Page:The Harveian oration, 1873.djvu/49

 43 secretion of gastric juice is called forth. The sensory impulse caused by the ingestion of food into the stomach, is propagated upwards by the vagi to the medulla oblongata, where it throws into abeyance the vaso-motor nerve- cells, which, whilst the stomach is empty, keep the blood-vessels of the gastric mucous membrane constricted, but which, when their activity is inhibited, allow the zonular fibre- cells of these blood-vessels to dilate, and allow the increased afflux of blood thus called for. That relief will result to some of the countless martyrs to dyspepsia out of the demonstration of this physiological relation of vagus, sympathetic, and peptic glands, I do not doubt, Possibly, I would add, Owsjannikow's observations as to the working of hydrate of chloral as a depressor of arterial tension (Ludwig's Arbeiten, 1872, p. 32) may prove valuable to persons en- gaged in practice, by pointing out, in how- ever shadowy a fashion, the road to a more rational and systematised, even if less general use of this drug than that which I am told is now made of it. It may seem a paradox, but it is none the less true for all that, to say that,