Dynamic aspects of nutrition and heredity

Preface

In order to explain the elementary notions on which the theory of chemical combination is based it is customary to borrow illustrations from physics, and the latter science may in this sense be said to be the foundation of the former. In medicine and physiology physical considerations play an even more important part, for we have not only chemical action to deal with, but a number of rhythmical movements to take into account. With some of these we are already very familiar. With regard to others, however, and especially with respect to the rhythmical movements which take place in the nerve-cells, this is not the case. But since we know that the nervous system governs all movements, whether arterial, cardiac, respiratory, intestinal, or metabolic, we have at least a basis for conjecture, argument, and deduction. Even though direct evidence, strictly speaking, is unobtainable, we are still able to conceive the character of the action in the nerve- cells to some extent, and to draw inferences from the state and movements of the tissues. Between the former and the latter there must necessarily be a most intimate

VI degree of correspondence in regard to movement, for in this wide world of ours there is no government which does not rest upon a foundation of force, and the transmission of force implies action or movement. The reduction of chemical or physiological problems to a physical basis is, moreover, in some respects a process of simplification, and an endeavour to define the character of the movements which take place in the nerve -cells may be justified, if but partially successful, by the hope that it may ultimately lead to more direct and thorough methods of controlling them.

It is surprising to observe to what extent the physical or dynamic factor lies apparently at the root of some of the commonest and yet most important processes in medical practice. Indeed, to take a striking instance, it will probably have to be acknowledged, in default of any other equally credible explanation, that the immunity conferred by vaccination is, in reality, merely the result of a dynamic impression produced upon the nervous system. This will become to some extent apparent if we fully realize the meaning of certain characteristics of the nervous system, and the consequences of its relations to the whole organism.

To illustrate this, let us take a case. When some venturesome hoy imprudently takes his first plunge in the practice of smoking by consuming one of his father’s strong cigars, the result is usually such a revolution in his interior as to make him regret his

PREFACE vn temerity for some time. Had he, however, begun with a whiff or two at a cigarette, and persevered for a week or so in giving himself up at intervals to this form of doubtful enjoyment, it is probable that he would at length have been able to withstand the effects of the stronger weed.

One fact stands out prominently in this example — viz., that it is the influence of a first impression even more than the actual strength of the tobacco which disturbs the functioning of the nervous system, and thus causes vomiting, headache, or whatever other consequences may follow. Other cases might also be cited to illustrate the same truth. Take, for instance, that of the opium-eater who accustoms himself by degrees to enormous doses, and thus, while weakening his nervous system, nevertheless acquires for it progressively immunity from the effects which would otherwise result therefrom.

How does the nervous system govern the metabolism of the tissues ? There can, it would seem, be only one conceivable answer to this question : the nervous system must regulate all the various processes connected with tissue change by virtue of the force generated and developed in its own metabolism. Being the most readily mobile of all the tissues, the anabolic and katabolic changes in it give rise, we must suppose, to a continuous series of rhythmic movements the influence of which is felt throughout the body. The conditions essential to the perfect functioning of the whole system are, therefore, that

PREFACE viii

these rhythmic movements shall possess a given character, and that they shall be regular. These movements, however, are easily disturbed and rendered irregular. Thus, exposure of parts of the body simultaneously to two degrees of temperature, when sudden, is often, as we know, sufficient to upset the rhythm of cutaneous metabolism, and produce a cold. When bacteria in certain quantities enter the system there is a similar disturbance of rhythm. The nervous metabolic rhythm is one form of activity, the vital processes going on in the bacteria constitute another. Both the activity of the latter and their waste products bring about a change in the environment of the nervous system, and hence the disturbance. The capacity of an individual to resist the attack of an infective disease depends, one may say, on the power of the nervous system to preserve a certain regularity of rhythm in the presence of the bacteria, and, above all, to preserve a rhythm in which the excretory tendency is strongly accentuated. One may indeed compare the cells of the nervous system under these conditions to the members of a small settlement on which a party of savages has suddenly made a descent. If it be a matter of a first and unexpected attack, the excitement and confusion would naturally be greater than if it were a second or third occurrence of the same kind. So it is with the nerve-centres when bacteria of a virulent type invade the system for the first time. If they become, as they are likely to do, very excited, they lose in

IX part the regular and steady control which they previously exercised on the metabolism of the tissues, including the excretory processes, and thus the general vitality is diminished. But if after the first period of excitement the nerve-centres regain little by little their normal mode of functioning in the very presence of the bacteria, or if they have done so before in the presence of an allied but less virulent genus, a second attach is not likely to lead to the same degree of commotion and relaxation in the nerve-cells, or, in other words, to the same amount of disturbance in the nervous metabolic rhythm. When in vaccination the lymph is introduced into the arm, a local disturbance of the metabolic processes takes place. In a few days’ time there may be swelling of the part and other signs of inflammation. As matters develop, especially if the case be severe, the effect becomes more general, and slightly feverish symptoms may be noticed. Thus both locally and as a whole the nervous system comes under this new influence. Its environment is modified, but in spite of the baneful character of this modification it continues to function. Within three or four weeks from the date of vaccination all the bacteria have been worsted in their attack upon the system. They have disappeared, being either absorbed by leucocytes or excreted by the usual channels. As an active force in the body they have ceased to exist. That anything of a tangible nature beyond the scar remains after the fourth week is indeed highly improbable, and as time goes on the

X chance of any particle of the lymph being still left in the system grows ever less. Yet the period of immunity is gen ei ally recognised to be from seven to ten }eais. But if it is very difficult, or even impossible, to rest the case for vaccination upon a material basis, three facts in regard to it must strike one as undeniable : firstly, that the disturbance caused by it, lasting as it does for several days, must produce both a marked and a specific impression on the nervous system ; secondly, that such impressions are likely to be of a very durable kind ; and thirdly, that one such impression may modify considerably subsequent ones of like or allied nature.

Turning from preventive to curative medicine, we meet with an equally striking example of the employment of measures which are in reality of an essentially dynamic nature. For ages medicated baths of various kinds, containing salts, sulphur, iron, and other substances, have been adopted as a means of relief in certain pathological conditions, with results which, leaving success in the treatment of this or that disease out of the question, demonstrate, nevertheless, beyond all doubt that the physiological action of these remedies is not imaginary. Yet physiologists of repute tell us unhesitatingly that not one particle of iron or of salt or of sulphur ever enters the body through the skin. There is no absorption of these inorganic substances, so that if they act upon the system, as we know they do, they cannot act quantitatively, and therefore they must act dynamically— they must, that xi is to say, modify the nervous rhythm. At first sight it may be difficult to conceive how this is brought about, for it is very improbable that there is actual contact between the nerve-endings and the salt or the iron contained in the bath. But if we suppose, as we have reason to, that a stratum of ether lies between the nerve-endings and the chemical substance, whatever it may be, that the nerve-endings are continually undergoing a certain delicate vibration due to the force generated in the nerve-cell in the process of its metabolism, and, further, that this force causes, as it were, waves or impulses in the stratum of ether which dash up against the particles of salt or iron and come back bearing the character of these substances and thus transmitting it to the nerve- endings and through them to the nerve-cells, then we shall understand how the nervous rhythm may be modified and the physiological processes depending on it altered, although nothing whatever has been added to the body. We can also comprehend how it is that even an insoluble drug, such as calomel, can produce so marked an effect, and how an insoluble preparation of arsenic, such as dentists commonly use, causes death in the nerve of a tooth. Transmission in such cases is, moreover, very similar to the phenomenon of sight if we suppose light itself to be due to ethereal movement.

In speaking of the action of insoluble drugs and of chemical substances held in solution in baths as being of a dynamic nature, only a very limited portion of

Xll

PREFACE the truth has, however, been stated, for there is probably no exaggeration in saying that the effects produced by all chemical compounds which act directly on the nervous system are mainly of the same kind. These compounds do not give rise to quantitative changes ; they do not alter the chemical composition of the bodies of which nerve-cells are formed, although they may contribute materials for the purpose of building them up. A little alcohol, we may suppose, has passed from the digestive organs into the blood, and has finally reached a nerve-cell. Its presence undoubtedly modifies the environment of the cell, and influences its molecular movements, its metabolic rhythm, in the same way as the salt or the sulphur does that of the nerve-ending. But if the alcohol be broken up into carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, its specific action must at once disappear. If we were to imagine chemical compounds as acting on the nerve-cells quantitatively, then we should have to conceive the tissue of the cell as being ready to absorb at once, within certain limits, any quantity of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen which might be offered to it, and one’s apparently well-grounded belief in the constancy of the chemical composition of the chief bodies contained in nervous matter would melt away. When, therefore, we have on the one side variability in the chemical composition of the constituents of the nerve-cell, together with quantitative changes therein, and on the other side constancy in the chemical composition of these constituents, together with dynamic xni variations in the environment of the cell as alteinative explanations of modifications in the charactei of nervous action caused by food or drugs, it is towards the latter theory that the balance of probability inclines. Even in the case of simple elements a superabundance is not only sometimes useless, but may be highly prejudicial. Phosphorus, for instance, though a constituent of nervous matter, when given in moderately large doses, far from contributing to the building up of the tissues, rather increases the katabolic tendency. The building up of our tissues depends, one^may say, less on the quantities of the materials provided than on the play of those dynamic influences whereby metabolism in the nervous system and through it in the whole body is governed.

Though the chemical processes of metabolism are both varied and complicated in the highest degree, yet in all of them certain physical factors, such as the simple forces of attraction and repulsion, play, there is reason to believe, an essential part. We may note the influence of these forces in the contraction and expansion of vaso-motor action, we may infer it in other instances of physiological action also, and by keeping it always in view we may hope to penetrate the mysteries of some problems which, when con sidered without making due allowance for this factor, must remain insoluble.

In dealing with the subject of the functions of the cerebellum too many pages have perhaps been given up to the consideration of the anatomy of the spinal

XIV cord, and the only justification for this lies in the intimate relations which exist between the cerebral and cerebellar systems. For this and for other shortcomings, due not only to the complicated nature of the subject, but to personal deficiencies, I must ask for the reader’s indulgence. To express scientific truths with any degree of completeness is always a \eiy difficult matter, and this is especially the case in the domain of physiology, where the factors with

which one has to deal vary more than in other sciences.

February 3, 1902.

DYNAMIC ASPECTS OF NUTRITION AND HEREDITY

Chapter I

The invisible factor — Vortex atoms — Queries and guesses — The omnipresence of matter — Matter is essential to conduction — Attraction and repulsion are essential to rigidity — The conducting medium in gravity — The vibration of atoms — The ether permeates all matter — The reaction of atoms on the ether as a possible cause of electrical potential — The ether as a transmitting medium in vegetal reproduction — Properties of the ether — Tension of the ether as a factor in electrical conduction — Ether or light substance as the transmitting medium of light — Vision an ether sense — The effect of colours on the emotions — The two scales — The cell and the nucleus — The cause of the nucleus in the blood corpuscles of birds and reptiles — Nuclein, protagon and lecithin — The relatively small amount of oxygen in the cerebral compounds determines the nature of their metabolism — The cerebral circulation — The effect of some drugs on oxidation — Alcohol — Strychnine — Dynamic effects — Physiological antagonism — Action and reaction — The apparent effect of drugs on the gray matter — The nature of physiological reaction — Some factors in metabolism — The selection of materials by the tissues — The degree of oxidation going on chiefly determines the nature of the compounds— The negativity of oxygen — Muscular contraction is a process of deoxidation — Conditions most favourable to anabolism — The contractility of nerve-cells — Variations in the tension of the ether as the cause of the current of action in a nerve-fibre — The influence of functional activity on metabolism — The influence of contraction and expansion on oxidation— The nature of the nervous impulse — Electrical vibration is alwaj's connected with chemical or with molecular vibration— The three elements — Electrical phenomena — Electricity intensifies the effect of the conditions under which it is administered — Electricity as an almost neutral agency — The effects of high altitudes — Mountain sickness — The chief points — The importance of the nervous factor — The relative diminution of carbonic acid and oxygen in the blood— The effect of variations in the relative amount of these gases — Effects of diminished atmospheric pressure — Diminution of chemical intensity in high altitudes — Observations on individuals in the Alps — Experiment to demonstrate the effect of carbonic acid on the respiratory movements — The composition of the blood in high altitudes — The influence of a place may be transmitted through the ether — Some results of massage— Contractility— The influence of pre-existing conditions— Application of the theory of the ethereal nature of electricity to physiology — Views of French physiologists on electro-motory action— The transport of atoms in an electrical cell and in the body — Absorption in the amoeba — The concatenation of automatic actions and reactions in digestion — Chemical action as a cause of nervous impulses — Secretory or chemico-sensory nerves in the submaxillary

gland — Direct stimulation of the chemical processes — Relative independence of electro-chemical action and nervous action in metabolism — Difference between secretory action in the submaxillary gland and in the stomach — All nerves and nerve-cells are concerned in chemical action— Heat and cold in their relation to nervous action and metabolism.

Matter and force are the finite elements into which any substance, whatsoever be its nature, is divisible. Hitherto in biological science attention has been so closely riveted on the former that the latter has never really emerged from the obscurity of the background.

The reason of this is not far to seek. Force is the ^lei&ctoi. one factor in the calculations of modern research which escapes our ken, the impalpable element in all our problems, the unknown quantity, the eternal X in the algebra of science. It appears in many guises — as wind, water, steam, light, heat, chemical energy, molecular vibration, sound, magnetism, nervous impulses, and electricity, now gathering its units into a single wave, now scattering them over a broad expanse, sometimes storing itself up with slow and steady progress, anon bursting forth into rapid and violent shocks, transforming itself with surprising suddenness, according to the conditions of the media through which it passes, always in a sense active, always invisible, and yet never really lost. Assuredly what little we know of such a phenomenon is sufficient to make us attribute to it the greatest, most extensive, most unforeseen powers, and to lead us to suspect its action in those mysterious physiological processes which without it are, and must, remain inscrutable, impenetrable riddles. In an investigation such as that which lies before us we shall see it in many phases, carving, moulding matter, and being in turn acted on, directed, modified.

There is no more interesting theory with respect to the constitution of matter than that of Sir W. Thomson, which consists in regarding atoms as little masses of ether always in motion, as differing,

1—2

Vortex

atoms.

in fact, from the rest of the ether only in the modes of motion to which they are subjected. Such whirling portions possess rigidity through the very fact of their motion,* so that we may say with truth that force, which is merely another name for the motion of matter, is the very essence of matter. It is the cause and origin of all material substances.

This idea has been rendered more easily comprehensible by the observation of vortex rings. These are produced by giving at a certain moment to every atom in a plane disc of a fluid a velocity which should be graduated according to its distance from the edge of the disc.t If you take a box, over one side of which a piece of stuff is tightly stretched, whilst in the opposite side a circular hole is cut, and, after filling the box with smoke or other visible fumes, tap smartly on the covered side, a vortex ring may be clearly observed sailing through the air.} Its properties are interesting. In the first place, it has become differentiated from the rest of the air by the application of external force of which it has become the embodiment. It has remarkable stability ; the core is elastic and possesses rigidity. When one vortex ring impinges on another they are deflected in their course, and vibration occurs. It is on somewhat similar lines that atoms are supposed to be formed, and hence they are called vortex atoms.

* Lodge, ‘ Modern Views of Electricity,’ p. 416.

t Lodge, loc. cit., p. 412.

+ Wurtz, ‘ The Atomic Theory,’ pp. 626-328.

The bare statement of such a theory as that of vortex atoms brings a host of questions to one’s lips. If this be true of the atom, is it not true of the world also ? Is not a world a collection of atoms, just as a crowd is a collection of individuals ? and does not a crowd behave in a general way, though perhaps with greater intensity, as a single individual does ? If atoms are mere collections of ether, is their permanence relative or absolute ? Are we right in supposing them to be eternal, to have had no beginning and to have no end ? Or, on the other hand, are they the result of forces in the ether itself — forces acting within a given space, it may be, for trillions of years, and yet not eternal in that space ? Can we attribute eternity to atoms and not to worlds? Can we take such a stand positively, remembering that vortex movement is but one phase of motion or force ? If the force implied in the vortex movement of atoms be really and solely intrinsic, how are we to explain the fact that all ether does not resolve itself into atoms ? May we not conclude that in every sufficiently great volume of ether there is a tendency towards the formation of a focus due to more or less equal pressure on all sides ? May we not suppose that the rotational movements of stars and atoms alike are the result, in the first instance, of pressure of this kind? Motion, within certain limits, is, we may assume, the property of infinitely divided matter, such as the ether. All that is wanted, therefore, is a certain condition of things which shall give that motion direction. The

Queries

and

guesses.

celestial bodies may be looked on as foci of ethereal force, each one of them reacting to some extent upon those nearest to it. If we adopt this view, do we not obtain an inkling of the causes which have determined the existence of so great a variety of atoms a variety which is reproduced in so striking a manner in the most distant corners of the heavens ? Deny these causes, and, since hydrogen is known to exist in the furthest nebulae, one must suppose that all matter was once united in one huge mass, a conception appalling to the imagination of the veriest Atlas amongst philosophers. Moreover, if we regard each kind of atom as a particular degree of force embodied in ether, we can imagine to some extent how its vibrations in chemical action give rise to nervous and other forms of force.

The omni For a long time a belief has been entertained that

ofmatter. beyond the limits of our own atmosphere nothing remained but empty space. But of recent years this opinion has been frequently called in question, and many of our foremost thinkers have now become so materialistic in their view of things as to conceive the hitherto inconceivable notion that ether itself is a form of matter, that it is to be found everywhere, and that empty space is simply non-existent*— at least, so far as the universe is concerned. What there may be beyond the universe, supposing it to embrace all that we are ever likely to see with the most powerful telescope, need not trouble us very much. Even * Lodge, loc. cit., p. 379.

those who for the sake of a theory would push deductive investigation forward into regions so distant will do well to remember that the absence of tangible signs of matter does not justify the assumption of its non-existence. Mts infinite divisibility and omnipresence are, indeed, conceptions which we can no longer afford to disregard.

The view that ether is really matter in the finest state of division appears to be confirmed by certain simple reflections. Matter in some form is either absolutely necessary for the conduction of light and heat or it is not. If we adopt the view that it is essential, we must conclude that all forms of force constitute a jostling of infinitely small particles, for we can have no conception of force otherwise than as matter in motion. We shall then be led to suppose that both heat and light are merely modes of motion communicated to the free ether, and from it to the bound ether of atoms and of matter in general. But electricity has within recent years been found to bear a very close relationship to light, which is, indeed, held to be an electrical phenomenon.* There appears,

* Lodge, loc. cit., p. 877 : ‘ The main proof of the electro-magnetic theory of ^ light is this. The rate at which light travels has been measured many times, and is pretty well known. The rate at which an electro-magnetic wave disturbance would travel, if such could be generated, can be also determined by calculation from electrical measurements. The two velocitiea agree exactly.’

[If the ether be the common medium by which the light wave is, and the electro-magnetc iwave might be, transmitted, the equality of velocity is, to some extent, explained. The fact

Matter is essential to conduction.

therefore, to be some reason for supposing electricity also to be, like heat and light, a mode of motion of ether.

This way of looking at things has, moreover, the advantage that it enables us to understand why, as is so often the case, one form of force is suddenly transformed into or gives rise to another — heat to light, chemical action to heat and electricity. If, on the other hand, we put aside the theory that force is always a mode of motion of matter, it will be seen at once in what an argumentative quagmire we are landed, for we should then be obliged to imagine it as existing per se, and apart from matter, which means that it would be produced out of nothing. Such a conception, to say the least of it, transcends the powers of human comprehension. Nevertheless, the idea of empty space is so ingrained in our nature, owing to the limited range of our senses, that it will be long before it is completely banished from our minds, as banished it must one day be, if we are to form correct views of the universe.

Once having subscribed to the theory that atoms are little whirling masses of ether, one is naturally inclined to go a step further, and to draw certain deductions. The infinitesimal particles of which we must suppose each atom to be composed are, so long

that electricity in its usual form travels still faster may perhaps be accounted for either by the absence of wave movement or by other conditions affecting the medium of which we are ignorant. — F. H. | as their corporate existence lasts, all subjected to a common form of motion. This motion is the cause of or constitutes the rigidity which is the essence of the atomic form. Kigidity implies two things : it ^nd repuiimplies a certain degree of attractive power and a certain degree of repulsive power. Chemistry teaches t0 rigidityus that these powers exist — that they are, in fact, the basis of all the interchanges comprised under the term ‘ chemical action.’ Now, if we remember ‘ that every substance in the universe attracts every other substance with a force jointly proportional to the mass of the attracting and of the attracted body, and varying inversely as the square of the distance,’ ' we pass at a single stride from the atomic theory to the law of gravity, from the atom to the world or collection of atoms.

Since, however, we have already come to the con- con-

elusion that no conduction of force can take place medium in

gravity.

save through the medium of matter, we must suppose that, when an apple falls to the ground, either force has been transmitted to it from the earth through the medium of the air or the ether, or that it has come under the influence of force proceeding from the ultra-mundane ether, and affecting it, the earth, and all that appertains to it in common. But in the attraction exerted by one heavenly body on another the atmospheric air may be left out of account, and the ether remains as the sole medium for the transmission of attractive force.

IO THE ACTIVE FORCES OF LIVING ORGANISMS

Tlie vibra tions of atoms.

The ether permeates all matter.

The reaction of atoms on the ether as a possible cause of electrical potential.

It will, of course, be borne in mind that the predominance of attractive power over repulsive power is an essential condition of the existence of atoms. Were the latter greater than the former vortex, motion could no longer continue, and with its cessation the rigidity peculiar to matter would disappear, and the bound ether of the atom would become free. We may perhaps suppose that when chemical action takes place, as it always does, owing to some external force, such as light or heat or electricity — that is to say, to a movement of some kind of the ether — the perfect vortex motion is momentarily modified, that there is, as it were, a slight tendency on the part of the bound ether of the atoms to become free, to vibrate in unison with the disturbed ether surrounding them, and, reacting on it, to communicate to it a portion of the force which in the quiescent state is more entirely internal.