Medical nursing : notes of lectures given to the probationers at the London Hospital / by the late James Anderson ; edited by Ethel F. Lamport ; with an introductory biographical notice by Sir Andrew Clark.

  • Anderson, James (1853-1893)
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical nursing : notes of lectures given to the probationers at the London Hospital / by the late James Anderson ; edited by Ethel F. Lamport ; with an introductory biographical notice by Sir Andrew Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    peculiar manner like rows of coins placed one upon another. The red colour of the blood is due to the enormous number of these reddish yellow corpuscles collected together in masses. These are called the “ red corpuscles.” The other kind is distinguished as “white corpuscles.” They are larger than the red, and fewer in number. Their diameter is swoo of an inch. If the blood is still warm, they are not quite round, and if watched under the microscope they alter very much in shape, sending out pro- jections in various directions, and being capable of what is known as “ amoeboid movements.” They have a peculiar granular appearance, and are said to have the power of taking up certain noxious products from the system and various particles in the blood on which they feed. The proportion of white cor- puscles is about i to every 300 red, after food, and about 1 to every 800 red corpuscles after fasting. The white corpuscles are produced in the lymphatic glands, many of which are situated in the abdomen. Both the red and the white corpuscles float in a fluid called “ liquor sanguinis.” When liquor sanguinis is exposed to the air certain changes take place in it, and it becomes split up into two substances-— “ fibrin ” and “ serum.” Fibrin has the power of forming blood-clot, and serum is a thin pale yellow- ish fluid which will not clot. When blood has been drawn it presently clots, which means that certain things combine to form a solid. In a short time we see fine strings stretching across—this is best shown in a large quantity of blood—this network is the fibrin; it