THE MOTIVE POWER OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM, WITH THE ' DUODYNAMIC SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT CHRONIC DISEASES. BY H. H. SHERWOOD, M. D. REVISED BY H. H. SHERWOOD'S SUCCESSOR, WILLIAM LARNED, No. 102 Chambers Street, New York. SIXTEENTH EDITION, ENLARGED. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE PROPRIETOR 1850. «*> w ft £ i860 vrrmi NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE BETHESOA 14, MD. Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by H. H. SHERWOOD, M. D. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1 S50, by WILLIAM LARNED, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. A. new edition of this work being demanded, the author has availed him- self of the opportunity to enhance its value by much additional matter, of great importance and interest. In corroboration of the existence of tuber- cles in the brain which he had repeatedly advanced in opposition to the su- percilious prejudices of the generality of the profession, and which he had discovered and demonstrated by the new symptoms which he had adopted in a long and successful practice, he has now the pleasure of introducing conclusive evidence of the fact, from foreign medical journals of established reputation. With regard, also, to the existence, formation, and symptoms of tubercles in a variety of other organs, he has adduced the decisive testi- mony of M. Lugol, of Paris, in his recent very valuable and celebrated lectures. It will be seen that this distinguished physician confirms not only the author's general doctrine concerning the extreme prevalence of tubercles in nearly all the organs and other structures, but also of their formation in the bones, which he had previously insisted on alone, unsup- ported by a single authority, and with scarcely a hope of professional credence. It will be seen, moreover, that M. Lugol fully agrees with him in the opinion that the ordinary means of diagnosticating tubercles as well as the common mode of treatment, are wholly inadequate, erroneous and deceptive. And now that the enlightened and highly independent mem- bers of the American faculty have this under the seal and sign manual of foreign authority, they will probably be induced, sometime in the course of the present century, to honor it with their consideration, and direct their inquiries to the symptoms and treatment which should be preferred. In this event they may possibly discover that the symptoms which the au- thor has for many years adopted, are constant and invariable, and that his treatment is rational, scientific and successful. The other additional matter presented in this edition, embraces disco- veries in physiology which are entirely new, and which may prove to be of inestimable value. They are not of course, submitted, with any great degree of confidence, to medical men in general, for the author well knows that the great body of his professional brethren are far too learned to learn any more ; but to the candid and inquiring he submits these dis. coveries as facts which have come under his own personal observation, and concerning which he is neither deceived nor deceives. They will be found to afford a beautiful and almost boundless illustration of the magnet- ic organization of the human system for which he has contended in this and other works, and to harmonize in the most remarkable manner even with the diagrams which he had published long before these extraordinary confirmations had either been obtained or anticipated. We said thus much in the Preface to the third edition of this work ; and now that three more editions have been exhausted, and a seventh has become in urgent demand, we think it proper to add the following pertinent and gratftying facts that have ad interim transpired. The direct connection which we traced, many years since, between the posterior spinal nerves and the ganglionic or sympathetic system of nerves, and which has been denied and ridiculed by the great and little Solomons of the profession, has been demonstrated by Volkman and Bidder, the distinguished German anatomists, who distinctly traced it with the microscope. Thus the symptoms of disease, developed by pressure on the intervertebral spaces of the spinal column, upon which the author has successfully practised for much more than a quarter of a century, and which he has taught in this and many previous publications^ are now conclusively established by other evidence and authority ; and it will soon be seen that the pathoiogy, treatment, and remedies, which we have so long adopted, in consonance with our knowledge of these symptoms, will be confirmed also, as appropriate and indispensable. Indeed, we may triumphantly claim that this confirmation has been achieved already, by the indubitable test of the electro-magnetic ma- chine, now in very extensive use, and for a knowledge of which we refer the reader to our little work entitled " A Manual for Magnetising with the Rotary and Vibratory Magnetic Machine, in the Duodynamic Treatment of Diseases," sixth edition, enlarged. As an additional corroboration of our views concerning the extensive range of tuberculation in the system, and its almost universal prevalence under various aspects of disease, we insert, in the present edition, an article entitled " Physiological and Pathological Researches on Tuber- culosis," by H. Lebert, M. D., from " Muller's Archives." Still more interesting, to many readers, is the evidence which we pre- sent, in an extract from the " Animal Kingdom" of Emanuel Sweden- borg, that this celebrated and truly wonderful writer was familiar with the laws of physiological magnetism, which we have hitherto advanced in utter unconsciousness of the existence of any such exalted authority in their support, and as the fruits of our own researches alone. INTRODUCTION. br order to ascertain the unknown causes of obv.'ous effects, one of two modes is generally adopted. In the one usually chosen, in accord- ance with common philosophy, theories are first constructed, and then sufficient is very rarely facts collected to confirm them ; but a number found for this purpose, and these theories, resting on slight foundations, are consequently almost always fallacious. In the other mode, which is according to inductive philosophy, a great number of corresponding facts is collected, and the theory or knowledge derived from a comparison of them is true and substantial. The latter mode should always be adopted to establish a theory on a foundation that cannot be overturned. For if a theory in philosophy be true, the number of comparative facts that may be brought to its support, is absolutely innumerable and without end. So that if a certain number of facts is not sufficient to satisfy any person of the truth of the theory, any additional number can be presented to him, that may be necessary for such purpose. The theory upon which this work is founded, is the result of that in- ductive process which has elicited the true causes of universal motion, and the laws by which it is governed ; and the demonstrations on the electro-dynamic rings have since placed the hypothesis beyond doubt. The part of this theory which belongs to the human form, and to chronic diseases, derives, from the causes of motion, new and invariable symptoms of those diseases which belong to the class hypertrophy, or limbs and the laws of magnetic chronic swellings of the organs and ; motion explain the causes of their phenomena. When the discoveries thus made, were compared with the various theories of the medical profession on these subjects, it was easy to see how fallacious the latter necessarily were, and with what ease th*7 miwht be overturned and buried for ever in one common ruin. The effect of the common practice in this class of dissases, has long Deen known to be uniformly injurious when carried beyond the mere object of palliating an occasionally urgent symptom, and is therefore exactly what we should expect to arise from an entire ignorance of the laws of organic and molecular motion, and of the symptoms dependent on these laws. As there may be physicians who, from motives of interest, would be unwilling to acknowledge as much, I shall here copy the opinion of the late John Armstrong, M.D., one of the most enlightened men that ever adorned our profession. He was also one of our best medical authors, and was universally so considered. " If any one were to assert, in unqualified terms, that medicine is a conjectural and vague art, it were easy to refute him, by proving its great certainty in many acute diseases ; and if any one were to ask what part of physic is most defective, we might point out chronic diseases, since in them our efforts have hitherto been the most in- effectual. It is for want of having discriminated the general difference of results in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases, that some have so much underrated, and others so much overrated, the powers of the medical art. Speak of acute diseases, and we may justly maintain the present utility of our profession ; speak of chronic diseases, and we must with regret confess its present imperfection. If any practitioner should be generally unsuccessful in the treatment of acute diseases, the fault must be his own, provided he be consulted in the earliest stages : for the united agencies of blood-letting, purgatives, mercurials, opium, and blisters, will commonly control the very elements of these diseases, when opportunely and judiciously directed ; and if any one will still be so stubborn as to reject the use of some of the most powerful in- struments which we possess, the failures, are rather to be attributed to himself, than to the inefficiency of medical expedients.