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- YAWNING
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- My Dear Sirs,
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- The spirited manner in which you have
supported the dignity of the medical profession,
has encouraged me to acquaint you with the
extraordinary effects of yawning in
terminating instantaneously a fit of asthma, for
the benefit of those who may be subject to that
most distressing affection. Suspecting, from a
sense of constriction about the windpipe, which
came on as I was walking up the Haymarket, that
a fit of asthma, to which I am subject on very
slight occasions, was coming on, I went to the
reading room of Messrs. Burgess and Hill, in
Great Windmill Street, with the intention of
remaining them till it bad run its course. To
amuse my mind I took ups work which was lying on
a table before me. lt proved to be a "Quarterly
Journal, edited by a Dr. James Johnson." After
going through some pages, I was seized with a
violent fit of yawning, which most
effectually removed every asthmatic
symptom.
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- The great freedom of breathing, which so
suddenly followed a sensation of suffocation,
greatly astonished me; after a little reflection
I was convinced that the happy result was the
consequence of bringing into action, during
yawning, the muscles which are opposed to
those which are spasmodically affected in
asthma. In this opinion I was confirmed, on
recollecting the advice given by Mr Abernethy,
many years ego, in case of cramp, to bring the
antagonist muscles into action. On reopening the
Journal to which I was indebted for this most
important discovery, the first article which
caught my eves, was a letter from Dr. George
Pearson, a licentiate of the London College of
Physicianis, to Dr. James Johnson, complimenting
him for "his admirable exposition and judicious
pathotogy of apoplexy."
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- "Notwithstanding," says this learned Dr.
Pearson, "the minute researches published by Dr
Abercrombie and
yourself, unless I have overlooked the record,
the important pathological fact, the ossifed
condition of the cerebral arteries, especially
the carotids, has been omitted." This letter,
with the knowledge I have of the writer and his
learned friend, unfortunately excited an
involuntary fit of laughter, that brought on a
slight asthmatic paroxysm, which I certainly
terminated by having recourse to yawning.
To term the carotids, cerrbral arteries, is in
the first place ridiculous, and the supposition
that ossification of arteries of the brain is
capable of producing apoplexy, is preposterous
in the extreme. Apoplexy is the consequence of
compression of brain, either from effusion of
blood or over distension of blood vessels. The
size of an ossified artery is never increased to
that degree as to compress the brain, so as to
disturb its functions, and its power of
dilatation being destroyed by it, the
compression of brain is probably more diminished
than increased by the change; at any rate the
coats of the artery are so strengthened by the
deposit of ossific matter, as effectually to
prevent rupture, and, consequently, the species
of apoplexy, which generally terminates fatally,
viz. from effusion of blood. It is common to
find ossification of arteries within the skull
of elderly people, who died of apoplexy; but it
is equally as common to finit this state of
arteries of the brain in elderly people who have
died of other diseases, particularly of
asthma.
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- The case is, that this change in the coats
of arteries is the effect of age, and has
nothing more to do with apoplexy than the loss
of teeth. Besides, the blood which is effused in
cases of apoplexy, is venous and not arterial
blood, and when it is produced by distension of
vessols, it is of veins or sinuses, and not of
arteries. These fact, I presume, the learned Dr.
Pearaon will not deny, if the reflecting organ
of his brain be free from ossified arteries. I
have read all that has appeared from the pens of
Dr. Abercrombie and Dr. Johnson, on apoplexy
(for which you will give me credit for
possessing an unusual share of patience),
without being able to discover any thing like a
new idea; and as Dr. Pearson has thought proper
to compliment those writers on the light they
have thrown on the pathology of the disease, I
shall be greatly obliged to him or any other
person, to point out the information which is
not to be found to the works of the moderns.
Doctor Johnson, in a note to Dr. Person's
letter, observe, that ossification of arteries
was noticed by him among the exciting causes of
apoplexy!! What a curious idea of exciting
causes of disease! Supposing that ossification
of arteries (a disease which advances very
slowly), was capable of producing apoplexy, how
can it operate as the exciting cause? Now the
meaning of all this is, that Dr. George Pearson
is a candidate for a fellowship in the College
of Physician, and Dr. James Johnson has
matriculated at Paris, in order to qualify
himself to become a candidite for a college
licence. The members of the college, must
therefore be complimented. Here I must stop,
with a promise to send for your next number,
some very interesting, or rather amusing,
intelligence from Paris, with an analytical
exposé of the Quarterly Journal, its
editor, the advertised list of subscribers,
&c. The system of literary quackery,
puffing, book-making, new modes of getting
subscribers, and obtaining panegyrical reviews,
which I shall fully expose, has been too
successfully carried on in this country fur many
years, to the great injury of the medical
profession.
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- I am, my dear Sirs, Your very obedient
servant, Jemmy Tissue Ego, MD.
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- Author of a Treatise on Atmospheric
Phenomena, and many other scientific works,
Member of several learned Societies, late
Surgeon of a Guinea slave ship, &c. &c.
&c. Humbug House, Spring Gardens.
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- P. S. I hop. the asthmatics who may give
Yawning a trial, will favour me, through
the medium of your excellent work, with its
effects. I assure them, that I have (ound it
exceeedingly beneficial; but I am, as all
asthmatics are, an Idiosyncrasist, and
therefore, what agrees with me, may disagree
with, another. A "certain great personage," I
am credibly informed, requires to be read to
sleep every night, and such is the peculiarity
of his nervous system, that only one person can
do it efectually,-viz. Sir W. Kun, Bart. MD. For
this purpose he attends at the bedside of his
patient every night, and so successful has he
been, that he is denominated the Royal"
Nightmare."
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