The vitality of the blood : proved by physiological experiment, and its application to veterinary pathology demonstrated / by J.S. Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, Sampson, 1828-1886.
Date:
[1849?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The vitality of the blood : proved by physiological experiment, and its application to veterinary pathology demonstrated / by J.S. Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    we may remark, that no doubt can exist as to the eventual con- version of chyle corpuscles into red discs, in the mode already described when treating of the blood's development in embryo. Abundant proof has thus been afforded of the blood's renova- tion by elaboration of the chyle constituents ; this change mainly consisting in the formation of organizable principles from solved and plastic materials, through the medium of repeated sets of cor- puscles or nucleated cells. Since, therefore, it can no longer be questioned that the blood is endowed with the power of assimila- tion and self-reproduction, its vital properties are satisfactorily proved in accordance with the general law, that living objects alone are capable of reproducing their own species. One of the most palpable and instructive differences between living and inorganic substances results from their comparative chemical analysis ; and we are accordingly informed that the strik- ing feature of inorganic compounds is the simple ratio in which their elements unite ; whereas organic bodies are remarkable for the high proportions of their elementary combination. The quali- tative analysis of Liebig, Miilder, and other chemists, demonstrates the fact, that the organization of a body, and hence its manifesta- tions of life, are in direct ratio, nay, in inseparable relation, with the nature of its elements. Thus, while carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are the constituents of vegetables, nitrogen is indispensable for the formation of animal tissues, and the exercise of their re- spective functions. Based on these principles, one or two reflections suggest them- selves on the chemical constitution of the blood, in search of ad- ditional testimony of its high organization and life. When the primordial chyle is analyzed, it is found to contain binary, or at the utmost ternary compounds. Tracing it from its absorption into the lacteals (which is partly effected by endos- mose, and through the intervention of cells in the intestinal villi) until its constituents are converted into cytoblasts and corpuscles, we have ample evidence of a quaternary and quinternary composi- tion. If the cvtoblast or nucleus be followed from its highest point of life in the more perfect tissues, through the successive stao-es of deterioration, unto its chemical aud organic dissolution, the retrograde steps are marked to the re-assumption of a binary combination of its elements. If. then, the blood gradually pro-