Biomedical subjects
Stephen Seely
Publications and source records attributed to Stephen Seely.
Ischaemic heart failure: a new explanation of its cause and preventability.
When the heart contracts, it compresses its own arteries, so that blood flow in the coronary circulation comes to a standstill during systole. The heart must be supplied with blood from an auxiliary supply during diastole. The auxiliary pump is the aorta and its branches. When the stroke volume is injected into the aorta, it is overfilled and distended, storing energy in stretched elastic tissues. During diastole the contraction of these tissues maintains diastolic pressure. The hardest working organ in the body, the heart, therefore is supplied with blood only intermittently and only at diastolic pressure. In addition a layer of calcium tends to accumulate in the aorta, deteriorating its elasticity. It is suggested that this auxiliary pump is the weakest link in the circulatory system. If it fails, the heart dies of ischaemia. The calcium requirements of the body vary greatly in various age groups; 99% of the calcium content of the adult body is in the skeleton, which is complete by the age of 32 years. After that calcium requirements decrease. Catering for such varying calcium needs the gut to be impermeable to calcium. A special substance, 1,25,-dihydroxycholecalciferol, secreted by the liver and kidneys is needed to transfer calcium through the intestinal wall. When calcium needs are satisfied, the synthesis of cholecalciferol is discontinued, and the calcium in food in the intestines is excreted. To cater for the other extreme, when the calcification of the infant skeleton needs much calcium, nature produces a special nutrient, milk, not only rich in calcium, but containing a substance promoting its transference through the intestinal wall. The human habit of consuming the milk of another species is harmful because it invalidates the natural expedient of limiting calcium intake when it is not needed. The calcium excess resulting from milk consumption tends to calcify the aorta, deteriorating its elasticity, resulting in lower diastolic pressure. When that becomes inadequate, the heart dies of ischaemia.
The psychological puzzle presented by physiological acts.
Physiological acts present the puzzle that we are unable to explain how we performed them, how we solved the technical difficulties involved in their execution. For instance, when we sing, we produce various musical notes by changing the shape of the larynx. The normal person does not even know what the larynx looks like, let alone its configurations corresponding to various notes and the combination of the 19 muscles acting on the larynx that has to be activated to bring about the required configuration. Some psychologists offer the explanation that the technical details are worked out by a computer-like mechanism. But how could a computer start controlled cell proliferation in the repair of an injury? Another idea (originally put forward by Leibniz around 1700) is the complex character of the mind. The mind may incorporate a multitude of personalities. Subordinate personalities, some, perhaps, specialising on various tasks, may carry out the orders of the commanding personality. Objection: most physiological tasks, for instance digestion or the fight against invading microorganisms, are completely unconscious. The 'myself' personality could not even issue commands regarding the repair of injuries or the fight against microorganisms. PROPOSED SOLUTION: At an early stage of evolution the body of a higher animal divides itself into three compartments, each specialising on a different task of life. The three parts correspond to the entoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm appearing at an early part of ontogenetic development. The task of the entoderm is metabolism, that of the mesoderm mainly the mechanical aspects of life, that of the ectoderm gathering information from and reacting to the outside world. Each of these is probably of a composite character. The myself personality is the equivalent of the ectoderm, not of the whole body. The technical details of its commands are worked out by subordinate personalities. So are the commands of the mesodermal and entodermal divisions. Dreams could be attempts of communication between the germ layers.