Volume 2

The philosophy of health; or, An exposition of the physical and mental constitution of man, with a view to the promotion of human longevity and happiness / by Southwood Smith.

  • Smith, Southwood, 1788-1861.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of health; or, An exposition of the physical and mental constitution of man, with a view to the promotion of human longevity and happiness / by Southwood Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    453/464 (page 441)
    NUTRITION. 44] 1. Only those constituents of the blood are ab- stracted by the tissue which are of the same che- - mical nature as its own. 2. The constituents of the blood abstracted by a ‘tissue, identical in chemical composition with its own, are immediately incorporated into its substance, ‘3. The constituents of the blood abstracted by a tissue, as they are incorporated into its substance, are not disposed fortuitously, but are arranged according to the specific organization of the tissue, and thus receive its own peculiar structure. ‘ 4. The constituents of the blood which thus receive the peculiar organization and structure of the tissue by which they are appropriated, acquire all its peculiar vital endowments. 981. It is manifest, then, that the tissues assimilate the blood just as the digestive fluids assimilate the aliment. And this is nutrition, the assimilation of the blood by the tissues and organs. Digestion is the conversion of the food into blood ; nutrition is the conversion of blood into living fluids and solids. 982. For the reasons assigned (757 and 758), it is probable that the living fluids and solids, formed from the blood by the act of nutrition, are not generated at the parts of the body where they appear, but that, pre-existing in the blood, they are merely evolved at those parts. Hence the variety and complexity of the processes for the elaboration of the blood which have been described,