A manual of physiology : being a course of lectures / delivered by Prof. Küss ... ; edited by Mathias Duval ; trans. from the 2nd rev. ed. by Robert Amory.

  • Küss, Emile.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of physiology : being a course of lectures / delivered by Prof. Küss ... ; edited by Mathias Duval ; trans. from the 2nd rev. ed. by Robert Amory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    bors, and these also pressing upon each other, most singular forms are assumed in which we ought primarily to see a sphere, which, in fact, may often be found in the deeper or younger layers. Among others, as for instance in the globules, the relations which the nerve-globules must form with the nerve fibres, oblige the former to divest themselves of their typical shape to throw out prolongations in stellate form. Thus and from other causes, as will hereafter be observed, we find in the worn-out and modified globule polyhedral forms as well as laminated, cylindro-conical, fusi- form, and stellate forms. Color. — Globules generally are colorless, though certain have divers colors; the blood globule is red. Others are pigment globules, that is enclosing opaque granulations, which in men are generally dark colored. Elasticity. — Globules generally are endowed with con- siderable elasticity; thus a globule flattened by some phys- ical force so as to assume a discoid shape, may, when that force is removed, retake exactly its primary shape. This is seen when, being forced to traverse through a narrow orifice, the globule becomes elongated in a cylindrical form, and then, after emerging from the pass, again assumes its round form. Chemical Composition. — It may be said of the globules in general, that their chemical composition is quite com- plicated. The dominant element is water; four-fifths of the weight of the globule is made up of this element, and this forms one of the conditions of its vitality, for water serves as the menstruum for other substances. Thus moist- ure may be considered as an empirical character of the life of a globule; cancers which are only an excess of globular life are more acute when they have a more moist consistency. After the water in line of importance comes albumen : this substance is almost characteristic of the globule.1 The gluey substance, or gelatine, which is, on the contrary, charac- teristic of the non-globular elements (connective and even elastic fibres), is never found in the globules. In addition to the albumen we find always a certain pro- portion of fat bodies in a state of intimate combination with 1 This is what gives to the globular masses their plasticity. Egg, liver, and kidney are very nutritious, and these masses are almost entirely composed of globules.