Observations on some points in the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the blood / by T. Wharton Jones.

  • Jones, Thomas Wharton, 1808-1891.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on some points in the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the blood / by T. Wharton Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    26/28 (page 24)
    and complete stagnation ensues. The blood in the lungs of the frog is observed to be arrested in the same way in the vessels when the part of the lung under ob- servation is touched with solution of salt, or, as I iiave also found on making the experiment, when a stream of carbonic acid gus is directed against it. The stoppage of the circulation in the capillaries which occurred in Mr. BlakeV experiments of injecting different salts into the blood is to be attributed to thi- same change in the attractions and repulsions of the red corpuscles which is here- considered as the immedi;\te cause of the stoppage of the capillary circulation in the cases above described. The stoppage of the circulation in the capillaries of the lungs in asphyxia, it may be inferred from what is above stated of the action of carbonic acid gas, is owing to the same cause. The colourless contrasted with the red corpuscles in their relatiojis to the nutritive process. In contemplating in their relations with nutrition, &c., the phenomena just described, the first thing that strikes us is the distended and glo- bular colourless corpuscles, rolling slowly along the walls of the minute vessels, whilst the collapsed flattened red corpuscles proceed rapidhj onwards in the axis of the stream. The very natural inference from this is that, as Weber has already observed, there is some reciprocal relation between the colourless corpuscles, and the parts outside the vessels in the process of nutrition; whilst, as I have above endeavoured to show, the red corpuscles have no direct relation with the parts outside the vessels, but are more concerned in the elaboration of the liquor san- guinis. Cause of the variat ions in the capillary circulation. It is interesting to consider the different capabilities for endosmose and exosmose, in reference to the liquor sanguinis, possessed by the red and colourless corpuscles, as indicated by their different states of distention, and to compare this with the difference in the attractions and repulsions they exhibit. The changes constantly going on in the blood is attended with variations in the capabilities of the corpuscles for endosmose, and in their attractions and repulsions. These appear to be the cause of the variations which are constantly occurring in the capillary circu- lation. The force of the heart alone, and not any action of the capillaries, de- termines the general passage of the blood from the arteries into the veins, but it is to the attractions and repulsions of the corpuscles that the varied peculiar movements of the blood in the capillaries are owing. In considering the circula- tion, through the capillaries, in short, it is always to be remembered that the blood is not a mere inert fluid, but one containing, in suspension, innumerable or- ganized and living corpuscles endowed with peculiar attractions and repulsions. The view now given of the nature and uses of the corpuscles of the blood appears calculated to guide to a more correct explanation of many obscure points in physiology and pathology. Without necessitating us to give up any of the argu- ments of solidism, it puts into our hands all the valuable ones of humonsm. Printed by C. Adlabd, Bartholomew Close.