FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
When “Professor” Robert Fitzsimmons delivered the famous punch in
the solar plexus that laid the mighty James Corbett upon whatever
it is they cover a boxing ring with, he demonstrated to everybody’s
satisfaction--except perhaps Mr. Corbett’s--that there is a group of
nerves in the “pit of the stomach” which has an intimate and most
distressful connection with the brain. And now every doctor knows the
functions and connections of the pneumogastric nerve.
Gunmen, pugilists, and “bouncers” also know that if the temple, or
the angle of the jaw, be even lightly “tapped,” the tappee is usually
placed hors de combat for an appreciable period of time. General
knowledge of this weighty academic subject is comparatively recent--as
time is reckoned.
And the Japs, in their uncanny knowledge of nerve anatomy, exemplified
in their proficiency in jui jitsu, have shown that, by pressure upon
certain nerve terminals, or upon plexuses of nerve groups they are
able to do almost everything except murder a victim. Perhaps they could
do this, also, if they were sufficiently industrious and persevering.
Indeed, for many years they have been aware that there are certain
nerve centers in the neck and under the angle of the jaw, pressure upon
which will temporarily suspend consciousness. In fact, their methods
were tried by surgeons, prior to the discovery of anesthesia; but were
discarded, owing to the fact that no one could guarantee that the
patients would wake again after the operation.
Also, as showing how great oaks from little acorns grow, and how mickle
and mickle makes muckle. Professor William Halstead, more than a dozen
years ago, was operating upon a man with a rupture--under cocaine
anesthesia, as he thought. It was found, however, after the operation
had been painlessly completed, that the moon-stricken assistant, had
forgotten to put the cocaine tablet in the syringe.
So that all the anesthetic the patient got was sterile water. However,
this was enough, for the pressure of the water injection into the
parts, had blocked the nerve tract, and inhibited the transmission of
the message of pain.
This experience may or may not have given Dr. Crile the clue to his
interesting and vastly important discovery of “nerve block,” but, in
any event, we learned something new about the human body. But--and this
is the point I wish to emphasize--we are not through learning about it
yet.
So, if some time a doctor tells you that a woman of sixty-nine,
suffering for years from one-sided paralysis, made pressures twice
daily with an aluminum comb on the top (or front) of the hand, favoring
the thumb side--and in two weeks noticed a decided improvement, and
after five months can now lift her foot free from the floor and walk
without a cane, don’t sneer.
If another tells you that a case of infantile paralysis, of five years’
standing--after several months’ treatment with a probe on the back wall
of the pharynx, can now kick as high as his shoulder with either foot,
don’t scoff. For that doctor has photos of the boy, showing him in the
act of doing just this identical thing.
It may also be that catarrhal appendicitis is helped. For in unorthodox
ways three cases of catarrhal appendicitis were apparently cured by
pressures exerted with a comb over the first, second and third finger,
and carried up as far as the wrist. These cases were diagnosed as
catarrhal appendicitis by several competent medical men. They showed
all the classical symptoms, including pain on pressure over McBurney’s
point, vomiting, and digestive disturbances. They were treated three
times daily for several days, and in the interim, treated themselves
at home along the same lines. In ten days to two weeks, there was an
apparent cure of all three cases. And now, after six months, there has
been no return of the condition.
And, speaking of appendicitis, it is interesting to note that if pain
is relieved by zone pressure, and returns after a short time, we can be
morally certain that there is pus present, and that the case demands
immediate operation. This same thing, as we before observed, applies to
abscesses in the ear, teeth, tonsil, or anywhere else.
The injunction to “prove all things and hold fast to that which
is true,” is as applicable and pertinent today as it was when
first dropped from the lips of the old sage. So, if some time your
progressive doctor should tell you to rub your finger nails together,
and scratch the front of your hands and arms, and thereby cure falling
hair, don’t laugh--because he may be repeating to you only what numbers
of his patients have told him they did--and stopped their hair from
leaving its moorings.
Also, if he tells you to use a wire brush on the front and back of the
hand, and also press with the aluminum comb on the palms of the hand,
to cure cold feet, he may not be nearly as crazy as he sounds. He may
be merely a little ahead of your time, as were Harvey, Semmelweis,
Horace Wells, Lister, and hundreds of others, who have suffered the
slings and arrows of ridicule.
And so, we who believe in zone therapy now understand why we grind our
teeth. It is because the action relieves nerve tension, and diminishes
the pain in all the zones of the body connected by those invisible and
as yet undiscovered nervous wires strung through the telegraph poles of
the teeth.
When we grab our bruised shins we check the transmission of pain in the
irritated nerve trunk lines of that zone. When we grasp the arm of the
dental chair, and hang on like grim death, we are unconsciously going
through motions that, if continued long enough, would have made our
trial comparatively painless. The only fault in our preparation for the
ordeal was that we should have started our pressure grip three or four
minutes earlier. But our intentions were good.
When automatically we clench our fists in furious anger, we are
relieving our terrific nervous excitation, and thereby perhaps
preventing the bursting of a blood vessel. When we clasp the hands of
one sorely stricken and in the throes of despair, we are, in addition
to supplying him with comforting magnetism and physical solace,
producing a distinctly analgesic and quieting effect upon his entire
nervous system.
And when we clasp our hands or press the fingers tightly together in
supplication, we are ministering to over-wrought nerves, and thereby
perhaps bringing ourselves into closer harmony with the great Cosmic
Force that envelopes us all in a mantle of kindness and love.
[CONCLUSION.]
Spelling corrections:
exopthalmic → exophthalmic
opthalmic → ophthalmic
pres-pressure → pressure
of → or
whatosever → whatsoever
flniching → flinching
mucus membrane → mucous membrane
mucos membrane → mucous membrane
miscroscopic → microscopic
nitrous oxid → nitrous oxide
mucocutaneus → mucocutaneous
it → is
cocain → cocaine
lumbag → lumbago
Spelling inconsistencies:
thoro/thorough
thoroly/thoroughly
tonsilitis/tonsillitis
Fitzgerald/FitzGerald
thru/through
altho/although
technic/technique
pyorrhea/pyorrhoea