There is a broad but not commonly recognized distinction between what
constitutes a medicine and a food. All the materials that normally
enter into the composition of the living body, and are necessary to
the maintenance of health and strength, may be property classed as
foods, whether they be obtained from the animal, vegetable, or mineral
kingdoms; thus the iron, sulphur, phosphorus, lime, potash, etc.,
required by the system usually exist in and are organically combined
with the various foods in common use, and they are perhaps quite as
essential to the physical well-being as albuminoid, fatty, and
saccharine matters. When the system is suffering from lack of any of
the above mentioned chemicals, their administration is to be regarded
as the giving of nutritive substances, although they be prescribed by
a physician in divided doses and procured from a pharmacist.
On the other hand, a medicine is any substance that does not naturally
enter into the composition of the body, but which has the power, when
skillfully used, to modify the physical processes so that
physiological disorder--disease, shall be replaced by physiological
harmony--health. Belladonna, hyoscyamus, opium, etc., are familiar
examples of medicaments. Therefore a food is any substance that is
capable of directly contributing to the nutrition of the body, and
medicine is a substance competent, under proper conditions, to secure
the same results indirectly. Viewed in the light of the above
definition, cod-liver oil is to be regarded as a very valuable food,
as well as a most effective remedy both for the prevention and cure of
consumption.
I have previously stated that food is divided by physiologists into
three great classes. The albuminoids are used to build up the
organism, while the fatty and saccharine are burned in the body to
keep it warm. Although these are the chief functions devolving on the
above mentioned food elements, yet they are mutually interdependent on
each other for the proper performance of their several offices. Thus
the albuminoids cannot undergo the wonderful vitalizing process
necessary to fit them to enter into and form part of the living body,
except an adequate quantity of fatty matter be present to assist in
the vital transformation. On the other hand, the assistance of the
albuminoids is equally necessary to enable the fatty and saccharine
foods to maintain the internal heat of the body. Of all fatty matters,
whether derived from the animal or vegetable kingdom, none possesses
the property of stimulating and perfecting the nutritive processes in
so high a degree as cod-liver oil; it is more readily emulsified and
fitted for absorption by the pancreatic secretion during intestinal
digestion than any other fatty matter of which we have any knowledge.
The beneficial effects of its use have been proved in myriads of cases
of confirmed consumption, and if it were used for prolonged periods by
persons who are losing weight, and whose breathing capacity is too
little, along with effective cultivation of the latter function, many
persons would escape this disease who now succumb to it.
THE INFLUENCE OF NORMAL BREATHING ON THE FEMALE GENERATIVE
ORGANS.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
The body is divided into three separate stories by two partitions. The
diaphragm, A, separates the cavity of the chest from that of the
abdomen. The partition, _D_, forms a floor for the digestive cavity,
F, and a roof for the pelvis; the pelvic cavity is occupied mainly by
the generative organs. The upper part of the uterus is firmly fixed to
the partition, D, by which the pelvis is covered. Now, the diaphragm,
A, and the external respiratory muscles are in ceaseless motion
performing the act of breathing. The diaphragm acts like the piston of
a pump, both on the lungs above, and on the contents of the abdominal
and pelvic cavities below. When it rises from B to A, it diminishes
the size of the thoracic cavity, compresses the lungs, and assists in
the expiratory part of breathing; at the same time it acts through the
contents of the abdominal cavity on the pelvic roof, D, to which the
uterus is attached, and raises it from D to C. When the diaphragm
contracts, it descends from A to B, increases the size of the thoracic
cavity, inflates the lungs, promotes the inspiratory part of
breathing, pushes the walls of the chest and abdomen outward from F to
E, and lowers the pelvic roof at the same time the uterus sinks from C
to D. When the effect of these respiratory motions is not diminished
by muscular debility, rigidity of the thoracic walls, or by unsuitable
clothing, they have so direct an effect on the pelvic contents that
the uterus and its appendages make two distinct motions every time a
woman breathes. When the diaphragm rises and the breath is expelled,
the womb is elevated from one inch to one inch and a half, because the
roof of the pelvis, to which it is attached, is lifted about this
distance, because of gentle suction from above. The uterus and its
appendages are thus kept in constant motion, up and down, chiefly by
action of the muscles by which breathing is carried on.
Several influences combine to maintain the circulation of the blood.
The pumping action of the heart and the affinity of the blood for the
walls of the capillary vessels require to be assisted by the motion
both of the body as a whole and of its parts in order to keep the
circulation flowing equably through every tissue. Therefore muscular
action and the resulting bodily motion play a very important part in
maintaining the general and local blood circulation. During the
contraction of a muscle, the blood current flowing through it is, for
the time being, retarded, but when relaxation occurs the blood flows
into its vessels more freely than if no momentary cessation had taken
place. When the body or any of its parts is deprived of motion, the
blood circulation stagnates, and the nutrition, general or local, as
the case may be, promptly becomes impaired. This is specially true of
the uterus. Gentle but constant motion is absolutely essential to keep
up a healthy uterine blood circulation. Nature has provided for the
automatic performance of all the ceaseless internal motions that are
necessary to the continuance of life and the preservation of health;
thus the heart beats, the respiratory muscles act, the stomach
executes a churning motion during gastric digestion, the intestines
pass on their contents by worm-like contractions, automatically
without our supervision and without causing fatigue, being under the
control of the sympathetic system of nerves chiefly. It is equally
true, but not so well recognized, that the previously described
motions that are committed to the pelvic organs from the respiratory
apparatus are absolutely necessary to the continued health of the
uterus and its appendages. But the womb is not under the control of
the voluntary muscles, therefore it cannot be directly moved by them,
nor are its necessary motions influenced by the sympathetic system of
nerves as are the heart, stomach, and intestines, etc., but it is
fortunately under the indirect but positive control of involuntary
muscles that never, as long as breathing continues, cease their work.
Nature has thus made ample provision to keep the uterus in automatic
motion. As before stated, the natural ceaseless heavings of the lungs,
chest, and diaphragm, aided by the muscles inclosing the abdomen, have
the duty assigned them of communicating automatic motion to the uterus
and the other contents of the pelvis. When the diaphragm descends from
A to B, and the lungs are filled with air, the uterus sinks in the
pelvic cavity in obedience to the downward pressure from above, as
before stated; the circulation through the uterus is then for a moment
retarded, but the next instant, when the lungs are emptied of air and
the diaphragm rises, the blood flows forward more freely than if it
had not been momentarily obstructed. Ample provision has thus been
made to maintain a healthy circulation through the uterus.
The uterine motions I have described are fully adequate for the
purposes indicated. But when the natural stimulus of motion is
withheld, the circulation becomes sluggish causing congestion, which
may develop into inflammation. Under these conditions the uterus
gradually becomes displaced, falling backward, forward or downward as
the case may be. The blood vessels by which the uterus is supplied
thus have their caliber diminished by bending; the circulation through
them is retarded just as the flow of water in a rubber tube is
obstructed by a kink. A very good idea of what occurs in the uterus
under the conditions just described may be obtained by winding a
string around the fingers.
As the coats of the arteries are thick, and the pressure exerted by
the ligature has less power to prevent the arterial blood flowing
outward past the string to the end of the finger than it has to
prevent the return of the venous blood toward the heart, therefore the
part beyond the ligature soon becomes congested, the blood stagnating
in the capillaries. If the ligature be sufficiently tight and kept on
long enough, mortification will take place, but if the circulation be
only moderately obstructed, the congestion will continue until
ulceration occurs. A similar condition is developed in the uterus when
the necessary natural stimulus of motion fails to be communicated to
it or when it is so far out of its proper place that the circulation
through it is obstructed.
I believe the above described condition to be a most potent but
inadequately recognized cause of the various forms of uterine diseases
that distress so many women.