The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-11-27
"KNOCKED OUT"
HOW SUDDEN UNCONSCIOUS
NESS is CAUSED.
Various Nerves Leading to Common
Center In the Brain Are Affected
in Many Ways-Physiolog-
ical Phenomena,

W. success1ul puSlllst pe
Y Y proud when he Glands"
under his opponents ear
and, in the language of the ring,
"knocks him out?" asks the Chicago
Times-Herald. A boy could do the
same thing py q properly directed
blow either on the neck or in the pit
of the stomach, and consumptive
dentist could accomplish similar re-
suit with little chloroform and pair
of tooth forceps. A weak woman
armed with a darning needle, and
gently pushing it into the middle line
of the neck at the base of the skull,
could give Corbett or Sandow an
everlasting Knockout. 1t is nature
that has made all the elaborate pro-
visions for knocking out the man; all
that the antagonist has to do is to
''push the BUTTON" 50 to speak. For
purposes of illustration it may be said
that the animal nervous system is
complex series of electric al apparatus,
including batteries, wires, keys and
buttons, and there is not tenth of
square inch on or in the whole body
that is not equipped with such appa.
ratus.
Nature has taken the most elaborate
precautions against delayed messages
on account of wires being down; from
the more vital and sensitive portions
of the body there are always numer-
GUS wires to the main Office in the
brain, and not until the body is dead
is the last key closed and the last wire
grounded. The psychologist opens the
abdomen of frog. taps slightly on
the intestine, and the heart is imme-
diately slowed or stopped; the pugil-
ist lands blow on his opponents
neck, and the heart is slowed or tenn
porarily stopped. In each case the
physiologal phenomena are the same.
A glance at the illustration will show
that the nerves of the special senses
and some others spring from what is
practically common center far back
in the brain. These nerves are in
pairs, one on each side of the middle
line OF the body. Their exact origin
in the substance of the brain has not
yet been found, but from what hap
pens every day it is certain that all
are more or less intimately connected
at their origin. Gazing intently for
a few seconds at brilliant electric
light or at the sun will often cause
person to sneeze. The odor of sayory
food will cause the mouth to ''water. "
An intensely dissgreeable odor or q
horrible object will often cause nausea.
Nausea causes faintness because the
heart is alphabetically affected, is
slowed and does not send enough blood
to the brain. Pulling hair out OF
the nose, sticking needle into the
nose, or tapping on a diseased tooth
will cause tears to come into eyes.
MASKING the finger with hammer
will often cause faintness. 1t may be
said that all these phenomena are first
cousins of what happens when a man
is knocked out" The same is true
of these curious cases in which man
may have terrific earache from de-
cayed tooth, no pain being felt IN the
tooth. or toothache from hardened
mass of wax pressing on 1.-THE .drum of
the ear, or severe headache from some
eye trouble that can be relieved by
proper glasses or rest and of the con.
dition of speechlessness due to sudden
fright or to the fainting from fright.
Several years ago little child that
had lost its voice and the use of its
legs, and had "suhered all things of
many physicians" in Philadelphia, was
found to have tape worn, which had
caused all the trouble. The old reme-
dy of curing hiccough by suddenly
startling the sufferer is but an appE-
cation to the nerve running to the
diaphragm of what the successful
pugilist does to the heart branches OF
pneumogastric nerve, with the assist
ance of the sympathetic nerves. And
when a foolish dentist gives person
chloroform to prevent the pain of O
tooth-pulling, and the patient dies
suddenly, the dentist has applied the
"knock- out blow"
Take the act Of sneezing, for an
other example. The mucous mem.
brane of the nose is irritated, the per-
son feels a queer sensation, and in
moment the diaphragm contracts with
great force, driving air from the lungs
out through the nose. The pugilist is
''irritated" under the jaw by blow,
the fact of the irritation is telegraphed
to the lower back part of the brain,
the message Is switched to the pneu-
mogastric nerve, which supplies the
hS<ss aA5lIZ,I)