Human anatomy (Volume 1).

  • Quain, Jones, 1796-1865.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Human anatomy (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE TEXTURES. The human body consists of solids and fluids. Only the solid parts can be reckoned as textures, properly so called ; still there being some of the fluids, viz. the blood, chyle, and lymph, which contain in sus- pension solid organized corpuscles of determinate form and organic pro- perties, and which are not mere products or secretions of a particular organ, or confined to a particular part, the corpuscles of these fluids, though not coherent textures, are nevertheless to be looked upon as organized constituents of the body, and as such may not improperly be considered along with the solid tissues. In conformity with this view the textures and other organized constituents of the frame may be enumerated as follows :— The blood, chyle, and lymph. Epidermic tissue, including epithelium, cuticle, nails, and hairs. Pigment. Nervous tissue. Adipose tissue. Blood-vessels. Cellular tissue. Absorbent vessels and glands. Fibrous tissue. Serous and synovial membranes. Elastic tissue. Mucous membranes. Cartilage and its varieties. Skin. Bone or osseous tissue. Secreting glands. Muscular tissue. Every texture taken as a whole was viewed by Bichat as consti- tuting a peculiar system in the body, presenting throughout its whole extent characters either the same, or modified only so far as its local connexions and uses rendered necessary; he accordingly used the term organic systems to designate the textures taken in this point of view, and the term has been very generally employed by succeed- ing writers. Of the tissues or organic systems enumerated, some are found in nearly every organ ; such is the case with the filamentous, which serves as a connecting material to unite together the other tissues which go to form an organ; the vessels, which convey fluids for the nutrition of the other textures, and the nerves, which establish a mutual dependence among different organs, imparting to them sensi- bility, and governing their movements. These were named by Bichat the o-eneral systems.'' Others again, as the cartilaginous and osseous, being confined to a limited number, or to a particular class of