Relative to this last proposition, it may be said in passing, that if the activity of the liver could be maintained at normal, man would never know disease, would not grow old, would always be happy, never know a "blue" moment, and quickly elevate himself to the plane of the "gods."
22. Whatever will cleanse the stomach, restore the natural
heat and produce perspiration, will also tend to restore the diges
tion, assimilation, the secretions and, in fine, remove every de
rangement which occurs in disease.
23. The lower order of animals, as the hybernating species,
will bear the abstraction of heat from their bodies without pro
ducing disorganization; they sink into a state of torpor and
insensibility during winter, and on the return of warm weather
are reawakened into life and activity.
24. In the higher order of animals and in man, the abstrac
tion of heat can be borne below a certain degree, but for a
limited period, without producing disorganization and death.
Hence, these are endowed with a power to react against cold
and other deleterious agents; and by thus establishing a counter
acting force or influence, life and organization are preserved
against causes tending to their destruction. Many of the symp
toms which occur in disease, as pain and a state of fever, are
caused by the recuperative, life-sustaining activity, the organs
being driven, as it were, to a new mode of action, with the
design of counteracting the influence of offending causes, and
regaining their lost vitality.
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