil after knowledge, with pain and anxiety ; who would, with ceaseless effort, endeavor to cultivate and exalt the mental and moral faculties if he believed that death would terminate all'? " Ah, indeed, who would toil on day after day, and year after year, through pain and anxiety, without hope or promise of present or prospective earthly reward, in 570 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the earnest pursuit of greater knowledge ;* who would, with ceaseless effort, endeavor to cultivate and exalt the mental and moral faculties if he did not believe that this conscious being was destined finally to partici- pate in .the full fruition of such labor; if he did not believe that he was thus being brought into closer communion with the source of all wisdom - the God of the uni- verse ? What is more sublimely beautiful than the labors of a man who devotes the energies of a lifetime well spent in the pursuit of wisdom in the hope of ben- efiting his fellow-man, when he knows full well from the history of past ages that poverty and contumely must be his portion in this life ? Truly may we say there is something almost divine - most assuredly spir- itualistic- in such acquired wisdom. Every thought that stimulates man to strive for a higher existence is but an expression of a closer communion with his spir- itual environment-an evidence of increasing wisdom. Every promise that is recorded in the Book of Inspira- tion is an appeal to our intellectual beings to strive more and more to become worthy to be with, and qual- ified to enjoy the society of those who having had five talents gained other five, and those who had two talents by usury gained other two, and having been faithful over a few things are made rulers over many. Every call to repentance and conversion is addressed to the reasoning faculties, and always foreshadows a promise of future reward; but how shall we repent of an unright- eous thought or a wrongful act unless we have sinned and come short of our individual duty to our Creator ? Is this thing that we call spirit some abstruse or occult etherial essence, separate and distinct from the life-energy of the cerebral bioplasts or the intellectual faculties of man, which can only manifest itself upon and through such matter while in the flesh? We know ALCOHOL. 571 that neither vitality nor intellectuality are properties of matter, but conditions; for the properties of the brain substance of all men, when uncontaminated or unpolluted with alcohol, etc., are precisely the same in all their ascertainable physical and chemical properties and com- position, the same whether living or dead. We know that the difference in intellectual power must be due to something more than merely the matter per se, and yet we know that the matter must be present in quantity sufficient, and of the normal quality or constitution, in order to the proper manifestation of these faculties. We know that man is endowed with attributes which exalt him above all other created beings on earth, not- withstanding the fact that his vitalized substance is identical in composition and physical properties with that of the lowest fungus, and that alcohol affects them both alike substantially. We know that when life- force ceases to act in man, all functions, both mental and organic, cease also. We can neither destroy nor create matter; nor can we convert one kind of matter into another ; nay, more, we cannot even combine mat- ter in such a way as to produce a single particle of or- ganic structure whatsoever; and even if we could pro- duce bioplasm in our laboratories, we could not endow it with a single vital attribute, much less with mental faculties, all of which we could do if life-energy was a mere property of the matter, or belonged to the or- dinary forces of nature. Life-force per se is substan- tial. Manifest life is the union of two things having definite and fixed relations to one another, and these two things are life-force and bioplasm - not life-force and a chemical compound of alcohol and bioplasm. We believe that this substantial life-force is absolutely indestructible, and that that peculiar life-energy which presides over or constitutes the sentient and spiritual 572 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. part of man has a conscious existence separate from its physical environment. But it must have had a physical environment in order to become individualized as "the property" of man. The embryo brain, soaked with alco- hol, may have one talent to differentiate him from the lower order of created things, but he will hardly be dis- posed to use it profitably, and hence it will be taken from him and given to one who will use it rightly. The talent is good and substantial and was designed to be used for the noble purpose of human advancement, and it will be used to the glory of the giver ultimately. But who is responsible for this stunted intellect and deficient sentient energy - the servant of the talent? It is evident that the dead organic substance can know nothing of pleasure or pain, happiness or misery, hence we conclude that it is the life force, and not the material substance constituting the tissue-elements, that has a conscious existence in both man and animals. We know that the law of conformity to type is so fixed and definite that the physical being cannot depart or vary essentially therefrom so as to lose his identity with the type, and that, therefore, it is only the mind that is susceptible of being changed in its aspirations and moulded to a higher order or state of existence. Sentient energy cannot be thus moulded, the eye cannot be made made to hear nor the ear to see. What did the apostle Paul mean when he said : "Ye are but babes in Christ and cannot bear strong food?" Did he not address their intellectual beings, and in so doing imply that as they increased in mental culture, as they gained more' and more wisdom, they would become thus more closely conformed to the type of the Omniscient? Did he not mean that they would thereby gain twTo, or other five, talents, and thus become able to bear strong intellectual food ? ALCOHOL. 573 Is it not a pleasure for those who are learned in the things of this world to converse with one another, even though they be not face to face ? How much greater the enjoyment then to be brought face to face with the marvelous works of Creative Wisdom, and be permitted to feast the mind on their infinite variety, wondrous beauty and marvelous perfection! "Study the lily, how it grows.*" Yes, this is a great pleasure, but, oh! what ecstatic joy it must surely be for one versed in a knowl- edge of the Lord to be permitted to sit at His feet, as it were, and to listen to the words of infinite wisdom as they fall from His divine lips in one continuous stream '. But what of the poor alcoholic soaked brain, hardened and degraded in organic structure, withered and stunted in vital power, dwarfed and debased in intellectual ca- pacity, what consolation shall he find, what joy or hap- piness is there for him in listening to language of which he knows not the import; to a description of things which he cannot comprehend, and which are entirely foreign to his thoughts or desires ? What comfort or pleasure shall the wicked and depraved derive from spiritual things when they had devoted their energies, both physical and mental, to the pursuit of those things which contributed to their earthly, sensual and carnal de- sires- who took pleasure in the lusts of the flesh and of the devil? "Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I know you not." No, there is no relationship between such moral and intellectual degradation, and the infinite wisdom and goodness of God. But he who cultivates his intellectual faculties in the interest of morality, Christianity, and all things else that tend to make mankind better and hap- pier, places his affections upon things which rust doth not corrupt nor moths destroy. Now, as life force can only manifest itself upon and 574 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. through a definite and specific compound, properly called bioplasm, and as the intellectual faculties are but the conscious expression of the life-force of the bio- plasm of the cerebrum, it follows as a logical sequence that any substance or any tiling that tends to diminish, stunt or degrade the physical basis of life, and espec- ially those substances which tend to kill or otherwise diminish the quantity, or to interfere with the functional activity, of the cerebral bioplasm or its servants - the sentient bioplasts - must tend to diminish, dwarf and degrade the intellectual powers of man. And if such agent or agents tend to create a craving for such sub- stances it renders conformity of the mind to the Type absolutely impossible. And hence, we say that alcohol, chloral, opium, and the entire host of brain poisons, de- grade man morally, mentally-spiritually - and physi- cally ; that they lead man to seek for the things which gratify the lusts of the flesh, things of a selfish and carnal nature ; ..that he has pleasure only in these things; that his affections are placed upon them, and since they are of the earth - earthy - he will therefore havecnothing upon which to .place his affections in the great beyond this life, nothing that he can contemplate with pleasure, but it will be one continuous round of ceaseless searching torment after the gods of his vol- uminous lusts. Read I Corinthians, Chapter VI, verses 9 and 10. No wonder that Dr. Davis, after having the scales of allopathic absurdity, in part, removed from be- fore his mental vision, should in the beginning of his address have said:' "Why does an intelligent and free people continue to spend such enormous sums of money for drinks that so plainly bring nothing but evil in return ? I answTer: First, because of the erroneous education of the greater portion of the people in regard to the true nature and ALCOHOL. 575 effects of alcoholic drinks when taken into the human system, and, second, because of their power to pervert the sensibility of the brain and nervous system, and thereby develop the most fascinating and persistent d'e- lusions. "A large majority of the inhabitants of every coun- try receive the most influential and enduring part of their education not in the school-room or from books, but from the opinions, maxims and 'practices that they hear and see from infancy to adult age in the family, on the street and in social circles of the neighbor- hood. From a very early period in the history of these drinks, before chemistry had separated and revealed the nature of the active ingredient that pervades them all, the people judging only from the sensations and actions induced by their use, were very generally persuaded to regard them as stimulating, warming, soothing and re- storative. Consequently they speedily found their way into almost every household in Christendom, and were ever ready to relieve the baby's colic, to enable the mother to give more milk, to relieve the father's weari- ness, and to prevent the boys and girls from. ' taking colds' when exposed to wet or cold weater; and, of course, doctors, priests and people all united in calling them tonics, stimulants and restoratives for the body and soothing exhili rants for the mind. And it is true that these same designations and the ideas conveyed by them are still dominant in the family circles, the high- ways and the newspapers of this and other countries. Even the great majority of medical men still contribute their full share to the support and perpetuation of these very general and destructive popular errors, by habitu- ally using the same language and sanctioning the same practices regarding them." Yes, sanctioning the same by persistently giving them in their practice as of yore. 576 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. There is no use in trying to cover up and shirk the re- sponsibility ; it was and still continues to be the Toxad- ministers or poison-givers that persuade the people gen- erally "to regard them as stimulating, warming, sooth- ing and restorative." It is the DOCTORS that create the unnatural appetite, and the saloonist that subse- quently provides the means of gratifying it, and of the two the first is most responsible before God and all just-minded men. Every well informed medical man knows that "At its origin, every cell [of the entire human economy] is composed solely of a mass of protoplasm surrounding a nucleus. Among the cells possessing this original structure no differences have been found indicating that a given cell will undergo certain ulterior modifications. In the adult these cells are met with only in the blood, (white corpuscles) in the lymph, and in the tissues which experience a continuous renewal; such cells con- stitute the entire embryo; they have therefore been named embryonic cells." Alcohol and all other poisons tend to kill these cells. "Numerous cells of the higher animals and of man, for example, the white corpuscles of the blood and embryonic cells are composed of pro- toplasm, possess no membrane, and present amoeboid movements." Alcohol kills these bioplasts. "It should not be concluded from this, however, that all cells are wanting in a membrane, but rather that when it does exist, it constitutes only an accessory. " Alcohol kills the contents and condenses and thickens the accessory. ••The definition of a cell is therefore reduced to a mass of protoplasm including a nucleus. 'Even the nucleus is not now considered by some skilled histologists to be essential to a cell. For them the simplest cell consists of a mass of living protoplasm.' "All the embryonic cells possess property of giv- R-36 ALCOHOL. 577 ing origin to elements resembling themselves. * * * Embryonic cells are destroyed or they undergo a series of mortifications which characterize their appearance as seen in the different tissues." The past and present practice of a large majority of the medical profession tends to destroy embryonal matter and thus to prevent those modifications which characterize their normal ap- pearance as seen in the different tissues. "The most important alteration of embryonic cells consists in the formation of a membrane surrounding the protoplasm. This membrane has for each variety of cells some nota- ble differences." Alcohol enters into chemical union with the substance of embryonal cells and thus produces a kind of cell wall which is universally the same in char- acter. "As soon as a cell is surrounded by a secondary membrane, it becomes, 'so to speak,' permanently fixed and assists in the building up of the tissues."-Cornil and Ranvier, Pathological Histology. Not only the living matter of those "tissues which experience a continuous renewal," but the bioplasm of those tissues which only experience periodic renewal, are all quickly and permanently injured and more or less completely incapacitated from performing their functions by the effects of alcohol and all other poisons by virtue of the death of numerous naked living parti- cles on the one hand, and of that of those enclosed in a cell wall on the other. Alcohol is a blighting, with- ering, soul-debasing curse, and the medical profession are most largely responsible for its widely prevelant use. Yes, it is true that when embryonal elements undergo formative change there is some notable difference for each kind of tissue resulting from such organic change. This does not hajjpen, however, when they are subjected to the direct influence of blood saturated with alcohol. PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. 578 Alcohol simply converts their substance, so far as it comes in contact with them, .into a dense, granular, friable compound, which, like the living matter itself, is the same for all kinds of bioplasm, and is different from any and every kind of formed material of the entire economy. The normal processes never determine a formative change, either in the embryo proper, or in matter that has returned to the embryonal state, as in inflammations, until the volume or number of living ele- ments have so increased as to lead to a relative dis- proportion between the nutrient supply and the parti- cles to be nourished. I can conceive of no greater dis- play of creative wisdom, as pertains to the temporal, than is made manifest in the physiological arrangement and anatomical conformation whereby the nutrition, growth, multiplication and formative change of embry- onal matter is determined and controlled, so as, when not interfered with, to produce absolute conformity to type. And I can conceive of nothing more absurdly ri- diculous or more dangerously pernicious than for men calling themselves physicians, to give that which has been thoroughly proven to be detrimental to, and des- tructive of everyone of these physiological processes, and which can be demonstrated by the microscope and other means of ' ' exact research " again and again; I say, I can conceive of nothing so utterly erroneous and entirely inexcusable as for men calling themselves phy- sicians to prescribe these abominations that maketh desolate as remedies. "Whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." And rest assured that God will not make fools and hypo- crites priests and prophets unto the Lord; for "the Lord spake unto Aaron saying, do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, * * * and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, ALCOHOL. 579 and between unclean and clean." "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the -woman, and said unto her, behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing." And this is but a specimen of the universal teachings and injunctions to mothers and others who figure in the work of God's plan of re- demption, nevertheless, there be those who reject this source of scientific instruction as wholly inadmissible, but who will accept the oracular statements of some whiskey-soaked brain in favor of his infernal master as though it came direct from the courts of heaven. So far from it being true that alcoholic liquors tend to shorten human life only fifteen years, it has actually become a matter of divine record that from the time that Noah got drunk to the beginning of the Christian era the longevity of human life has grown less and less. We need not wonder at this when we remember that the sins of the parent are visited upon the children even to the third and fourth generations. We know that when alcohol is introduced into the mother's sys- tem. it enters her blood and is carried to the different tissues and organs of her body, and as the embryo or the foetus gets its nurient supply from the maternal blood, the substance of its body is likewise subjected to the detrimental influence of these poisons in degree pro- portionate to the quantity of the agent used, and the relative amount and nutritive activity of the bioplasm of each special part. The direct and legitimate result is that an arrest of, or retardation in developmental pro- cess is induced, at whatever stage of the process it may be, and the condensed product resulting from its action is not in the remotest degree the formed material of 580 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. organic genesis. The living matter which has not been destroyed remains the same in vital endowments and formative capacity as before, otherwise it would not be living matter, but it is surrounded by a compound of alcohol and decomposed organic matter, which new com- pound is not so readily disintegrated as their own or- ganic or formed material, and which cannot be assimil- ated by any kind of animal bioplasm known to man. Thus surrounded, the bioplasm can no longer increase and multiply as previously; and all the physiological processes in the various tissues of both mother and child are disordered, diminished, suppressed or abolished, as the case may be, just in proportion to the relative amount of change effected in the germinal elements of each special part, and of its specific environments. Now, the brain bioplasm suffers no less in degree than that of any other part of the body, and I am fully con- vinced that an unprejudiced history of the encient moth- ers and of the lying-in-room will show that the in- crease or diminution of idiotic and feeble-minded chil- dren closely coincides with the increase or diminution in the practice of giving alcoholic and other narcotic poisons as drinks, condiments, and as medicines. Under the influence of these abominable poisons, alco- hol pre-eminently, the cerebral bioplasts are arrested in their growth and multiplication, are diminished in size and hampered in function, are much less freely supplied with pabulum, grow and form more slowly, are predis- posed to fatty-granular, and ultimately fibroid, degener- ation, there is therefore less matter in and through which vital force can act and manifest itself, less mind, soul, spirit; the mental faculties are dwarfed, stunted, incapable of expansion, and hence when freed from the young old body, from its earthly tabernacle of flesh, blood and alcohol, opium or chloral, it has but few, if ALCOHOL. 581 any, earthly treasures of wisdom, but few acts of kind- ness and compassion, or deeds of love and charity to remember or to be remembered. Such a one has never risen above the plane of his earthly and sensual sur- roundings- above the lusts of the flesh - and at last he is deprived of these, the pleasures of his soul, and there is no joy, peace or happiness for him elsewhere. But the old who are become feeble in mind and body by reason of age, will, if they have lived a life well-spent in striving to do good, have many beautiful and spark- ling gems of thought of deeds of charity and acts of kindness with which to embellish their crown of right- eousness, given as a recompense of reward, when they here reached that sweet haven of rest. Yes, the things we drink, the food we eat, even the medicine we take, have far more to do with our present and eternal welfare than many suppose. Then I beseech you, fathers and mother, young and old, boys and girls, beware of the man who, in the guise of a friend or as a pretended messenger of health and happiness, offers you wine or beer, whisky or brandy, or other strong drink, or who substitutes for these opium or chloral or other poisonous agent. Say to him: "Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, 'ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die.' 'And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die.'" Answer him - thus sayeth the Lord-"Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." Yea, the mother not only sins, but she sins against the child at her breast, or perchance, within her womb, when she partakes of these things, since it is a direct violation of the Law as recorded in 582 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. numerous places in the word of God. ' • They have Moses and the Prophets, and if they will not believe them they would not believe though one arose from the dead." A nerve that is dead cannot feel pain, nevertheless it is no less a nerve. Nay, more, a nerve that is living has no such capacity, as may be readily determined by sev- ering it from its connection with its nucleus or center, it only serves as a communicating link between the body and the conscience whose servant it is. There is no substance of the body that can feel impressions, or in any way whatever execute functions except as they are acted upon by the vital forces, and all the functions of the body, every other vital force is, in a well bal- anced human being, presided over by the cerebral or supreme vital force, and is in subjection to its will. Matter is inert. It is not the eyes that see, the ears that hear, or the hands that feel, but the cerebral life force. These organs are but the instrumentalities of the sentient energy, and this of the mind, whereby we are enabled to cultivate a knowledge of the wondrous works of Creative wisdom ; and just in proportion as we care for these tissues and organs, kindly or other- wise, just to the same degree will they serve us well or illy. Short of this life we could not have a definite, inde- pendent, individual vital existence, whatever this vital- ity may be, and from whatsoever source we may obtain it, and hence all our powers and capacities, whether physical or intellectual, will be much or little just in proportion to the quantity of matter individualized and rendered subservient to its uses. Short of this life, then, we could know nothing of the infinite concept as made manifest in created things; short of the life to come we cannot know all by a measure of comparison 583 ALCOHOL. that is beyond our ken. The wise man finds enjoyment in the knowledge he has gained, but this only stimu- lates him to greater effort, and as he gains in wisdom he gains in the power to comprehend that which he could not previously, he gains in the power to enjoy, the capacity to feel, and in ability to accomplish more, and thus he goes on and on mastering the marvelous secrets of the universe around him, and, at last, is called to enjoy those of heaven itself. This is the natural or physiological course designed in the very purpose of his creation. And this is what a poisonous therapeutics sadly interferes with. Yea, the drunkard, the degraded, the unrighteous, those who violate the laws of their being, see things as through a glass - darkly. The-whisky soaked brain sees frightful forms and distorted images, becomes idealistic, egotistical, vain, morose, unhappy, suspicious, vicious, foolish, imbecile. If he have pleasures at all, he finds it in the gratification of his voluminous lusts; in persecuting those whom he conceives to be his enemies, or who oppose his whims and opinions. He demands greater liberty for the gratification of his unholy pas- sions, and may become avaricious, and then bring all the energies of his shriveled and dwarfed mentality, and his sovereign powers, to bear upon his neighbors, his government, and the citizens of other nations, to de- fraud them out of their sacred rights and duties, in order to add to his coffers. The drunkard finds sorrow in a constant repetition of the same or even more frightful forms and hideous visions. Even the fermented mass in the over-zealous - the lustful - stomach gives rise to frightful dreams and Satanic visions during the hours of sleep, and renders one dizzy, dull and stupid when awake. But the course of the righteous soul is not that of a circle, but one of endless progression. 584 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Man is, or was, made a free moral-not immoral - agent, and hence he may exert his combined vital ener- gies in the interest of his present and eternal welfare, or he may subordinate them to the lusts of the flesh. In the one case he makes his body, yea all his vital en- ergies besides, subservient to his spiritual being. In the other case he prostitutes and makes his soul, mind, spirit,' subservient to his animal or brute passions. In other words, he sets a higher price upon his physical being than he does upon his spirituality, and God ac- cepts him at his own appraisement, and even from a hu- man standpoint we dare not say but that he receives the just recompense of his reward. How many drunkards reform ? How many vicious and degraded are brought to true repentance and con- version ? Immoral men are not free agents. Every downward step, every glass of grog, every dose of poison, kills its complement of bioplasm and thus re- duces the vital energy of his entire body, never fails to attack the mental throne, banishing into outer darkness the power that wills to do, and finally he sinks in hope- less despair into the clutches of his satanic majesty, ALCOHOL, a burden to himself, an encumbrance on his relatives and neighbors, without hope of present comfort or enjoyment, and with the certainty of future torment. Yea, "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morn- ing, that they may follow strong drink ; and continue until night, till wine inflame them! * * * There- fore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure ; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it." While it may be true that an adult of his own free will and accord, and without previous incentive or predisposing cause or causes, does occasionally become a drunkard, I am convinced that the vast majority of ALCOHOL. 585 individuals who do actually become drunkards are made so in embryo, infancy, or childhood, by the use of alco- holic decoctions, "soothing syrups," opiates, chloral, etc., which are given as medicines to allay pain, obtund nerve sensibility - to cure the little suflerer of his vital manifestations of his mental discomforts, by killing the bioplasm through which these are made manifest, and thus not substituting, but superadding a worse disease to the one already existing, and leaving both to the oper- ations of a LAW which they have grossly violated to be gotten rid of as best they can. Then, father, mother, DOCTOR, beware ! Your sins shall be visited upon the children even to the third and fourth generations. And not only so, but the prophet just quoted above, says in the very same chapter and in the same connection: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!" I con- clude with the 23d. verse of the 5th. chapter of Isaiah, and leave the reader to discover the end of that man by reading the next verse at his pleasure. The first chapter of Daniel will be profitable reading also for those who would know the results of some "exact re- search" relative to the very proposition now under con- sideration, and by those too who had more confidence in the materia medica and therapeutics, and the dietetics of the Bible, than they did in that of the Doctors of either that or this generation. Ah! my "regular" mixers of strong drink, you have Moses and the Prophets, and if you will not hear them, 586 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. then lift up your eyes, being in torment, you alone have it in your power to repent and be converted to a sana- tive mode of practice. Alcohol not only reduces the permeating* qualities of the blood by rendering the plasma more viscid in char- acter ; not only thickens and condenses the walls of the vessels and of the cells ; not only kills or cripples all the blood and vascular bioplasts, thus interfering with the process of absorption, elaboration, and elimination, but it condenses the red corpuscles and thus seriously interferes with their functions as oxygen carriers; it re- duces the quantity, the size, the nutritive and functional capacity of the bioplasm of the peptic and mucous epi- thelial tissues and structures, thus interfering in a two- fold manner with the physiological processes - with the extra vascular or intra-cellular circulation, and also with the normal production of formed material. It needs no argument to convince the unprejudiced mind that the restrictions to the nutrient supply, together with the di- minished quantity of bioplasm and the hampered condi- tion of that which remains, must seriously interfere with both the formative and disintegrative processes. Without waste in the animal economy there can be no great demand for the elements of repair; without repair or a renewal of the worn out and effete elements, the organism even in early life becomes old in body. Alcohol retards waste and interferes with repair, and changes the state or condition of the elements already existing. It prevents integration and consequently re- duces the demand for food and the quantity of matter to be disintegrated. It modifies the character of the product of disintegration and thus injuriously effects the physiological processes conserved by such secretions. Stomach digestion is effected by the heat supplied by these secretions and held in solution by the intimate 587 ALCOHOL. admixture of the food substances and the gastric juice, and hence, if the latter be imperfect in quality or insuf- ficient in quantity, the food cannot be thoroughly pre- pared for the purposes for which it was designed, will not be reduced to that state of minute division neces- sary to its absorption and assimilation by the ductless glands and other elaborative bioplasts. Yes indeed, al- cohol is a negative food, in the sense that it destroys the physiological demand for and capacity to make proper use of positive food. It not only diminishes the quantity and degrades the quality of the gastric and other digestive fluids, but it interferes with the muscular movements of the organs thus concerned, and thereby prevents the proper admix- ture of the contents. Through the destructive influence of this and other such poisons the nerves are indurated and paralyzed, or at least rendered less sensitive to the impressions of the food elements, and hence whatever living matter yet remains is caused to respond much more slugglishly than formerly. Alcohol causes a dryness of the mucous surfaces by combining with their secre- tions and their own substance and otherwise interfering with their functional activities. The structural integ- rity, the absorptive, secretive, excretive, digestive, and mechanical functions are all compromised by these agents. And these conditions are all conservative in so far as they tend to interfere with the absorption of the poison - whether professionally or self adminis- tered. By careful attention to what has been said with re- gard to the source of the inpulse by and through which the extra-vascular circulation is secured and maintained, you will be able to clearly comprehend why it is that the morphine eater, the tobacco chewer and the whisky guzzler can with apparent impunity indulge in such large 588 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. quantities of their favorite suicidal poison. The blood becomes more and more impoverished in consequence of the diminished functional activities, more and more im- pure from the retained excrementitious products and less efficient for the purposes of nutrition by virtue of these conditions, together with the deficiency of oxygen and the presence of the toxical agent itself. The dusky hue of the cheeks and the disgusting nasal eruption - the fragaria vesca proboscis - clearly evinces the degrad- ing influence of alcohol upon the function of haematosis. Alcoholic endarteritis, so-called, a lesion which is invar- iably complicated by a fatty degeneration of the arterial coats and subsequent atheromatous foci and calcarious infiltration, is, as the name implies, due to the action of alcoholic liquors. These encysted tumors contain a thick whitish pulp, composed of numerous cholesterine crystals, free fat-granules, granular-corpuscles and crys- tals of fatty acids, which is often discharged into the lum- ina of the vessels, in consequence of the cysts becoming opened, by virtue of the thinned and degenerated walls,, and the force of the blood current, thus endangering the organism to consequences of embolism and embolic infarcti. Aneurismal dilatations follow the opening of these foci, and all the dangerous consequences and concom- itants of such tumors are thus brought into play. Chronic thickening of the vascular coats at other points, of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord, are other evil consequences following the use of alcoholic liquors. Cerebral softening in disseminated spots with intervening fibroid degeneration is said to be most fre- quent upon endarteritis and atheroma, and, when thus induced is characterized by a fatty degeneration of the functional elements - "the nuclei of the nerve cells and the axis cylinders of the fibrillag are trans- ALCOHOL. 589 formed into small fat drops and fatty granules." All the elements experience a true retrograde metamor- phosis, the infarcti become dry and contract into a yel- lowish white, opaque, apparently firm, but in reality very friable - anything but an ideal-connective tissue substance. Apoplexy, sclerosis of the brain and cord, paralysis, and many other grave disorders of the ner- vous system are induced by alcohol. "Dr. Dacosta says: "The abuse of spirituous liquors gives rise to a disorder of the mental, motor and sen- sory functions, producing sleeplessness, headache, giddi- ness, hallucinations, as well as to a sensation of choking, a diminished vitality, a tendency to fatty degeneration, especially of the liver and kidneys." All authorities are agreed that the action of alcohol upon the nervous system is injurious in an eminent degree, and Flint says: "Dipsomania is to be treated as a disease of body and mind.'" Dr. Hamilton, after enumerating, or rather portraying the frightful and harrowing symptoms of acute alcohol- ism, says: "A much more grave condition of affairs follows the continued use of large quantities of alcohol, and no more hopeless disease exists than that of which we are about to speak. While in delirium tremens re- covery may take place, followed by total reformation, without any serious damage to the nervous system, the more serious nerve changes wrought by constant satur- ation can never be repaired, but tend to further degen- eration and decay." As symptoms of chronic alcohol- ism he enumerates rythmical tremors and loss of mus- cular power, commencing in the extremeties and after- wards involving the entire body; inability to hold any- thing in his enfeebled grasp when his attention is diverted even for a moment; a shuffling, clumsy gait - his feet being scarcely lifted from the ground; loss of 590 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. all taste or care for dress and cleanliness, and has a vacant, woe-begone and sorrowful expression of counte- nance. "He eats sparingly and rarely ever unless his worn-out stomach is stimulated (?) by a dram. He loses flesh and his clothes hang to his withered limbs like the vestment of a scare-crow. This is but the first step in the advancing disease. Memory becomes weak- ened, and forgetting even faces and names, he drops one by one his old friends, and sits in loneliness for hours at a time;" a burden to himself and a disgusting spectacle to his fellow-man. "The mind is utterly sap- ped, and he is reduced to a state of dementia. Num- erous grave changes occur in addition to these. Speech becomes thick and unintelligible." In the earlier stages convulsions occur, afterwards local paralysis, hemiple- gia, or even general paralysis, loss of tactile sensibility, anaesthesia more or less generalized, illusions, hallucin- ations, and finally delusions of the most frightful char- acter ; "but toward the end the condition is one of de- mentia of the most profound character, the patient being completely oblivious of the outside world, and of his duties to ' society. He is morally irresponsi- ble, and the crimes he may commit are motiveless and dictated only by a diseased mind." Yes, but the doctor wTho encourages him to become such by doctrine, prac- tice and example, and the government that encourages such practice and precepts by special favors, are not irresponsible and guiltless. Every functional action, every vita] manifestation, is the result of change taking place in bioplasm. Muscu- lar contractions are due to a spherical or approxima- tively spherical conformation of the bioplasm of such cells, and relaxation is characterized by a passive as- sumption of the elongated shape. Mentality is synony- mous with, and is nothing more or Jess than cerebral ALCOHOL. 591 vitality made manifest through living matter. Alcohol does not and cannot act upon the forces of the body, but acts on the matter through which these forces operate. Just in proportion, then, as the cerebral bio- plasm is reduced in quantity and hampered in its func- tions, just to that degree will the mental capacity of the individual be debased. It matters not how much or how little material substance may be stored away in his cranium, if there be a deficiency of bioplasm not one of the functions of the brain can be properly, fully and harmoniously performed. Formed material is no more competent to originate ideas, analyze propositions or weigh facts than a like amount of putty, and from a commercial point of view, is not nearly so valuable per pound to humanity as the latter, that is, in the absence of bioplasm through which alone vital force can operate and thus guide and direct it. The bioplasm of the muscle-cells, the nerve-cells, and all other nuclei or bio- plasm with which it comes in contact is killed in degree or quantity proportionate to the amount of alcoholic or other poison with which they combine chemically, in part suffer fatty degeneration by virtue of superadded impediments to the proper supply of pabulum, and are thus rendered still more incompetent to perform their functions, and in the case of the muscles in a two-fold manner - the reduction of bioplasm directly depreciating the specific vital capacity in the same relative degree, and the increased thickness and density of the cell-wall superadded to the normal resistance to be overcome in effecting contraction consumes a portion of the remain- ing energy of such bioplasm. The cell-walls are here as elsewhere thickened at the expense of the living nuclei, are made more dense and prevented from under- going disintegrative change as freely and readily as be- fore, thus interfering with the process of physiological 592 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. renewal also, as well as with their specialized function. Yea verily, alcohol is a negative food and an abomina- tion that make th desolate. We need not be astonished that the wThiskey bloat "eats sparingly and rarely ever." He is not the only poor, miserable, deluded wretch who believes that alcoholic liquors are nutritious, and hence the instructions he has received from his medical advis- ers encourage him to strive more and more earnestly to obtain "the five-pound loaf of bread." All the so-called interstitial inflammations, including sclerosis or induration of both the brain and cord are directly dependent upon a disturbance of nutrition for their causation. But alcohol - the infernal stuff - not only seriously compromises all the nutritive functions and subjects the user to other predisposing causes, but it possesses a direct and specific indurating influence upon every tissue of the body in addition thereto. Hamilton says that dissipation has much to do with the development of posterior spinal sclerosis; and that dissipation and hereditary influence play an important part in the etiology of antero-lateral sclerosis. Out of sixty-five reported cases of locomotor ataxia by Rosen- thal thirty-one were traced to libidinous excesses; and of six cases reported by Hamilton as having occurred in two families, and attributed to heredity, "the heads of the families were drunkards." A microscopical examination of a sclerosed cord will show an increase or thickening of the connective tissue substance, which "will be found to have taken place at the expense of the nervous elements." The membranes of the cord will be found thickened and the pia mater firmly adherent to the latter. The walls of the vessels are increased in thickness, rigid, their caliber reduced in size, and the perivascular lymph sheathes dilated and filled with granular debris and lymphoid particles. The R-36 ALCOHOL. 593 nerve-fibrillae will be found reduced in size very mater- ially, notwithstanding the fact that the axis cylinders themselves are seldom if ever entirely destroyed, since death w'ould have occurred before this extreme change could have come about. The white substance of Shwan, however, undergoes granular disintegration, and is in part perhaps appropriated by the bioplasm of the axis cylinder, thus enabling them to maintain their vital in- tegrity for some time longer than would otherwise be possible. The nerve fibrillas are thus caused to partake more and more of the nature of connective tissue and finally to become identical with it. "The tubercula quad- rigemina, the optic tracts, and the optic nerves themselves may be atrophied, grayish, and semi-transparent; at times, even the hypoglossal nerves may present the same lesion." Atrophy and fatty degeneration of the bone corpus- cles, exfoliations, shortening and destruction of the ar- ticular surfaces are occasional concomitants of spinal sclerosis. The membranes of the brain are thickened and ad- herent. and the nerve fibrillas, as wTell as the cells, are atrophied, and their functional capacity proportionately diminished in spirit drinkers. "When the lesion is very chronic, and the tissues very hard, the nervous ele- ments, both cells and fibres, are nearly all atrophied or have completely disappeared." In the brain the axis cylinder, which, by the way, sustains the same relation to the fibres that the nuclei do to the cells, may have entirely disappeared, and their places be occupied by a granular detritus. Of course such nerves have entirely ceased to perform a function. Prof. Flint states that induration or sclerosis of the nervous centers corresponds in the histological charac- ters with cirrhosis of the liver and of the kidneys, and 594 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. that the essential anatomical condition is a morbid in- crease of the connective tissue substance. He farther states that the appearance of the sclerosed nervous center denotes hyperplasia of the neuroglia. ' ' the ana- logue of the connective tissue in other situations," "and atrophy of the nerve structure, the latter, doubt- less, dependent on compression by the former." He thus encourages a belief in the absurd view of its in- flammatory origin, and the consistent but most perni- cious practice of depreciating the nutritive activity, rather than to encourage it, thereby intensifying both the cause and the effect - the disease. Dr. Beale, who has made such extensive observations with reference especially to this point, states that there exists between the textures of perfectly healthy kidneys, as well as in many other organs, only a mere trace of passive indefinite connective tissue; and that of all the textures in the body, this, the least important, has been regarded by many observers as the seat of the most important operations. Certainly; see quotation from Isaiah. He says: "It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that this indefinite and unimportant connective material should be made to play so important a part in modern pathology." He states that it is regarded as the real seat of the actual changes in inflammation, and is sup- posed to become hypertrophied and then to contract, and thus compress the gland or functional structure, causing it to atrophy, and finally disappear. "But [he says] how weak is the evidence upon which the generally received view rests ! A little careful, ob- servation will, I think, convince any observer that what has been termed connective tissue in sections of con- tracted and other kidneys, is really composed princi- pally of altered vessels and wasted secreting structure, ALCOHOL. 595 while a study of the changes taking place in the course of such disease will teach him that from first to last the connective tissue has been perfectly passive, while both the glandular and vascular elements have been concerned in changes which would assuredly end in the complete destruction of the glandular apparatus, wTere it not that their progress was interfered with by the patient's death." All observers of whose writings I have any knowl- edge, except Dr. Beale, are agreed in attributing the morbid phenomena occurring in the falsely so-called terstitial inflammations" to a proliferative activity of the connective tissue corpuscles; and while no one doubts the existence of the interstitial substance in greatly augmented quantity in well pronounced cases, the obser- vations made by Beale> and which have been fully con- firmed by myself, conclusively show that these changes are but consequences of the wasting and contraction of the glandular texturjes. The very history of these cases should have been sufficient to have prevented the adoption of the inflammatory dogma of authors and the pernicious treatment based upon it. "The small con- tracted kidney, with uneven surface, adherent capsule and wasted cortex, so frequently met with in those who for years have indulged in spirit drinking, results from morbid changes closely resembling those occurring in the liver and producing that cortracted, wasted state of the organ generally termed cirrhosis" a condition which Dr. Flint says is due, in the vast majority of cases, to spirit drinking, and which "is to be regarded as an in- curable lesion." This same eminent allopathic writer, Dr. Flint, says that "of all the cases, fatal and non- fatal, in which the form of alcoholic stimulant used is noted - twenty-four - in all save one the patients were accustomed to drink spirits. In the excepted case he PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. 596 drank only beer." Of twenty fatal cases recorded by this writer, eighteen are noted as being intemperate in accordance with their own admission. And yet this author, in harmony with the "regular" custom of this school of Toxadministers, characterizes this process of degeneration and waste as one of generation and nutri- tive activity or true hypertrophy, and treats it accord- ingly. Bile, like gastric juice, is not a secretion in the true sense of the wTord, but is a product of the disintegra- tion of the formed material of the liver cells. The liv- ing matter of the hepatic cells resolves certain elements of the portal blood into its own substance, and this bio- plasm is itself resolved into formed material, and it is this latter that is resolved into bile through the disinte- grative energy of the heat evolved by the two former processes, so long as a physiological state of things ex- ists. All these changes are absolutely essential to the proper performance of its function, are mutually depend- ent upon one another, and the functional activity of this organ is essential to the well being of the entire econ- omy. The bile is essential in the process of digestion and renders certain other elements of the body soluble so that they may be appropriated or eliminated, as the case may be. Alcohol kills the living matter - connec- tive tissue corpuscles and all-hardens the formed ma- terial, and renders a certain portion of the various sub- stances insusceptible of being disintegrated and elimin- ated, and which remains as connective tissue. As has already been stated, the brain normally consists of about forty parts of cholesterine in the thousand, and this substance is a fatty crystalline product of the disinte- grated nervous substance. Any actual or relative in- crease of this matter, therefore, will necssarily prove detrimental in its very nature and tendencies, and bile 597 ALCOHOL. is the only animal fluid which can hold this cholesterine in solution. In the absence of a due proportion of this secretion in the circulating fluids, then, the nervous sys- tem suffers by virtue of an increase of its waste ele- ments, thus occupying space at the expense of that which is necessary to its nutritive and functional activ- ity ; and I feel confident that in every case in which head symptoms are properly attributable to hepatic dis- turbances, it will be found on careful clinical investiga- tion that there is a deficiency, and not an excess, of bile in the circulating fluids. Alcohol affects all the various structures entering into the formation of the liver. The nerve fibrillas lose their insulating material and axis cylinder substance, and thus shriveled and disintegrated, the remains go to increase the quantity of connective tissue; many of the capillaries become reduced to mere fibrous cords, and the bile ducts lose their epithelial lining, in part at least, and these likewise go to swell the amount of con- nective tissue substance. The loss of vascular capacity, the mechanical obstruction to the flow of blood through the vessels yet remaining pervious, etc., leads to abdom- inal congestion and finally odema of the lower extremi- ties, preceded or accompanied with hydrops of the per- itoneal cavity ; to hemorrhoidal tumors, and other dis- turbances of a more or less grave character. It must be evident to every well-informed physician that congestion of a part necessarily leads to diminished nutrition of such part, since the nutritive elements are soon exhausted, and the blood thus depleted and remain- ing in such part, or slowly circulating through it, can afford no farther nutritive support. Alcohol is a fruit- ful source of congestion as a secondary consequence. Dr. Beale states that when the epithelial cells lining the convoluted and straight tubules of the kidneys and 598 PHYSIOLOGY: ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the loops of Henle "have long been subject to the in- fluence of blood modified by the constant presence of alcohol, they lose their healthy appearance, sometimes merely becoming smaller and more condensed, some- times appearing granular and in a state of disintegra- tion. And perhaps in consequence of the growth of the germs having been interfered with at an early period, the place of the disintegrated cells cannot be occupied by a new generation." The smaller and more condensed these particles are, the less competent they are to perform their function, and when the living matter of the epithelia is entirely destroyed repair is absolutely impossible, since there is no longer any matter present competent to be nourished, grow and produce cell substance. The tubules become denuded of their epithelial lining, and are reduced to mere fibrous cords of a connective tissue character. Many Malpighian bodies may be found without a single pervious capillary in them, and of those bodies which still exist not a fewT are so altered, wasted and fatty de- generated as to have almost lost their identity, while others may be found greatly dilated and congested with blood. The inter-tubular capillaries shrink and become degenerated in like manner, the coats of the arteries be- come much thickened, and their muscles degenerated, thus interfering with this peculiar physiological me- chanism, and not unfrequently the smaller arteries rup- ture and give rise to extravisations and ecchymoses here and elsewhere. The poison first comes in contact with the bioplasm of the epithelia because of its posi- tion upon the inner surface of the basement membrane, and hence the "Basement membrane becomes thickened and more impervious to fluids. The kidney and liver become hard, small and wasted. This decrease in size takes place principally at the expense of the cortical 599 ALCOHOL. or secretory portion of the kidney and of the outer active part of the lobules of the liver. * * * The greater part of the blood sent to the kidney passes into the pyramids by the vasa recta and is returned to the veins without being properly depurated by passing through the vessels of the cortex." The blood thus becomes more and more depraved by the accumulation in it of the wornout tissue detritus -which should have been eliminated through the agency of the renal epithelium and its cutaneous complement. Uraemic poisoning and other grave disturbances may and often do supervene and lead to a quickly fatal termination. Dr. Beale says: "Thin sections of the cortex show the tubes to be much altered. In a good specimen the wasting process can be studied in every stage. Often portions of wasted tubes may be discovered which have been slowly separated and altered until at last distinct and de- tached angular bodies represent all that remains of what was once a continuous tube filled with epithelium. These are bodies lohich have been termed by most pathologists 'connective tissue-corpuscles.' Similar bodies formed in pre- cisely the same manner also exist in the cirrhose liver, and instead of belonging to connective tissue formed in the course of disease, [he means inflammatory disease] are the last remnants of the ivasted cell containing network. It has been too hastily assumed that cirrhosis of the liver is due to inflammation and contraction of the fibrous matrix which is supposed to penetrate into every part of the organ, and which has been spoken of as 'Glisson's capsule.' I have showm in the first place that the supposed fibrous matrix does not exist in the situation where the contraction has occurred. Secondly, that the so-called fibrous tissue supposed to be between the lobules forms a part of the substance of the lobule itself, and really consists of wasted glandular elements; and 600 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. thirdly, that the phenomena occurring in cirrhosis may be fully explained in a totally different manner, while they cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by the theory commonly entertained. In the same way many have been led to conclude that contraction of the kid- ney was caused by the pressure exerted upon the tubes at short intervals by the contraction of the matrix. But the conclusion has been forced upon me that those forms of kidney disease which are supposed to result from hypertrophy or inflammation of the matrix, or in- ter-tubular connective tissue, are due neither to hyper- trophy nor inflammation of any kind whatever. The secreting tubes shrivel and waste and leave a residue of 'connective tissue,' which accumulates betwmen tubes aud vessels which have not yet suffered, and which still perform active functions. The cause of this change is to be sought for in connection with the cells themselves, not in inflammation or any active changes in the per- fectly passive intervening material."-Disease of Kidneys. In contrast with the above plain, concise and eminently just and truthful description of the manner in which in- durations and contractions of tissues and organs are produced, notice the doubtful, discrepent and absurdly false nature of the following statement by Dr. Rind- fleisch. He says: "Chronic endocarditis leads to en- tirely different results when it attacks the extended part of endocardium, the lining of the inner cardiac sur- face. The hyperplastic thickening of the connective tis- sue stratum here never produces a perceptible elevation of the level. On the contrary, from the very beginning it produces a certain depression of the affected place, which is very gradually converted into an actual sacculation, finally into an aneurism. The anterior wall of the left ventricle most frequently becomes the seat of these changes. Here in the neighborhood of the heart's apex ALCOHOL. 601 the endocardium appears in the circumference of a sil- ver dollar and upwards, milk-white, compact and tendin- ous. The surface is smooth, nay, it is smoother than it should be, we miss the complex organization which the system of muscular trabeculae specially impart to this region. We cut in and convince ourselves that under the thickened endocardium not only the muscular trabeculae but the entire muscle has disappeared. We find a thorough- going induration, one to two lines thick, of white, dense and stretched connective tissue. In this induration we can no longer distinguish the endocardium from the muscle, nor the muscle from the pericardium. [See -what Beale says under the second proposition above.] Under these circumstances the question is certainly very pertinent whether the process, according to its nature, is not to be accepted as a circumscribed indurating inflammation of the muscle. [ Characterized by heat, redness, swelling (?).] That a hyperplasia and shriveling of the interstitial con- nective tissue is in fact the process by which the heart- muscle is consumed, there is no doubt. In my investiga- tions at the border of the depot 1 could constantly demon- strate where the myocardium, gradually growing thin- ner, passes into the induration, atrophic muscular fibres, which lost themselves in a connective tissue rich in cells, al- though not exactly luxuriantly proliferating.''' - Pathological Histology. I have taken the liberty to italicize certain words and parts of sentences in both the above quotations with a view to have them read in a connected manner, leaving out all words and sentences not so marked, in order to show that these investigators are precisely agreed as to the facts of "exact research," and, secondly, to show by Dr. Rindfleisch's 'own statements that his so-called endo- carditis, his hyperplasia of connective tissue, is, on the contrary, the very opposite of an exaggerated nutritive 602 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. activity, is a wasting, shriveling and fatty-granular dis- integration of the muscular elements themselves. The entire process from beginning to end is purely and simply an induration, dependent upon a restricted and depraved nutrient supply, and is therefore diametrically opposite in every essential feature to the inflammatory process, and nothing but the strongest of sectarian bias in favor of a death-dealing or poisonous practive could have persuaded any sane man to regard it as even re- motely allied to an exaggerated nutritive activity. This devilish disposition to kill something under the sanction of government authority is at the foundation of the very practice that leads to these "hopeless" cases of disease which we have been treating, and it is high time indeed that someone should sound a note of warn- ing, regardless of the consequences to himself or his pecuninary interests. Just think of the thousands that are born into the world to live but for a few years at most, and then to be cut off in their early manhood and womanhood by the blighting, withering, shriveling, soul-debasing curse of alcoholic medication and its sequelae! Then after having failed to fully and com- pletely banish the life-energy into outer darkness in this manner, to give ergot, strychnia, mercury and the like agents in cases of spinal and brain sclerosis and other indurations and atrophyic degenerations, and then the prognosis - '1 hopeless. " Dr. Flint says: "The habitual use of alcoholic liquors favors the occurrence of fatty degeneration of the heart." And Cornil and Ranvier state that the heart is more frequently the seat of fatty degeneration than any other muscle of the organism; and that when all the muscles of the body are submitted to the same influences capable of producing this condition the heart alone may be attacked. I think this circumstance is in ALCOHOL. 603 all probability due to the fact that the heart is, by vir- tue of its incessant functional activity, the theater of greater nutritive changes than any of the other mus- cles, and hence of necessity feels the deleterious conse- quences of impure or impoverished blood, or blood that is rendered unfit for the purpose of nutrition by the presence of noxious or poisonous substances. Alcohol interferes with digestion, absorption, transu- dation or permeation, assimilation, formative change, heat evolution, disassimilation and elimination. It con- denses the formed material of the muscle-cells and thickens their walls at the expense of the contained bioplasm. It diminishes the demand for nutrient mater- ials, and renders the still existing demand impossible to be fully complied with. This condition favors fatty granular degeneration of the remaining bioplasm and consequent loss of contractile power of the muscle. Any relative increase of the cell-walls or diminution of the contained bioplasm must inevitably interfere with the functional power and activity of the muscle, since the resilient or resisting property of the cell-wall is thereby increased, while the loss of bioplasm and the hampered condition of that remaining results in dimin- ished power and functional activity, and thus the great central organ of circulation is rendered more and more inefficient by the influence of alcohol. Should these crippled bioplasts become fatty degenerated, and this detritus remain in situ as a mass or masses of inert, inactive dead matter* of no functional importance what- ever, we have the small contracting fatty heart, of which I have a very fine specimen. On the other hand, should this fatty detritus be eliminated through the agency of the wThite blood corpuscles, etc., the cell-walls collapse and give us precisely the appearances spoken of in the quotation from Dr. Rindfleisch. 604 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. The reason why the apex of the left ventricle should suffer more frequently and severely from the deleterious influence 'of such agents is that the peculiar arrange- ment of the vessels of the myocardium, superadded to the consequence of the greater stress brought to bear upon this part, favors nutritive disturbances here in greater degree than elsewhere. There is no single agent with which I am acquainted or of which I have any knowledge whatever, that pos- sesses in so eminent a degree the property of inducing this terrible, and in its more pronounced form, hopeless condition, as does alcohol - a condition the most complete in its degenerative character and tendencies that it is possible to conceive of short of absolute decomposition. Nevertheless, alcohol is a favorite prescription with those who put their trust in a poisonous materia-medica, and for the very reason that it fulfills the demands of their theoretical teachings more completely than any other agent. And through the advice and professional encouragement of these men it has become, a remark- ably favorite household remedy. (?) It creeps into our pastries, is fed to the sick, is given to nursing women and fed to their babies, is drank to one another's health, always on toast, is used as a fit emblem (?) of the blood of a crucified and risen Redeemer, is accursed of God, is a blighting, withering, damning curse, and is respon- sible for more sin, misery, woe and degradation than the entire outfit and life-destroying paraphernalia of the Prince of Darkness besides. « Moreover, out of the mouths of those who prescribe and use the abominable stuff, it stands condemned as wholly unfit for any of the various purposes for which it is used as above indicated. "Disturbs physiological processes and lays the foundation for disease," does it? Yea verily, and then builds the most complete super- ALCOHOL. 605 structure upon this foundation that it were possible to construct, as anyone may discover by a visit to the regions of the damned. Yes, it kills the living or ger- minal matter of his entire economy, it diminishes or suspends the functional activity and degrades the struc- tural integrity of his being, and thus the intellectual faculties - the mind, the thing'that constitutes him an image of his Maker, that distinguishes him Lfrom and places him above every other created-thing-are utterly sapped, and he finally forsakes this world a demented being, with the curse of God upon him, to wander throughout the endless ages of eternity, suffering the torments of the damned. Yea, woe, unutterable woe, to that man who putteth the cup to his brother's lips '. It were a thousand times better for all that he had not been born '. ! "4- Does not stimulate or strengthen, but depresses and weakens." li 6. Disturbs every physiological process, cannot be a medicine." The fifth proposition has already been fully canvassed in the foregoing pages, and the seventh will be virtually aiiswered in the discussion of the two I have here asso- ciated or grouped together, since they really constitute but one question. I have never made use of alcoholic liquors in my practice, and therefore-cannot speak with any degree of assurance as to its stimulating and restorative virtues from actual personals experience. IlI have closely ob- served its effects, however, in the hands of others, and am well satisfied that it does possess very remarkable stimulating and strengthening tendencies in certain di- rections. Moreover, I have taken special pains to ob- tain the opinion of those who by virtue of their pecu- liar relations to this subject are entitled to speak with 606 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. some degree of confidence. The father of this system of practice was certainly a very close observer, un- wearied in perseverance, indefatigable in investigation and research, and has made a more extensive profes- sional use of alcoholic liquors than any other single in- dividual in the history of the world. I have thought it best, therefore to give the substance of his testimony relative to the merits or demerits of alcoholics first, and then follow this up with that from other sources. He says: "Alcoholic liquors are not stimulating and strengthening in the same way that capsicum, ginger, xanthoxylum and such vegetable remedies are, nor is the influence of such agents as those ever required either in health or in sickness. It is not in- creased vital action that I desire, but just the reverse of this. It is easy to prove that by these measures - alcoholics and other depressing and paralyzing agents - many living units are killed, and that those that escape death live and groiv more slowly than before. This dimin- ished rate of growth and life is really what is required. It is indeed the very condition which approaches to the healthy state. But then it is, as compared with the morbid state, the very reverse of 'increased vitality.' Oh, yes ! I know that it is written, ' I came that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly,' but it is also written that you shall take a little wine for your stomach's sake, and then the con- stitution of man is constantly undergoing change, and what is one man's food is another man's poison. Alco- hol stimulates commerce, especially of the bawdy-house variety, and greatly encourages the traffic in female virtue; it also restores religious fanatics to the power of my dominion, and strengthens them in this course by destroying the excess of vitality and causing the re- mainder to grow more slowly than before. It stimulates ALCOHOL. 607 all the evil passions of man, and dominates government and the church also largely. It is the very sheet- anchor of my kingdom, and without it the major part of my power would be gone." Now, Dr. Beale, what do you think of alcoholic liquors as related to the practice of medicine? "From the considerations advanced in the last few paragraphs it must be clear that the doctrine that disease is a deficiency of action must be erroneous. The idea that support is required to counteract this tendency to de- pression of the vital powers is purely fanciful, as is also the notion that something extra must be added in order to make up for the loss occasioned by the dis- eased state. ["Without me ye can do nothing."] * * * The physician pours in brandy, and supposes that he ' increases the vitality' of the affected tissues. But it is easy to prove that by these measures, many cells that were alive are killed, and that those that escape death live and grow more slowly than before. This diminished rate of growth and life, is really what is required. It is indeed the very condition which approaches to the healthy state. But then it is, as compared with the mor- bid state, the very reverse of 'increased vitality.'" - Beale, Disease Germs, p. 413. "But, of all the remedies we possess, I believe alcohol acts more rapidly in this way." - Page 419. We see, therefore, that these two eminent authorities are perfectly agreed as to the action of alcoholics and the theoretical indications for their use. A conversation with a few other representative men relative to this ex tremely important question will not be wholly inappro- priate I trust, since "in a multitude of counselors there is safety." Rev. Dr. Duster, I have called to enquire whether or not you have read Dr. N. S. Davis' address delivered at 608 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Prohibition Park recently, and if so what your views of the matter are ? "Yes, sir, I have read it, and am satisfied that the old man is mistaken. He is in his dotage, and has be- come over zealous in the cause of temperance, or he never would have given expression to statements that must seriously reflect upon the very foundation of the 'regular' system of practice. I have been preaching the Gospel for forty-seven years, and have visited a great many sick and afflicted during those years, and have seen alcoholic liquors used with the most happy results time and again. Indeed, I have not only preached almost every one of their funerals, but pre- pared the obituary letter in most of these cases, and am well satisfied that alcoholics are remedial in character, stimulating and restorative in effect, and tend to save life." Yes! But, Doctor, the angel Gabriel. "Yes, yes, I know, but I don't believe in mixing politics and religion, and besides we are told that every generation shall grow weaker and wiser, you know." Well, Governor, I suppose you have read Dr. Davis' address? "Yes, sir, but I have no time to be inter- viewed ; I am sure it stimulates one's ideas and causes a free flow of language, and after having spoken in the open air for an hour or two there is nothing that cuts the cob-webs out of one's throat like a good drink of old rye or Kentucky bourbon, besides Paul says : •Take a little wine for your stomach's sake.'" Yes, but Solomon "I tell you I will not be interviewed." Mr. Distilate, have you read Dr. Davis' "Yes, I dit reat it a leedle, but he ish one crank. It ish te besht remety in de wolt, und dar ish not anyting dat vill keep off sdnak bits like goot wisky. Paul sais to take a leedle vine for te stomach's sake." Yes, but Isaiah says ' ' I dush not cur vat Isaer saysh, I knosh it R-37 ALCOHOL. 609 ish a goot medshine, und beshids I dush not belief in mixing religin und bollydicks.'' Mr. Brewer, have you read Dr. Davis' "No, I dush not read, but I have been told of it, and he ish one old fool. Wiskdkey ish a goot ding to keep off sdnak bits and to keep out cold and heat and water and such dings, but it ish not so goot for general purposes as peer ish. Peer ish so ferrey nutrishus yo know, besides Paul says take a leedle vine for te stomach's sake." Yes, but Daniel says "Hoosh, I dush nat keer vat Daniel saysh, it ish werry nutrishus, und besides I dush nodt believe in migxing religun and bollydicks." Oh, well, don't get excited, I am simply trying to get the general consensus of the leading representatives of the more liberally disposed class of American Citizens rela- tive to this matter ; but here conies Dr. Inclusive, who, I understand, has just returned from the east, where he has been taking a "Post-Graduate course. Doctor, what do you think of Prof. N. S. Davis' propositions relative to alcoholic liquors as being poisonous, and, therefore, unfit to be used as remedies ? "I really don't know what to think of him: it is very evident that such a proposition is antagonistic to the very foundation principles of medicine. Of course alcohol is a poison ; all our best remedies are the most virulent poisons, and are calculated to do harm unless used by skillful hands. It requires a great deal of judgment and skill to give them properly, and no one but a 'regular' graduate should be permitted to adminis- ter them. There ought to be a law passed rigidly exclud- ing quacks from practicing medicine. Alcoholics are eminently stimulating and strengthening in nature and tendencies if properly administered, and their narcotic properties are often of the greatest benefit in cases of delirium tremens. " Are you a Homoepath, doctor ? 610 physiology: its science and philosophy. "No sir, I am no quack, I tell you; I am a Regular, sir. There is not another remedy known to the entire profession that can at all compare with whiskey for snake bites, and besides that Paul commands us to take a little wine for our stomach's sake." Well, Doctor, in the year 1867 there was a man bitten by a rattle snake less than a quarter of a mile west of New Castle, and just as soon as a messenger could ride swiftly to town and return with a bottle of whiskey, he was filled full of this great snake remedy, but the hand and arm became greatly swollen and discolored, and his .life was despaired of. He suffered most intense pain, radiating from the index finger, which had received the wound, up the arm and then all over the body. He could neither eat, sleep, nor get a moment's freedom from the agonizing pain thus induced ; and as a dernier resort I was called to take charge of the case on the third day after the reception of the injury. I found that whiskey, quinine and opiates had been given freely and. that this was the sheet-anchor of hope to the dy- ing soul, nothing else having been deemed worthy of trial. I made a poultice of elm, lobelia and phytolacca dec., and enveloped the finger in this, having the poul- tice renewed every hour or two at first; and gave him internally a stomach rouser and evacuent, and followed up with cypripedium and weak ginger tea. He became easy in about four hours after commencing this treat- ment, and went to sleep and slept soundly for several hours. He awoke refreshed, and ate a hearty meal, and was able to return to his work-making a gravel road - at the expiration of about one week from the time I was called to take charge of the case. What do you think of this, doctor ? ' ' Perhaps the whiskey was a poor article; but let that be as it may, I think an ounce of prevention is ALCOHOL. 611 better than a pound of cure. He should have used the liquor as a prophylactic measure, and not have waited until his system became saturated with the poison, when of course it was difficult to eliminate it." You would use it then to "keep off snake-bites," that is as a prophylactic measure? "Yes." Well, surely the snake poison was administered skillfully, wdiy did it not act as a remedy ? Paul was bitten on the hand once by a very poisonous snake, and it was so skillfully done that he received no harm whatever, but the re- port of the case clearly indicates that great good came from the circumstance. "You surely are not such a consummate fool as to be- lieve that a virulent poison can be transformed into a harmless agent, are you, much less a sanative remedy ? I do not swallow everything I read in the Bible, that tale of Paul's wras all moon-shine." Yes, Doctor, but you see that you condemn your own logic by denying the truthfulness of Paul's statement, since the mechanism by which the hypodermic injection of snake-poison was introduced, as well as the manner of performing it, wms most skillfully conceived and exe- cuted - "Sir, do you mean to compare me to a snake? I tell you I am a -regular' sir." Yes, but the snake did not invent his own hypodermic, you know, and - -'I don't care anything about it, you don't wTant to compare me with a serpent, nor my hypodermic with a snake's, if you don't want to get hurt." "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and wTho- soever is deceived thereby is not wise," for "At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." Proverbs XX, 1; XXIII, 32. APPENDIX. FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. It unfortunately happens that we are destined to con- tinually meet with doubts and difficulties, controversies and contradictions, in pathological investigation as well as in physiological research, and hence it devolves upon us, if we would fully comprehend w7hat is really implied by the term fatty degeneration, and thoroughly ap- preciate the histological changes which are respectively characteristic of the large wdiite and the small contract- ing fatty kidney, that we first acquire a correct knowl- edge of the anatomy and physiology of the organs in health. But since I have given my views on this sub- ject in a paper on Nephritis - read before the P-M. So- ciety of Incliana in May -it will be unnecessary to re- peat them here. In the above mentioned paper I stated that the renal bioplasts of the cortical substance during the anaemic stage of the process experienced fatty transformation, and that this was conservative in its nature and tendencies. I showed that whilst the bioplasm was renewing itself at the expense of the excremititous substances of the blood on the one hand, it is undergoing transformation into formed material on the other, and that this latter is, in the physiological state, disintegrated and converted into urea, uric acid, etc., and that thus the lumen of the tubules are kept free from obstruction. If now the ac- cess of nutrient materials be largely increased the renal bioplasts not only experience rapid proliferative changes, but they fail to undergo condensation into formed ma- FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 613 terial and subsequent transformation into urea, uric acid, etc., and hence they come to eventually occupy the en- tire calibre of the secreting tubules, and even to mater- ially distend them, thereby preventing the flow of oxy- genated water through them and at the same time di- verting the blood-current from its physiological course into the vasa recta - conditions highly favorable to a fatty metamorphosis of the living matter thus deprived of their nutrient supply. The renal bioplasts, having undergone this granular degeneration, or having exper- ienced desiccation, as the case may be, are eliminated through the ordinary channels of urinary excretion ; the tubules thus freed from their contents are again re- habilitated with normal epithelium, and what before was a typical large, white, fatty kidney, perhaps, will have assumed a physiological condition, and will again have resumed its accustomed labors. The large, white, fatty kidney is essentially different in its history, its morbid anatomy, its symptomatic en- semble, and perhaps in its causation, from the small contracting fatty kidney. Nevertheless, the transforma- tion of substance has its starting point always first in the outer, older, and more condensed portion of the bio- plasm, and from this beginning it may quickly or more slowly come to occupy the greater part of the cell, so that there remains but a very small particle of living- matter, which may be so very minute indeed as to es- cape notice, unless tinted with the carmine staining fluid, even wdren the highest powers of the microscope are brought into use. This transformation may continue until the amount of fat exceeds the particle of bioplasm yet remaining fifty or even one hundred fold, neverthe- less, the cell is capable of returning to its bioplastic or normal state, under the influence of other and better conditions, so long as this particle of germinal matter 614 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. maintains its vital integrity. Not so, however, in cases in which every vestige of living matter has undergone a granulo-fatty metamorphosis, as usually happens in phosphoric poisoning, poisoning by lead, the salts of mercury, of antimony, arsenious acid, the mineral acids, etc. The same thing obtains in cases in which the cir- culation is suddenly arrested, and the part struck with death, as happens in infarctions, cerebral softening, etc. The "protoplasm" first, afterwards the nucleus, are completely transformed into hundreds of separate little oil globules, and are therefore incapable of self absorp- tion, and can only be removed by the agency of sur- rounding bioplasts, or by necrotic processes, or else re- main a dead, and so far as performing an active func- tion is concerned, a perfectly inert mass. Indeed, we shall find that just in proportion to the amount of fatty accumulation within the cell in the same degree will the specific function of that cell be compromised, and what is true of one cell is equally true of any number of cells. Fatty degeneration of the bone bioplasts may, and often does, lead to complete death and necrosis of the part thus involved, nevertheless, the constitutional dis- turbance resulting therefrom is of slight gravity when compared with that resulting from like changes occur- ing in the kidneys or other secretory organs, as indeed in all organs necessary to co-ordinate vitality. It is evident, therefore, that the products of this transforma- tion are not the source of the constitutional disturbance, and the same statement holds good also as regards the cause operating to produce this condition in the great majority of idiopathic* fatty degenerations at least, if not in all. We are of necessity forced to the * This term is used in contradistinction to toxical cases. FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 615 conclusion then, that whatever constitutional disturb ances supervene in either the large white or small contracting fatty kidney, and not directly attributable to some toxical influence of intrinsic origin, is mainly due to the impure state of the blood, consequent upon a failure of the renal bioplasts to eliminate the sub- stances which it is their want to do. The conditions under which the death of bioplasm takes place will materially modify the nature and ap- pearances of the products of that death. For instance, if death result in consequence of an arrest of nutrition the bioplasm will not undergo condensation into formed material, but will split up into fibrin, albumen, fatty matter and saline substances, whilst if it dies(?)in the normal way the product will be nerve, muscle, fibrous, or other tissue. The one is truly an organizing process, the other a structural decomposition ; both are the products of the death of living matter; neither can exist except they have first been endowed with vital properties. Death may be complete or only partial in either case; if complete the cell will have lost its vital function and can only perform a mechanical or protec- tive office, as happens in the case of the cutaneous epithelial cells, or else it becomes a foreign substance to be got rid of by necrotic or other processes. What is of more interest to the Physio-Medicalist, and of greater moment to the public at large, perhaps, than anything else connected with this whole subject is the nature of the cause or causes leading to such grave and often fatal derangements. The history of the case, the histological changes occurring, the complications, and the prognosis will be found to depend very largely upon the nature of the causation. As evidence in support of this statement we have the following from Dickinson on Albuminurea: 616 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. "A gentleman rode from Maidstone to London out- side a coach in very cold weather. The same evening his wife observed that his face was flabby, and a well- marked attack of renal dropsy followed, from which he eventually recovered. "A bricklayer, very much heated by carrying a great weight, drank some beer and lay down on the damp grass. Next day he was anasarcous, and three months later he died in Guy's Hospital, where he afforded Dr. Bright one of the earliest cases of the disease which bears his name. The kidneys were enlarged, soft, pale and apparently fatty. "A journeyman currier, who was of temperate habits, was often exposed to cold in his occupation while in a state of profuse perspiration. One day he was em- ployed in washing skins, his feet being very wet. At six o'clock the same evening he became dropsical; he died in a month, and the kidneys were found to be greatly enlarged and congested to the color of choc- olate. "A laborer drank a large quantity of cold water when heated and fatigued by labor in the harvest field. He had an attack of jaundice with 'coagulable urine,' and eventually recovered. "A house-painter was exposed to weather, and had no food for the whole of one very cold day. In the even- ing he was oedematous. He died after an illness of eight months with the large, white, fatty kidney. "A lamplighter was wet through for a whole week, during one or two nights of which he sat up as watchman. He 'took a violent cold' and had an at- tack of dropsy, from which he never recovered. Five months after the kidneys were found to be double their natural size, white, smooth and fatty. "A coachman, in the habit of drinking to excess, FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 617 walked eight and one-half miles in the snow, next morning he was dropsical, and in a month he was dead. The kidneys were enlarged, smooth, and greatly congested. "A drunken shoemaker got wet through, and sat in his wet clothes; this was immediately followed by an attack of rheumatism, and in a fortnight by renal dropsy, which ended fatally. The kidneys were greatly enlarged, white, and smooth. "A man of dissolute habits, but in perfect health, be- ing hot and greatly excited by drink, jumped into the Thames and swam about for some time. He immed- iately felt ill, and next day dropsy set in. He died fourteen weeks afterward in Guy's Hospital, and his kidneys were found to be large, w'hite and smooth." We see then that a fatty degeneration following in the wake of inflammatory tumefaction is fatal in every case in which the "vital powers" have been lowered by the toxical influences of alcohol and lead, but that where no such influences have been in operation, where the change was dependent upon a largely diminished nutrient supply, recovery was the rule, to wdiich there need not have been any exception, perhaps, even though the patient was subject to extreme and long continued climatic disturbances, had a more rational course of treatment been instituted.* It is estimated that at least one-half of all those who are constantly exposed to the deleterous influences of lead - such as painters, type-setters, etc.-eventually die of fatty kidney, usually of the contracting variety. Poisoning by phosphorus furnishes us a type of the most complete fatty and enlarged kidney with which it *The treatment consisted In "general bleeding, freely practiced and quickly re- peated, purgatives - bitartrate of potassa, jalap and perhaps mercury; diaphore- tics, not excluding antimony," diuretic, particularly squills and digitalis, 618 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. may be our misfortune to ever meet, and poisoning by arsenious acid, the mineral acids, etc., produce a fatty degeneration similar in all respects to that by phos- phorus, but less intensely marked. A post-mortem ex- amination- which can always be had after the adminis- tration of these agents, providing of course that the relatives consent - will show a large, smooth, pale kid- ney, in which the capsule is easily stripped off without violence to the secreting structure. The medullary sub- stance will be found of a deep red, in consequence of an abnormal quantity of blood being distributed to this part.* A microscopical examination will reveal the fact that the cortical tumefaction is a result of the accumu- lation of fatty matter, or more properly, perhaps, a fatty metamorphosis of the epithelial cells of the convoluted tubules whereby the lumen become filled and distended to the point of vascular obliteration. It will also be found, on removing the blood from the pyramids by washing, that a certain opacity remains dependent upon the presence of fatty matter accumulated in the straight and conducting tubes, and also as the result of a fatty metamorphosis of the epithelia of the loops of Henle. The straight tubules of the cortex are altered some- what- containing fatty matter, and not unfrequently transparent or granular casts - but their epithelia contain less fat than is the case with the functional bioplast, which as has already been stated will be found to have undergone complete transformation throughout all the convoluted and looped tubules, if life be not cut short too suddenly by the intensity of the poison. In the midst of the profoundly altered secretory sub- stance the glomeruli, with the exception of a slight di- minution in volume, are absolutely normal; their ves- sels and the flat cells covering them, do not show any *See paper on Nephritis FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 619 fatty elements ; neither is there any change observed in the interstitial connective tissue of the cortical sub- stance, differing in this as well as in many other re- spects from the small, contracting, fatty kidney, in which is always found a greater or less increase of this tissue, at the expense of the secretory structure and impervious capillaries, owing to the intensity of the cause and the length of time during which it has been in operation. In the case of the large, white, fatty kidney, resulting from toxical influence other organs will also be found in the same degenerated condition, which is not the case when it follows in the wake of an inflammatory tumefaction as the result of cold or other non-toxical influence. In the latter case the proximate cause, a diminished circulation, is purely local in its nature and action, and is not followed by complete transformation of their renal bioplasts, and hence the organ may re- turn to its healthy state if not hampered in its efforts by the use of such agents as are essentially destructive in their nature. But the reverse of this holds good in the cases of poisoning by phosphorus, by arsenious acid, by the mineral acids, etc., for in this case the blood is rendered unfit to sustain life even were the cells completely destroyed by the immediate action of these and all similar poisonous. agents, which they are. That'such agents are not acted upon by the living mat- ter, but exert their deleterious influence directly upon these elements thus effectually destroying them, is evi- dent from the fact that they may invariably be de- tected in the urinary and other excretions unchanged. A partial fatty degeneration of the secreting epithe- lia, without the quality of the urine being changed, is a not infrequent occurrence in the aged, the tuberculous and in several cachectic states; and this is supposed 620 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. by many to have some analogy with the "physiologi- cal" fatty condition of the epithelium of the renal tubules in several animals-notably the cat and dog. The well-fed cat furnishes us with an extremely well marked fatty and enlarged kidney, without manifesting any evidence whatever of discomfort resulting there- from. We see, therefore, that there is a lesson of very great importance to be gathered from the facts above stated. Physio-medicalists. have boldly and repeatedly made the assertion that a large majority of the incurable dif- ficulties, which so frequently follow in the wake of an acute attack of disease, are directly attributable to the insane practice of giving poisons as remedial agents. Bearing in mind that the proper and specific function of the cells lining the convoluted and looped tubules is the removal of the excrementitious substances from the blood ; that these substances are first taken up by the bioplasm of these cells, and thus converted into bioplasm, before being eliminated in the form of urea, uric acid, and possibly fatty granules, as sometimes happens, we shall not be at a loss to understand why just in pro- portion to the degenerative change taking place in these cells will the function of the kidneys be compromised, and the life of the patient jeopardized. We have seen that in the old, the tuberculous, and in other cachectic states, a partial fatty metamorphosis of these cells may occur without the urine experiencing any marked change in character or composition. The same thing occurs physiologically in some animals. I think then that we are warranted in adopting the view that the formed material surrounding the renal bioplasts normally is alone subject to this change in such cases; that the living matter within retains its vital endowments and FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 621 formative capacities; in other words, that the only ab- normality, if such it may be called, consists in the pro- duction of fatty granules instead of urea, uric acid, etc., as a result of the disintegrative process occurring nor- mally in the formed material. In pulmonary tuberculo- sis, in which the function of hsematosis is below' par, the water transuding through the walls of the Malpigh- ian capillaries would not be so highly charged with ox- ygen, and hence the normal changes necessary to the maintenance of an equilibrium between growth and de- cay, so that the excrementitious substances may not ac- cumulate in the blood on the one hand, nor the increase of formed material block the tubes on the other, is com- pensated for in a measure by a fatty disintegration. In any event the disintegrative process is absolutely essen- tial to the continued well being of the organism. It seems to me therefore that this so-called partial fatty degeneration is not in the true sense of the word prop- erly a degeneration, but on the contrary an essential disintegration, and evidently a physiological, at least a conservative, process incident to the natural waste of tissue. And this view of the matter is farther sup- ported by the circumstance that in the parenchymatous inflammations, in which there is a diapadesis of the white blood-corpuscles into the connective tissue sur- rounding the convoluted tubules and inter-tubular vessels, and which constitute an unnecessary superfluity after they have accomplished their mission, fatty granules are found in this debris, which is nothing more, nothing less, than the products of the more important textures which have undergone regressive change of a fatty- granular character, and which the white blood-corpus- cles endeavored to remove in this way. The same thing happens in pneumonitis in cases of recovery, in which a large amount of "exudative" matter is removed by 622 PHYSIOLOGY : ' ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. absorption, and sometimes very quickly, which could not have occurred had not this matter undergone fatty disintegration and thus been reduced to a state of min- ute division so that the vascular and other bioplasts could encorporate them and thus convert them into liv- ing matter. Nature has wisely made provision, in every instance in which inflammatory reparation may be nec- essary at some time or other whereby the circulation may be so diminished as to lead to the transformation of all superfluous elements into that state in which they may be most effectually acted upon in order to the pre- servation of the economy intact. Not so, however, when the primary cause leading to the necessity for repara- tory effort, is such as to "suddenly and rapidly extin- guish a large proportion of the vitality of the system," for in this case the only matter which is capable of ex- erting a reparatory influence at all is suddenly and rap- idly extinguished. Munk thinks that yellow' atrophy of the liver (in which there is always a dissolution of the hepatic cells) is to be traced back to poisoning by phosphorus. He states that it is not known certainly whether the degen- eration is a direct or an indirect result of the poison ; in other words, whether the destructive process results from the immediate influence of the poison or whether "we will assume that the blood undergoing abnormal processes of transformation has given the impulse to the disintegration. " Rindfleish is of the opinion that the dissolution of the parenchyma, and all the phenomena connected therewith "are dependent upon the chemical peculiarities of the poison, whatever this may have been.'' We are therefore enabled to make a positive distinc- tion between fatty degenerations which do not kill the cell, and those which do effectually destroy the entire FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 623 cell; for it is a noteworthy fact, supported by the statements of the very best authority, that in all cases of this difficulty not dependent upon toxical influences of extrinsic origin, the circulation, though very markedly diminished in volume by the presence of the enlarged cells, is nevertheless sufficient to maintain the spark of vitality yet remaining in the nucleus, and thus make re- covery possible when judicious remedial measures are brought into use, which is certainly not the case in poisoning by phosphorus, by arsenious acid, by antimony, by mercury, and numerous other "effective remedies," which produce marked fatly degeneration of all the he- patic cells, occurring in the form of minute granules, tending to fragmentation and destruction ; and in these cases the kidneys are almost always found in a state of complete fatty degeneration at the same time. In these latter cases the specific part or parts thus affected cannot be removed by absorption, but if eliminated at all, it must be accomplished by necrotic processes; since any effort in this direction by the living matter of the body would inevitably result in their own dissolu- tion, as occurred in the first instance. It is not a mat- ter of mere speculation what the nature of this matter is which is so effectually destroyed by these and all similar agents. For their power to "suddenly and rap- idly extinguish a large proportion of the vitality of the system," may be ocularly demonstrated at any time by aid of the microscope. This fact is recognized by all intelligent practitioners who are in the habit of pre- scribing these agents as remedies; and indeed it is upon this very principle that they are led into the ab- surdity of administering poisons for the cure of disease. For instance, it is well known that the cheesy detritus of tubercle is a product of the death of living matter; that during its earliest history, before it had experienced 624 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. the caseous metamorphosis, it consisted of living, grow- ing, and multiplying disease germs, and hence, in ac- cordance with the philosopy of our old school friends, phosphorus proves a most favorite remedy for the tu- berculous difficulty, since its action is eminently destruc- tive of living matter. We are thus enabled to under- stand why Dr. Beale and others should assert that the large, white, fatty kidney of the human subject seems to be connected with that habit of body which is asso- ciated with the development of tubercle, while Dickin- son, on the contrary, is led to believe "that there is no connection whatever between them." The circumstances under which Dr. Dickinson made his post-mortem exam- inations were such as would usually preclude the sup- posed necessity for the administration of phosphorus, for any considerable time at least; while Dr. Beale, no doubt, instituted his examinations after the parties had been subject to the influence of this and other drugs of like nature for months and perhaps years, and until fatty degeneration would have resulted even in one who was entirely free from any and all hereditary or ac- quired cachexies, simply in consequence of the destruc- tive tendencies of the agent itself. Alcohol is an almost magnum del donum in the esti- mation of a large class of physicians, as a remedy for many of the ills of life, and yet these same gentlemen tell us that it is a frequent cause of both the large, white and the small contracting, fatty kidney. The small, contracting, fatty kidney, with its rough, granular or puckered surface, with thickened and firmly adherent capsule, its diminished cortex, and highly san- guineous medullary substance, is certainly not a very de sirable condition either for the patient or physician; and yet the most prolific cause of this condition - in the lan- guage of Beale, "a condition of an extremely and rap- R-38 FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 625 idly fatal character," is in constant use, too often by the advice of those who should have better sense. Indeed the author just mentioned states that the disease is con- stantly met with in the persons of those who have been long addicted to the use of intoxicating beverages. It will be interesting therefore to inquire into the modus operandi of alcohol by virtue of which not only this but many other morbid processes are induced. But be- fore doing so it will be best, perhaps, to briefly outline the minute pathological changes which may be found in every case on microscopical examination. The secreting tubules, the malpighian bodies, and the inter-tubular capillaries, as also the smaller blood-ves- sels will be found in every conceivable stage of trans- formation from that of health to the condition of mere connective tissue. Some of the tubules may be almost normal in appearance, others enlarged; some monili- form from alternate contractions and distentions, the lat- ter, perhaps, containing fluid, thus converting them into vertible cysts, whilst yet others will be reduced to con- nective tissue fibrils, thus giving rise to that condition known as fibrosis, and erroneously attributed to hyper- plastic processes. Connective tissue has no existence in the embryo kidney, and its presence is in every in- stance determined by regressive change occurring in the more important structure of the body, and will be found to coincide in its increase with the age of the person, providing that disease has not superinduced old age in early or middle life. The glomeruli are subject to the same diversity of appearance, some withered away to a mere fibrous ball, others of full size and in- jected with blood, and yet others undergo regressive changes both in volume and substance. Some tubules will have their epithelial lining normal in appearance, but somewhat reduced in size; others containing oil glob- 626 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. ules and granules only ; while others are lined with cells in all stages of fatty transformation. Here and there we will meet with a portion of tubule considerably dilated and distended with naked bioplasts, with, perhaps, a few fatty granules intermixed. The same diversity of condition will be found to obtain in the vessels of the cortex as is the case with other structures; and what is peculiar also in this form of disease, when compared with the large, white fatty kidney, is that the vascular -nuclei, as indeed every variety of living matter proper to the organ is affected in precisely the same way. The restrictions to a free access of nutrient materials in the case of the renal bioplasts - the excrementitious substances of the blood -are greatly increased in cases in which the nucleus is surrounded by a firm, dense wall, over that which exists where the bioplasts are naked, or only surrrounded by a small quantity of a soft granular substance. It is well known that alcohol has the property of rendering solutions containing albuminous and allied matters more viscid and less permeable, and hence it exerts a direct influence on the fluid portions of the blood, thus inducing an additional restriction to the ac- cess of nutrient materials. It also possesses the prop- erty, in an eminent degree, of hardening organic tissues, and therefore of rendering the vascular walls less per- meable to fluids, and of thus "capping the climax." The same statements hold good with regard to "the mineral salts, such as the sulphate and sesquichloride of iron, nitric and hydrochloric acids," etc.* Every indulgence leads to a loss of secretory struc- ture, never to be regained, and thus it goes on from week to week, from month to month, and perhaps, from year to year, each indulgence rendering the organs less * See Beale-Disease Germs, page 419. FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 627 competent to perform their proper function; his system becoming more and more a prey to the dead and decay- ing animal matters, which accumulate because of the reduced number and disabled remainder of the secreting bioplasts whose duty it is to accomplish its removal. Finally tired and injured nature no longer finds herself competent to resist the constantly accumulating destruc- tive influences, and hence she gives up the ghost and is no more. Providence has seen fit to remove another fellow-man and brother from our midst, and our last and final act reveals the fact that that wonderful conserva- tive principle existing in our organisms - that principle which our old school friends fear so much - has, even at the very last moment, so to speak, made one more grand effort to accomplish its mission here on earth. I have reference to the existence of numerous naked bioplasts found here and there within the tubules, as before stated.* •A few inaccuracies of expression occur in the above, due to the misapprehensions of the author at the time the article was written, but I thought it best to let them remain. Page 20, eleventh line from top should read, "consisting of two or more planes" of atoms. Page 22, Fourth line In last paragraph, substitute intra for "Inter-molecular." Page 32, Next to last line, substitute long for longer. Page 28, Seventh line from bottom, substitute integrative for entegrative. Page 88, Next to last line, substitute found for And. Page 161, Eighth line, substitute case tor cause. Page 181, Middle of page, should read "with which It may be supplied." Page 182, Fifth line, substitute drachm for pound. Page 255, Fourth line In second paragraph, should read "and affecting volume of air In the receiver." Page 268, Ninth line from bottom, substitute content for context. Page 262, Third line In second paragraph, should read "thus bioplasm-nucleus-Is not." Page 317, "Nor Eclectic" should read or Eclectic. Page 408, First line, "functionary" should be functional. Page 518, Eleventh and thirteenth lines, "heptlc" should be peptic. Page 541, Last line in first paragraph should read "our David." Page 577, Third line, "mortifications" should be modifications. Absorption of digested products, 37, 409. of digestive fluids, 42. of fats, 277, 281, 373. Acid, carbonic, 14, 142, 216, 217. sulphuric, 144. Alcohol, the abomination that mak- eth desolate, 272, 353, 376, 473, 512, 536, 542, 578, 592, 604. N. S. Davis, 310, 320, 354. proposition first, 542, 574, 605. experiments, 547, 556. effects of, on stomach, 547, 552, 586. on bioplasm, 548, 550, 556, 562, 569, 586. on formed material, 549,563, 586. on blood-plasma, 550, 556, 565, 586, 599. on liver, 550, 559, 563, 596. on brain and nerves, 566, 580, 583, 589, 591, 593, 605. on lungs, 551. on kidneys, 551, 595, 597. on calorification, 563. on heart, 565, 600, 602. on vessels, 553. 563, 565, 586, 588, 592,.598. on the young, 566, 579, 602. how produced, 561. Beale's experiments with, 555. proposition second, 557. proposition third, 565, 604. proposition fourth, 605. proposition sixth, 605. Alveolar sarcoma, 476. Animal heat, combustion theory of, 13, 16, 28, 199, 216, 223. dynamic theory of, 225. true theory of, 219, 264, 272. Animal bioplasm, nutritive capacity of, etc., 58. relation of to pabulum, 180. . attractive influence of, 183, 196, 209. starch, 39. Apoplexy, 407, 589. Atmospheric air, 140. Atomic forces, 12, 16, 20, 236, 243. attractions, 15, 16, 18, 47, 244. relations and differences in, 50, et. seq. Bacteria, vibriones, etc., 425, 433. conservative nature of, 428. Beale on alcohol, 555, 560, 561, 562, 566, 594, 597, 599. Bile, 37, 536, 562, 596. Biogenesis, 1, 2, 62, 83, 487. Bioplasm, 31, 312, 590, 591. not a nutritive substance, 31, 447. composition of, 34, 267.,, specific nutritive capacities and lim- tations of, 58, 171, 175, 196, 210, 265, 270, 275, 297, 333. integrative capacities of and limi- tations, 59, 92, 535. movements of, 67, 93, 111, 120. microscopical examinations of, 77, 81, 219, 314. properties of, 68, 81, 571. growth and multiplication of, 78, 177, 208, 316. formative change of, 79, 177, 209, 219, 316, 529. reticular structure of, 77, 92. degradation of, 97,376,450. 489, 490. how differentiated, 103, 104, 271, 365. laws of growth of, 175, 207, 337, 339, 348,372, 529, 562. . Bioplastic theory of animal heat, 264. criticised, 225. Bladder experiment, 239. Blood-plasma, how produced, 198. Boon-salts, precipitation of, 158. removal of, 480. effects of alcohol on, 593. inflammation of, 394. Broncho-pneumonia and tuberculosis compared, 356. symptoms of, 364, 379. products, how removed, 370. Caloric, substantial nature of, 28, 48, 120, 260. specific capacity for, 48. comparative volume of, 29. INDEX. 629 Caloric, active agent in digestion, 44. how rendered sensible, 47, 183, 216, 222, 254, 260, 263, 504. how rendered latent, 47, 81, 254, 263. not a generator of life, 91. essential to nutritive process, 174. Calorific theory of life, 10. Cancer, etc., 459, 474. Capacity, specific of steam boiler, 48. of toy balloon, 49. heat, 48. Carbonic acid, 14, 142, 216, 217, 223, 280. Carnivorous plants, 449. Cartillage, non-vascular, 221, 332. Cause and effect, 87. Cell, independent vital existence of, 56, 290, 500. Chemical energy, integrative, 12. atomic, 14, 40, 88, 274. affinity, 22, 139. compounds, binary mode of union, 23. combinations,how superinduced, 51. changes in animal economy, 55. theory of digestion, 5, 33. Chemistry, definition of, 34. Cholesterine, 37, 596. Chlorine, 144. Coal-tar compounds, 172. Cohesion, 15, 21. Combustion, 13, 28. Comparative vascularity of tissues and organs, 184, 509, 510. Composition of bioplasm, 34. Comparison between poisonous and sanative practice, 416. Compounds, chemical, 23. organic, 24. Conformity to type, 82, 115, 134, 138, 373, 465, 572,'574, 575. Conservation of energy, 43, 126, 228. Criticism of* bioplastic theory of ani- mal heat, 225, 299. criticised, 228, 300. Cumulative effect of drugs, 147. Dallanger, quotation from, 267. elucidated, 268. Davis, N. 8. of Chicago, 310, 574. Degradation of bioplasm theory, 450, 489, 490. Digestion, chemical theory of, 5, 33. calorific theory of, 11. vital theory of, 31. of albuminoids, 35. Digestion, a physical process, 30, 38, 43, 44, 57, 59. Digestive fluids, 33. Disassimilation, a physical process, Disease, Beal's definition of, 210, 311. germs, 357, 365, 422, 490. their supposed nature - Beale, 423. vegetable nature, 424. true nature and origin, 461. Disintegration, how effected, 54, 256, 274, 349, 362, 484. of tumors, 256. and decomposition differentiated, 55, 274. of formed material, 57, 80, 274. Disintegrative energy, 11, 88. 284. Dynamic theory, of energy, 8, 70. of molecules, 27, 261. Egg experiments, 85, et. seq., 156. human, 113. Elaborative function of vegetative bioplasts, 198, 211, 275, Electrical experiments, 248. molecules, nature of, 252. disintegration of tumors, modus operand! of, 256. Embryology, 108, 469, 576. Embryonal elements, 339, 359, 469, 572, 576,579. Energy, substantial nature of, 29, 67, .120, 571. mistaken for resultant function,65. cannot exist in a state of inertia, 262. modus operandi of, 7. acting in unison or conjointly, 8. not "a mode of motion," 8. integrative, 11, 221, 272. disintegrative, 11, 14, 88, 484. conservation of, 43. 126. 228. atomic, not molecular, 128. sentient, 162, 582. spiritual, 163, 568, 570, 574, 582. vegetative, 25. vital, 7, 9, 41, 69, 80, 85, 571. substantial, 121. triune, 121. difference in, 85. resistive power of, 124. source of, 122, 155. Excrementitious substances of blood, 179. Expansion, how effected, 239, 240, 257. Excretion, a physical process, 30. Experiments on bioplasm, 153. Extra-Vascular Circulation, 167, et. seq., 328, 333, 337. Fat, absorption of, 277, 281, Fatty-degeneration, 349, 361, 369, 531, 603. Fertilizing material, 91. Food-substances, how converted into blood-plasma, 198, 199. 630 INDEX. Forces of human body, Tyndall, 9. atomic or polar, 12, 16, 20, 236, 243, 244. gravity, 16, 236. Force cannot exist in a state of iner- tia, 262. Formed material, source of, 92, 79, 177, 209, 219, 271. how disintegrated, 80, 353. Function of spermatozoa, 114. Functional relation of skin and kid- neys, 340. Garfield, treatment of, 64, 406. Gastric juice, 35, 520, 536, 587. absorption of, 42, 520. preservative properties of, 45. Germinal spot, 85, 106, 116. Glycogen and glucose, 39. Gravid uterus, 216. Gravity, 21, 236. Gun-shot wound, inflammation of, 406. Heart, function of, 222, 333. Heat, "a mode of motion, expan- sive," etc., 11, 14, 27, 229, 235, 246. refrigerative, 243. contradicted, 16, 28, 47, 48, 81, 237, 247. animal, chemical or combustion theory of, 13, 16, 216, 224, 265. Carpenter, 273, 274, 275, 280. dynamic theory of, 225, 297. comparative volume of, 29. active agent in digestion, 44. energy, 7, 19, 20. generation of, Tyndall, 13, 16. substantial, 28, 48, 120, 260. specific capacity for, 48, 260. economized in effecting disintegra- tion, 47, 81, 174, 277. not a generator of life, 91. Heat, essential to nutritive process, 174, 277. evolution of, 47, 183, 216, 254, 260, 263, 272, 284, 353, 504. rendered latent, 47, 254, 263, 280, 284. converted into electricity, Tyndall, 248. Histology of stomach, Cornil and Ranvier, 522. Homeopathic philosophy, 140. Incentive to preparation of this book, 31, 517. Incorporeal substance, 48. Increase of volume characterized by absorptibn of heat, 47. Inflammation, 308, 356, 554. different views of, 308. a disease, Beale, 311. Inflammation, endorsed by others,318. an exalted nutritive activity, 311, 315,320, 335, 361. condition of vessels in, 329, 336, 365. a question asked, 342. always a conservative process, 378. of bone, 394, 397. gun-shot wound, 406. mucous membranes, 418. interstitial, so-called, 595, 601. treatment of, 419. Injury, shock of, 333. Inorganic substances, 137. Iodine, reaction on starch, 52. Iron, how affected by heat, 52. experiments on, 160, 225. Integrative energy, 11, 284. vital, 25. chemical, 25. Kidneys, anatomy of, 322. specific function of, 326, 344, 354. effects of alcohol on, 551, 595, Koch, Robert, 435. Law governing force or energy, 15, 273. Laws, merely rules of action, 119. Lesion of cells, 207, 329, 336. Leucocythaemia, 205, 210. Life-force, physical theory of, 9, 91. chemical theory of, 5, 9, 387. substantial theory of, 7. calorific, 10. hartshorn, 62. status of the question, 63. Spencer, 73, 74. Drumond, 73, 74. Lime, slacking of, 266. Liver, nutritive capacity of, 201, 220. Lungs, extra-vascular circulatory in- fluence of, 216. Magnetic energy, 7, 19. triune in character, 21. Matter of human body, 9. physical properties of, 34. Mechanical mixed gases, 26. pressure on vessels, 337,348. absence of, 418. Medicine a science, 419. Microbe killers, 133. Microscope in medicine, 174, 219, 233, 287, 314, 321, 330, 385, 574, 485, 513, 547. Molecular theory of physics, 7, 20, 96. forces, 16. Molecules, true theory of, 20, 48. false theory of, 27. of electricity, nature of, 252. Muscular contractility, 493, 590, 591, 603. ocular proof of my theory, 502, INDEX. 631 Muscular contractility ,513, 514. criticised, 506. Nature and Revelation in harmony. 123, 351. Nephritis, 322, 339. an exalted functional activity, 345. a conservative process, 351. New theory of molecules, 20. Nuclei, position of in cells, 188. Nutrition, 100, 321, 331. Nutritive capacity of white blood- corpuscles, 332. activity exaggerated, 182, 321, 331. Organic compounds, 24, 274. genesis, Barrett. 102. Pabulum, always fluid, 221, 264. Pancreatic juice, 5, 20, 36, 536. Persistence of energy, 53, 81. Physics, 6. molecular theory of, 7, 20, 96. Physical theory of life, 9. properties of matter, 34, 260, 261. bioplasm, 81, 267. Physiological definition of cell, 76, 195, 576. Polar forces, 12, 16, 236. Polluted bread, 133. Poisons, their relations to bioplasm, 302. 315, 338, 352, 377, 385, 489. Potential affinities, 26. Pregnancy, 216. Property and conditions, 65. Proximate principles, 5, 15, 520. organic, 6, 33. inorganic, 6. Pus-corpuscles, degredation of, 464. Pus-corpuscles, 465. Quantity, quality, quack, 140, 148, 472, 488. Relation of drugs, food, etc., to the economy, 129. Remedies, vegetable, 136, 151, 507. mineral, 137, 145, 150, 382, 416, 507. catalytic, influence of, 147. Reticular structure, 92, 112, 119, 172. Retrogression, doctrine of, 97. Rheumatic endocarditis, 288. Rigor mortis, 505. Rindfleisch on alcohol, 600. Rust of bodv, Tyndall, 14, 142, 216, 217, 223. Sarcoma, alveolar, 476. Sentient energy, 162. Scientific medicine, Dr. Davis, 167. Secretion and excretion, 515. how effected, 277,518, 522, 532. a physical process, 30, 515. Shock of injury, 333. Slacking lime, 266. Small-pox virus, 429. Smith, Q. C., 139. Sodium, 144. Solvent properties of water, 45. Source of skepticism 76, Specific heat capacity. 48. capacity of steam boilers, etc., 48. molecular weight, 49. weight of an atom, 50. Spermatozoa,their true function, 114, 469. Spiritual life, erroneous definition of, 75. energy, 163. Spontaneous generation, 9, 124, 271. Stomach, histology of, Cornil and Ranvier, 522. Suggestions to Evolutionists, 163. Substantial theory of energy, 7, 260. Sulphuric acid, 144. Tanner, fast of, 214. Tendency to vacuum, how prevented, 187. The cell, physiological definition of. 73, 195, 522. anatomical definition of, 497. The breath of lives, 71. The physical theory of life, 72. The relation of living beings to their physical environments, 73. Thermal changes, 178, 235, 246. Thermo-pile, experiment with, 248. Toxadministers, 353, 372, 393, 487, 574, 575, 592. 596, 602, 604. their responsibility for drunken- ness, etc., 538, 539, 581, 584. the father of, 606. Treatment of Garfield, 64, 406. Treatment of inflammation, 419. Tubercle bacilli, 100. disease germs, 357, 367. Tuberculosis, 389, 434. Tuberculosis and broncho-pneumonia compared, 356. symptoms of, 364, 379. complicated, caution, 364, 365. resorption doctrine of, 370. how disseminated, 374. Tubercular granulations, 431. Tuberculine, 366, 438. Tumors, discussed by electrical cur- rent, 256. Tuning fork, vibrations of, 245. Typhoid fever, 212, 213,305, 409. Uriniferous tubules, physiological function of, 326. Uterus, gravid, 216. Valves of heart, veins, etc., function of, 196. Vegetable remedies, 136,139,418, 507. bioplasm cannot assimilate organic substances, 58,171, 484. 632 INDEX, Vegetable theory of disease germs, 424, 433. Vessels, state of in inflammation, 329, 336, 348. Vital affinity, 192. Vital energy, source of, 155. its field of action and limitation of, 80. a difference in, 85. substantial, 121, 571. triune, 121. Packard, 9. calorific theory of, 10. 7, 69. Vital energy, mode of acting, 41. integrative, 25, 274, 284. phenomena of a chemical charac- ter, 90, 91, resistive power, 194, 485, 486. Vibrations of tuning fork, ''interfer- ence," 245. Volvex globator, 511. Waste products, disposition of, 185, 195. Water, solvent properties of, 45. Watts experiment on eggs, 156. Work or starve, 214.