Lectures on some of the applications of chemistry and mechanics to pathology and therapeutics / by H. Bence Jones.

  • Henry Bence Jones
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on some of the applications of chemistry and mechanics to pathology and therapeutics / by H. Bence Jones. 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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    4thly. The blood is made less energetic in quality or quantity by bleeding, starvation, and excess of water; by lead salts and excess of acids, mineral and organic. Finally. If you look for a moment to the second gi*eat division of the healing art, you will find that among other indications of treatment two principal objects always present themselves to the surgeon. These are mechanically to control the working and repair of the body. In other words, he endeavours, qualitatively or quantitatively, to regulate by mechanical means the oxidation and nutrition which take place in every structure of the body. Of each of these actions I must limit myself to one striking illustration. The surgeon promotes oxidation in croup by mechanically opening the trachea. He retards oxidation after mechanical or chemical injuries by bleeding, by cold, and by rest, by defence from irritating substances. He directly promotes nutrition by removing pressure, as in tlie operation for strangulated hernia, and he retards nutrition by pressure or ligature in cases of aneurism. As in medicine, so in surgery; the actions of oxidation and nutrition are mutually dependent everywhere, and no separation of these two actions in any part of the body actually takes place; and although I have endeavoured in this sketch to bring each of them separately before you, I have done so only in order that I might at least give you a clear though most imperfect view of the two most important of the many chemical actions of medicines * which are now being worked out by experimental research. The progress of all accurate knowledge of the actions of medicines depends now on exact chemical and physical experiments, and by the * Among these are the action of acid in the stomach for digestion; the action of pepsine and pancreatine, &c.; the action of charcoal as a deodoriser ; the action of an increase or decrease of acidity in the urine for the preven- tion or cure of stone ; the destruction of parasitic animals and vegetables on the skin ; the defence of the skin from the action of oxygen and dust hy lead and zinc paints ; the neutralizing foul discharges by charcoal poultices, chlorine washes, nitrate of silver lotions; the destruction' of tumours by caustics; and many other chemical actions might be mentioned.
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