The anatomy of the absorbing vessels of the human body / by William Cruikshank.

  • Cruickshank, William, 1745-1800.
Date:
1786
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy of the absorbing vessels of the human body / by William Cruikshank. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    36/216 (page 22)
    frequently made in different parts of the inteftinal tube, in each ani- mal, at the fame time. It has been doubted, whether any experi- ment, which puts an animal to pain, can be depended on ; but there cannot be a doubt of their decifive nature here, for, as the opening the abdomen, wounding the inteftines, and making ligatures on them, did not hinder, in the fmalleft degree, the lacteals from performing their functions, nor the arteries and veins from circulating the blood, not a fhadow of a reafon can be given, why the veins did not abforb, fuppofing them capable of this office. i ft. After one of the animals had been properly fecured, and the ab- domen opened, portions of the inteftines were quickly emptied, by pref- fure, of their proper contents, and warm milk was injected in their place, and confined by ligatures. The veins belonging to thefe por- tions of inteftines were emptied of their blood, by punctures made in their trunks, and prevented from receiving more blood, by ligatures made on the trunks of their correfponding arteries. In this ftate, the parts were returned into the abdomen ; and, by the veins being thus left empty, even a fmall abforption of the milk would be detected, as the coats of the veins are fo thin, that they would have permitted white fluid to appear through their fides as readily as the red blood ; whereas, had the blood been allowed to circulate through the veins, a fmall ab- forption of milk might not, perhaps, be perceived, as mixing with much circulating red fluid. Though I have fuppofed that a white fluid, mixed with the blood, might not be eafily detected, yet, in fact, the ad- mixture of the chyle, in the left fubclavian vein, is eafily perceived, and any degree of milkinefs in the ferum of coagulated blood readily dif- covered by an accuftomed eye. The parts having remained in the abdo- men a quarter of an hour, half an hour, or more, that the natural warmth of the cavity might aflift the natural abforption, they were again allowed to protrude, and carefully examined : the veins were found nearly as empty as when the parts were firft returned, and contained not one drop of white fluid; but the lacteals were full of it. 2d. Similar experiments were made on other animals, with this ad- ditional circumftance, that preffure was made on the portions of intef- tines containing the milk. Kaaw Boerhaave imagined, that he for- warded the abforption of water, into the veins of the ftomach, by 9 preffure.