Volume 2

Health lectures for the people.

Date:
1883-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    58/600 (page 46)
    influence for good of this commander by comparing it to the influence which our noble and gallant countryman General Gordon has for so many months exercised over the citizens of the beseiged town Khartoum. The meanest citizen in Khartoum, though he may never himself have been in direct communication with General Gordon, has doubtless had his drooping spirits raised, and has been stimulated to renewed vigour and exertion by Gordon's influence. Now just such a healthy trophic influence is exercised by the great nervous system on all the tissues and individual organic units in the human body. Again, the nervous system afiects nutrition by calling into play the functional activity of the diff*erent organs and parts. Just as we may suppose General Gordon has by repeated and regular drills raised the troops under his command to a high state of efficiency, so does the systematic use of any tissue and organ, and indeed of the brain itself, improve its working and increase its functional power. The largely developed arm of the blacksmith is a familiar ex- ample of this truth. Then again the supply of nourishment to the individual tissues and organs is under the control of a special part of the nervous system, the vaso-motor nerves as they are technically called. The nervous system, too, maintains the balance between the production and loss of animal heat; and upon the action of certain parts of the nervous system, the continued working of the heart and lungs, the organs above all others which are essential for life, depends. From this brief statement you will see how important it is to keep the nervous system in a healthy state of nutrition, and to see that it is not exhausted by over-work or worry. It is especially important to regard the condition of the nervous system during the period of active development and growth. You may perhaps in this connection expect me to refer to that question, which is so largely at present occupying public attention, viz., over-pressure in elementary schools; but time, and I may also add, my own want of knowledge, for I have no special experience which warrants me in giving an authoritative opinion on this point, warn me that I must pass on. I must.