The Secretions of Saliva, Tears and the Lacrymal Sack

Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here: [LINK TO TABLE OF LINK]. Section XXIV: Of the Secretions of Saliva, and of tears, and of the Lacrymal Sack

SECTION 24. OF THE SECRETIONS OF SALIVA, AND OF TEARS, AND OF THE LACRYMAL SACK

I. The salival glands drink up a certain fluid from the circumfluent blood, and pour it into the mouth. They are sometimes stimulated into action by the blood, that surrounds their origin, or by some part of that heterogeneous fluid: for when mercurial salts, or oxydes, are mixed with the blood, they stimulate these glands into unnatural exertions; and then an unusual quantity of saliva is separated.

1. As the saliva secreted by these glands is most wanted during the mastication of our food, it happens, when the terminations of their ducts in the mouth are stimulated into action, the salival glands themselves are brought into increased action at the same time by association, and separate a greater quantity of their juices from the blood; in the same manner as tears are produced in greater abundance during the stimulus of the vapour of onions, or of any other acrid material in the eye.

The saliva is thus naturally poured into the mouth only during the stimulus of our food in mastication; for when there is too great an exhalation of the mucilaginous secretion from the membranes, which line the mouth, or too great an absorption of it, the mouth becomes dry, though there is no deficiency in the quantity of saliva; as in those who sleep with their mouths open, and in some fevers.

2. Though during the mastication of our natural food the salival glands are excited into action by the stimulus on their excretory ducts, and a due quantity of saliva is separated from the blood, and poured into the mouth; yet as this mastication of our food is always attended with a degree of pleasure; and that pleasurable sensation is also connected with our ideas of certain kinds of aliment; it follows, that when these ideas are reproduced, the pleasurable sensation arises along with them, and the salival glands are excited into action, and fill the mouth with saliva from this sensitive association, as is frequently seen in dogs, who slaver at the sight of food.

3. We have also a voluntary power over the action of these salival glands, for we can at any time produce a flow of saliva into our mouth, and spit out, or swallow it at will.

4. If any very acrid material be held in the mouth, as the root of pyrethrum, or the leaves of tobacco, the salival glands are stimulated into stronger action than is natural, and thence secrete a much larger quantity of saliva; which is at the same time more viscid than in its natural state; because the lymphatics, that open their mouths into the ducts of the salival glands, and on the membranes, which line the mouth, are likewise stimulated into stronger action, and absorb the more liquid parts of the saliva with greater avidity; and the remainder is left both in greater quantity and more viscid.

The increased absorption in the mouth by some stimulating substances, which are called astringents, as crab juice, is evident from the instant dryness produced in the mouth by a small quantity of them.

As the extremities of the glands are of exquisite tenuity, as appears by their difficulty of injection, it was necessary for them to secrete their fluids in a very dilute state; and, probably for the purpose of stimulating them into action, a quantity of neutral salt is likewise secreted or formed by the gland. This aqueous and saline part of all secreted fluids is again reabsorbed into the habit. More than half of some secreted fluids is thus imbibed from the reservoirs, into which they are poured; as in the urinary bladder much more than half of what is secreted by the kidneys becomes reabsorbed by the lymphatics, which are thickly dispersed around the neck of the bladder. This seems to be the purpose of the urinary bladders of fish, as otherwise such a receptacle for the urine could have been of no use to an animal immersed in water.

5. The idea of substances disagreeably acrid will also produce a quantity of saliva in the mouth; as when we smell very putrid vapours, we are induced to spit out our saliva, as if something disagreeable was actually upon our palates.

6. When disagreeable food in the stomach produces nausea, a flow of saliva is excited in the mouth by association; as efforts to vomit are frequently produced by disagreeable drugs in the mouth by the same kind of association.

7. A preternatural flow of saliva is likewise sometimes occasioned by a disease of the voluntary power; for if we think about our saliva, and determine not to swallow it, or not to spit it out, an exertion is produced by the will, and more saliva is secreted against our wish; that is, by our aversion, which bears the same analogy to desire, as pain does to pleasure; as they are only modifications of the same disposition of the sensorium. See Class IV. 3. 2. 1.

8. The quantity of saliva may also be increased beyond what is natural, by the catenation of the motions of these glands with other motions, or sensations, as by an extraneous body in the ear; of which I have known an instance; or by the application of stizolobium, siliqua hirsuta, cowhage, to the seat of the parotis, as some writers have affirmed.

II. 1. The lacrymal gland drinks up a certain fluid from the circumfluent blood, and pours it on the ball of the eye, on the upper part of the external corner of the eyelids. Though it may perhaps be stimulated into the performance of its natural action by the blood, which surrounds its origin, or by some part of that heterogeneous fluid; yet as the tears secreted by this gland are more wanted at some times than at others, its secretion is variable, like that of the saliva above mentioned, and is chiefly produced when its excretory duct is stimulated; for in our common sleep there seems to be little or no secretion of tears; though they are occasionally produced by our sensations in dreams.

Thus when any extraneous material on the eye-ball, or the dryness of the external covering of it, or the coldness of the air, or the acrimony of some vapours, as of onions, stimulates the excretory duct of the lacrymal gland, it discharges its contents upon the ball; a quicker secretion takes place in the gland, and abundant tears succeed, to moisten, clean, and lubricate the eye. These by frequent nictitation are diffused over the whole ball, and as the external angle of the eye in winking is closed sooner than the internal angle, the tears are gradually driven forwards, and downwards from the lacrymal gland to the puncta lacrymalia.

2. The lacrymal sack, with its puncta lacrymalia, and its nasal duct, is a complete gland; and is singular in this respect, that it neither derives its fluid from, nor disgorges it into the circulation. The simplicity of the structure of this gland, and both the extremities of it being on the surface of the body, makes it well worthy our minuter observation; as the actions of more intricate and concealed glands may be better understood from their analogy to this.

3. This simple gland consists of two absorbing mouths, a belly, and an excretory duct. As the tears are brought to the internal angle of the eye, these two mouths drink them up, being stimulated into action by this fluid, which they absorb. The belly of the gland, or lacrymal sack, is thus filled, in which the saline part of the tears is absorbed, and when the other end of the gland, or nasal duct, is stimulated by the dryness, or pained by the coldness of the air, or affected by any acrimonious dust or vapour in the nostrils, it is excited into action together with the sack, and the tears are disgorged upon the membrane, which lines the nostrils; where they serve a second purpose to moisten, clean, and lubricate, the organ of smell.

4. When the nasal duct of this gland is stimulated by any very acrid material, as the powder of tobacco, or volatile spirits, it not only disgorges the contents of its belly or receptacle (the lacrymal sack), and absorbs hastily all the fluid, that is ready for it in the corner of the eye; but by the association of its motions with those of the lacrymal gland, it excites that also into increased action, and a large flow of tears is poured into the eye.

5. This nasal duct is likewise excited into strong action by sensitive ideas, as in grief, or joy, and then also by its associations with the lacrymal gland it produces a great flow of tears without any external stimulus; as is more fully explained in Sect. XVI. 8. on Instinct.

6. There are some, famous in the arts of exciting compassion, who are said to have acquired a voluntary power of producing a flow of tears in the eye; which, from what has been said in the section on Instinct above mentioned, I should suspect, is performed by acquiring a voluntary power over the action of this nasal duct.

7. There is another circumstance well worthy our attention, that when by any accident this nasal duct is obstructed, the lacrymal sack, which is the belly or receptacle of this gland, by slight pressure of the finger is enabled to disgorge its contents again into the eye; perhaps the bile in the same manner, when the biliary ducts are obstructed, is returned into the blood by the vessels which secrete it?

8. A very important though minute occurrence must here be observed, that though the lacrymal gland is only excited into action, when we weep at a distressful tale, by its association with this nasal duct, as is more fully explained in Sect. XVI. 8; yet the quantity of tears secreted at once is more than the puncta lacrymalia can readily absorb; which shews that the motions occasioned by associations are frequently more energetic than the original motions, by which they were occasioned. Which we shall have occasion to mention hereafter, to illustrate, why pains frequently exist in a part distant from the cause of them, as in the other end of the urethra, when a stone stimulates the neck of the bladder. And why inflammations frequently arise in parts distant from their cause, as the gutta rosea of drinking people, from an inflamed liver.

The inflammation of a part is generally preceded by a torpor or quiescence of it; if this exists in any large congeries of glands, as in the liver, or any membranous part, as the stomach, pain is produced and chilliness in consequence of the torpor of the vessels. In this situation sometimes an inflammation of the parts succeeds the torpor; at other times a distant more sensible part becomes inflamed; whose actions have previously been associated with it; and the torpor of the first part ceases. This I apprehend happens, when the gout of the foot succeeds a pain of the biliary duct, or of the stomach. Lastly, it sometimes happens, that the pain of torpor exists without any consequent inflammation of the affected part, or of any distant part associated with it, as in the membranes about the temple and eye-brows in hemicrania, and in those pains, which occasion convulsions; if this happens to gouty people, when it affects the liver, I suppose epileptic fits are produced; and, when it affects the stomach, death is the consequence. In these cases the pulse is weak, and the extremities cold, and such medicines as stimulate the quiescent parts into action, or which induce inflammation in them, or in any distant part, which is associated with them, cures the present pain of torpor, and saves the patient.

I have twice seen a gouty inflammation of the liver, attended with jaundice; the patients after a few days were both of them affected with cold fits, like ague-fits, and their feet became affected with gout, and the inflammation of their livers ceased. It is probable, that the uneasy sensations about the stomach, and indigestion, which precedes gouty paroxysms, are generally owing to torpor or slight inflammation of the liver, and biliary ducts; but where great pain with continued sickness, with feeble pulse, and sensation of cold, affect the stomach in patients debilitated by the gout, that it is a torpor of the stomach itself, and destroys the patient from the great connexion of that viscus with the vital organs. See Sect. XXV. 17.

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Darwin, Erasmus, 2005. Zoonomia, Vol. Or, the Laws of Organic Life. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15707/15707-h/15707-h.htm#sect_XXVI

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