CHAPTER XV. CONDUCTORS AND THEIR USE IN MEDICAL The Nerves are Conducting Wires - Identity of Magnetism and the Nervous Force — The Fluid Theory Exploded — How to affect an Organ through its Nerve - Illustrated by Sciatic Rheumatism - Why the Foot goes to Sleep - Effect of a Blow upon the Ulnar Nerve-Importance of Understanding the Anatomy of the Nervous System — Illustrations — The Trifacial Nerve- How to Cure Neuralgia of the Face and Teeth – The Optic Nerve - Amaurosis - Instant Relief for Inflamed Eyes- Treatment of Deafness - Ear-ache - The Pneumogastric Nerve Its General Distribution - Its Function - How to Affect any Part or Organ through it· Vital Magnetism Controlled by the Will - Goes where it is Sent - Also spontaneously where Needed-Communicable through all Substances - Can be imparted any Distance - Its Rate of Progress. THE nerves are the appointed and natural conductors of the peculiar force, that is generated in the brain and spinal column, to the various parts and organs of the body. By dividing the nerves, so as to interrupt this communication with the cerebral centres, the functions of the organs are at once suspended. This nerve-force is, therefore, essential to their physiological movements, and to the discharge of their office in the animal economy. The agent employed in producing the phenomena of what is called magnetism is either identical with the nerve-force, or is analogous to it, and is, also, conducted to the organs through their appropriate nerves, and affects their vital movements. It was formerly supposed that the nerves transmitted a subtle fluid called the animal spirits, and, subsequently, the nerve-aura, which flowed along their course to the different organs, analogous to the mode in which what was supposed to be an electrical fluid was conducted along the wire. But the fluid theory has been abandoned in explaining the phenomena of electricity, and also in physiology, in illustrating the functions of the nervous system. The new doctrine of force is now introduced into physiology, as well as into the science of the imponderable agents of heat, light, electricity, and magnetism. The idea of a nerve-aura, or fluid, is exchanged for the more satisfactory and rational one of a vibratory force that is transmitted by the nerves to the organs, in the same or similar way in which an undulatory wave is transmitted through the telegraphic wire. Bear in mind that the nerve-force and vital magnetism are the same, and the nerves are the proper conductors of both. Oftentimes you can affect an organ through the nerve leading to it better than by placing the hand in immediate contact with the part. The morbid state of an organ may be, and often is, the result of an abnormal state of the nerve quite remote from the organ itself. The negative swelling of the feet, the ankles, and the calves of the leg, is often caused by a congested and strangulated state of the large nerve in the hip, called the sciatic nerve, and, also, of the nerve accompanying the femoral artery. By removing the inflamed state of the nerves in the hip and in the inside of the thigh, the lameness and swelling in the limb below come right of their own accord. In this way I have seen a limb restored, in five minutes, that was so sensitive and powerless that it could not be moved. The foot may be sensibly affected also, by transmitting the psychic and magnetic influence to it along the sciatic nerve in the thigh. We know that pressure upon the trunk of a nerve affects the sensation of the parts to which it ramifies, however distant they may be from the place of pressure. When pressure is made upon the sensory and motory nerves of the lower extremities, as in sitting in one position for a length of time upon a hard bench, we experience in the foot the peculiar sensation called going to sleep. It affects both its motion and sensibility. By a slight blow or pressure upon the ulnar nerve in the elbow you feel a sensation, which all understand, in the little finger and on one side of the ring finger. In a way analogous to this, you can transmit a magnetic influence to the various organs of the body through their appropriate nerves, which are a sort of telegraphic wire. He who makes use of Medical Psychology, for the cure of disease, should be so fully acquainted with the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, that he can affect any painful or diseased part through its nerve conductor. Knowledge, here especially, will be power. He should be as familiar with the subject as he is with the alphabet. To illustrate what may be done in this way, if you wish to relieve that painful affection, neuralgia of the face and teeth, sometimes called tic douloureux, it will be of little use to apply the hands to the face. The pain in the face and teeth is an effect; the cause is in the state of the trifacial nerve, the fifth pair of cranial nerves. This is one of the largest of the cranial nerves, and is divided into three branches, one going to the eye, forehead, and nose, which are often affected in the disease mentioned above; and another going to the upper jaw and teeth, while the other branch is distributed to the ear, the tongue, and the teeth of the lower jaw. By wetting the finger in water, and placing it in the hollow just back of the tip of the ear, and cooling the inflamed state of the nerve there, you will often relieve, in one minute, the most excruciating neuralgic pain of the face and teeth. You thus remove the cause, and the effect ceases. It is always easy to do anything we know how to do. The eye may be affected through the optic nerve, the second pair of nerves proceeding from the brain. It passes from the interior of the cranium, through an opening in the base of the skull, called the foramen opticum, to the cavity for the eye. It pierces the coats of the eye and is expanded upon the retina. It is disease of this nerve which occasions the gradual loss of sight called amaurosis, or gutta serena. It is a loss of power in the nerve, for which the psychopathic treatment is the best remedy. In its first stages, before the complete paralysis of the nerve, it restores its healthy tone, and sometimes opens the eyes of the blind. In painful inflammations of the eye there is a tender spot half way between the ear and the angle of the eye. A slight pressure here will be painful. By wetting the hand in water and applying it there, so as to cool the inflamed nerve, the inflammation of the eye will subside and disappear as if by magic. I have seen the most painful inflammation of the eye fully relieved and cured, in less than five minutes, by this simple treatment. You remove the trouble from the root. Remedies applied to the eye itself have but little effect. You must remove the cause in the abnormal state of the nerve, and then the effect will cease of itself. This is a general law, of which we should never lose sight. The seventh pair of nerves, called portio mollis, enters the hard portion of the temporal bone, at the internal auditory opening, and is distributed upon the internal ear. You may affect the nerve of the ear just back of the zygomatic process of the temporal bone. Magnetism applied here will restore the hearing, sometimes instantly, where the deafness is occasioned by a loss of power in the nerve. Where there is an inflamed state of the membrane of the tympanum I have known it to be removed, and also the loss of hearing resulting from it, and likewise otalgia or ear-ache, by applying the magnetism of the hand wet in water just in front of the ear, at the angle of the superior maxillary, or upper jawbone. This will frequently relieve the trouble at once. One of the most important nerves for the use of the psychopathic physician is called the pneumogastric nerve. It seems to be the nerve through which the mind acts upon every organ of the body, by which we may convey a mental stimulus to them, and thus affect the action of their involuntary functions. This office has been assigned to the great sympathetic; but this influences the involuntary processes of organic life, while through the pneumogastric nerve our will-power may modify the action of the internal organs, and send a spiritual force to the stomach, or liver, or kidneys. It constitutes, with its numerous branches and ramifications, a complete system of telegraphic lines, through which the mind of the patient, when in the impressible state, may affect the physiological action of any organ in the body. Through this nerve the mental and magnetic force may also act upon any part of the organic structure. The pneumogastric nerve is peculiarly adapted to this magnetic telegraphing. It proceeds directly from the brain through the foramen lacerum, the opening for the jugular vein, and is the tenth pair of cerebral nerves. It is widely distributed, sending branches to the larynx, pharynx, œsophagus, lungs, |