Volume 2

A system of human anatomy / translated from the fourth edition of the French of H. Cloquet ... With notes and a corrected nomenclature, by Robert Knox.

  • Cloquet, H. (Hippolyte), 1787-1840.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of human anatomy / translated from the fourth edition of the French of H. Cloquet ... With notes and a corrected nomenclature, by Robert Knox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    surface of the mucous membranes, in the synovia, the urine, the. hair, the nails, the seminal fluid, &c. 11. The organic elements variously combined with one another, and with certain of the elementary bodies properly so called, such - as phosphorus, iron, &c. give rise to the Jluids and solids consti- tuting the general mass of the body, which continually act and react upon each other, and which exist in a state of essentially mutual dependence and connection. The former of these elements, the study of which is named Hygrology * or Zoochymy, constitute the greater part of the organs, their quantities varying, however, according to a multitude of circumstances. It is in fact very difficult to determine their re- lative bulk, but in general the proportion which they bear to the solids is as nine or six to one. Accordingly, a fresh carcase which weighs about 120 lbs. does not weigh more than eight when thoroughly dried ; and even the bones have only a third of their weight of solid matter. All the fluids, moreover, are contained either in vessels, or in areolar and spongy tissues, or reservoirs; as is the case, for example, with the blood, the serous fluid of the cellular tissue, the bile, the seminal fluid, the chyle, the vitreous humour, &c. | 12. The solids give form and consistence to the different parts of the body. Their particles are variously interwoven, on which account the name of fexture is applied to their conformation. It is of them that the organs are really formed. Composed of the same elements as the fluids, they are the recipients of these latter, and either retain them or allow them to escape; but they are al- ways so combined with them as nowhere to exist in an isolated state. Their study bears the name of Stereology.t 13. Every organ, then, is a compound of heterogeneous parts, of solids and fluids, and has for its principal basis the former, dis- posed into an areolar or cellular tissue, which is soft, extensile, contractile, and permeable to fluids. The solids are condensed into membranes, hollowed into canals, and modified in a thousand ways with respect to figure and colour, consistence and texture, volume and complication, &c. 14. By the mechanical division of the solids, there are always ultimately obtained minute laminz or filaments, which seem to be their elementary molecules, and whose aggregation and co-ordina- tion produce all the kinds of tissues that are observed in the ani- mal economy. The extreme term of this division, however, is yet unattamed. The smallest perceptible fibres may be divided into others still smaller, and all researches into the nature of the ori- ginal fibre are now with propriety abandoned, the means of inves- tigation which man has received with life being inadequate to its detection. 15. All that can be learned with precision on this subject is * F L4 e 4 ~ e Yyeos, humidus > royos, sermo. + Zoo, animal; xçuuce, humor. + Zregcos, solidus; Aoyos, sermo. ,