A few facts respecting the therapeutic use of pure oxygen, forgotten by the faculty but of peculiar importance to suffering invalids and their physicians / by S.B. Birch.

Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A few facts respecting the therapeutic use of pure oxygen, forgotten by the faculty but of peculiar importance to suffering invalids and their physicians / by S.B. Birch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    to the spirit. The bodily life cannot subsist without it; the health of the body depends on the blood receiving its neces- sary supply of this all-important element. Since our well- being, as to health and organization, depends on oxygen, so does our appropriation of oxygen depend upon the condition of the atmosphere respired, upon the condition of the lungs and skin, and upon the supply of elements in the blood with which oxygen can enter into combination. Every atom of the body is secreted or made from the blood. The blood is secreted or made out of the food which is taken into the stomach. The substance of the whole body is, as long as we live, in a continuous state of change ; we are wearing out and rencAving the material elements of the bodily fabric daily, hourly, we truly may say momentarily. These changes are effected by a constant series of chemical decom- positions and re-compositions. While we exist the body is a great laboratory ; its organs are chemical apparatus and instruments; the constituents of blood and oxygen the ele- ments to be operated upon. The elements of food which combine directly with oxygen in the circulation are either hydrogen, carbon, or compounds thereof. They are supplied by ale, wine, alcohol, gum, sugar, starch, oils or other fatty matters, which are as neces- sary to the generation of animal heat as fuel is necessary to the generation of heat in our stoves or hearths ; the process is identically the same in either case, hydrogen and carbon combine with oxygen, form water and carbonic acid, and de- velop heat. If these elements are not supplied to the blood, it cannot take up oxygen enough to maintain the heat and vitality of the body; and the portion of oxygen which is absorbed may also destroy the fat deposited in the tissues and cause loss of substance. If, on the contrary, these elements are supplied to the blood in too great a proportion for the oxygen inspired or absorbed, a portion may be deposited as fat (a disease if excessive), but any surplus not deposited as fat, will invariably commence a series of unhealthy actions which must, sooner or later, become disease. The former is the exceptional case, e.g. starvation; the latter is the rule, which peculiarly applies to the wealthier classes of society. The intelligent reader who has had the patience to peruse our remarks thus far, will anticipate that the application of chemistry to pathological conditions, and the use of oxygen