Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1853-08-20

ious vomiting or bilious purging, when the lungs are Grip
pied in their function. oten restores the body to life and en-
ergy In ca ses apparently the most hopeless. The frequency
Of coh eoagesdve diseases in heSouth, with pulmonary op.
preston, and the manifest good effects OF calomel aud
such medicines as excite the liver into action, led, some
years ago, to the employment Of mercurial catharties In
almost every ailment, without due discrimination. Ia
Europe the cases calling for their employment are much
less numerous than In southern attitudes That method OF
aiding the lungs, Ia decarbonizing tho blood, Is not duly
appreciated by European practitioners. Nor can they
Zee why a patient, who would sink under the action Of the
mildest laxative, should rise and walk before a strong
mercurial cathartic has ceased TO operate. In typhus
when the lungs began to flag in their action, a twenty
grain dose Of calomcl was a fsvorite remedy with DR.. Chap
man. The experiment oUIthc crocodile throws some light
on the naoins opcrdHdi of that remedy, and also explains
the reason why mercurial p~urgatives are particularly use
ful In severe wounds on the head, conclusions of'he brain
and other LESSONS interrupting the eScretion of cabonie acid
by the lungs.
Experiments ofthis kind arc full Of practical instruction,
and ought not to be considered as suiting the visionary more
than the practical man. They terd to prevent the practi-
cal man from being led into error by visionary theories
visionary practitioners do not trouble their heads about
Facts. In contemplating the anatomy of the dead subject,
theory conjectured that the heart was the chief agent in
circulating blood. But in seeing the dead subject brought
to life, with the viceIa exposed to the sight and touch. it
plainly appeared that the received theory oi the power
which produces the circulation Of the blood, is not
correct-that the priD,Hn mobile of the circula-
ton is in the rctieulatcd pulmonary tissue and
not in the heart. The reddening Of that tissue
and the injection of its vessels with blood. was prelimina-
~ to the restoration of the hearts activity. The nerves,
which had been insensible to Ere, hooks and forceps, had
their s~ensibiity restored in proportion a. the rcdness, mo
ton, aud vitality Of the blood were estored-provi that
the life OF the nerves and the flesh is in the blood, and
that the blood derives its life and motion from respiration.
DIR. Bowlers experiments are forcing psychologists 20
adopt the doctrine Of a difused sensoium. He has only
published n few scraps OF the evidence proving that doc.
trine. He has fully ten volumes OF unpublished facts con-
tanning evidence in its support, which will perfectly ir-
r~esisuble. l am not the interpreter of his opinions, but
Instead Of the brain and nerves being the sensorium, a.
the Greek and modern philosophers taught him to believe,
his own experiments, RiddelrS and mine, will demonstrate
positively that the blood ia the senSorium, as Moses said l.
was; IL by sensorium be meant the life, the ~sensibilitv, the
will, the passions, aud that species of intelligence called
instinct.
In a former experiment., reported in vol. xvii, page az,
OF this Journal, in less than an hour after the trachea bad
been tied, very fierce and vigorous animal, called the battle
ground crocodile, was handed over to DR.. Dowlcr and some
eight or ten other physicians, to extort a single symptom OF
life II they could. The heart was still beating, but muscular
~irritabuity had been destroyedin AL other parts of the body,
by the carbonic acid retained in the blood by ligatiug tbs
trachea. Fire, knives and fosceps, on the bare nerves,
thIed to eItorta single symptom of vitality. In that cN-
pertinent, Insulation Ofthe lungs was not attempted until
after the failure to eNtort any eyidencesoflife or s%ensibility.
When IL was attempted the lungs were found to be too much
torn to hold air, and the process was abandoned. but in the
present experiment, it was not until an hour and a half
after the compression of the abdomen and thoraN by a
and more than two hours and a half after the
legation Of the traches, that Insulation vas commenced.
IL not only restored muscular i~rriabinty, but il brought
the animal TO lite, and 1t Is living yet, the fifth day after
the resuscitation.
The doctrine Of Moses that life, With all its attributes OF
sensation, vo.ido1. mobility and Intelligence, exists in the
blood (the term ljfe, in Hebrew, meauiig lite with it, at
t1bntes) is no more difficult TO understand than the uoc-
irine Of the Greeks ami modern Psychologists, which pre-
supposes that life, with all it, attributes, is located in the
1ulpy substance called the bi ain and its appendages-l
INA; tc Greeks were wrong AMI Moses right, can be
prove! not only hy the crocodile. but by every turtle and
tsrupn on the wide earth. When the heads Of these
are cut 81, they VII continue 70 make intclliycu-
tut motions for some time afterwards, and some Of them,
a. my friend DR.. Cornelius :. Rakcr, of Bucks county,
Penn, has kindly reminded me, will Dart oUt their head
less necks az their prosecutors (as the swapping turtle, ios
iu'ianccl proving that they are not only alive, but retain
the passion OF anger without a head, about a. vel. as win
10. Such phenomena are perfectly irrcconcleable WITH
the received doctrines OF modern Psychologists and psy-
biologists, or with the philosophy Of the Greeks and r.
mans, hnt age 10 beautiful accordance with those docUH's
Whici have come down - u from the Hebrews.