An essay, or tract, on the vitality of the warm blood and air / by James Morison ; edited and republished by Elisha North.

  • Morison, James, 1770-1840.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay, or tract, on the vitality of the warm blood and air / by James Morison ; edited and republished by Elisha North. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    mulated there, i. e. in the bowels, before the child ate or drank much. [The juice of the liver is nutritive to an infant, before it is born ; and the liver is much larger in proportion to the rest of our organization, to fur- nish a supply of so nourishing a juice. The bile is also milder, or different, in its properties, in the faetus, than in an adult, or than in itself, after birth.] It is evident from the foregoing, that man owes his beginning and growth to the blood principally : first during gestation to the blood ot the mother, and afterwards, through life to blood derived from his food; and the air through the mechanism of the lungs keeps the whole blood in motion ; and that perfect health and strength arise from its free circulation. All diseases, you witness, acute or chronic, are owing to an obstruction, [imperfect action, or partial, or entire death of the vital blood] even stomach and bowel complaints, and which have been attributed to very different causes. [The blood, including its vital molecules and juices has such a powerful propensity, or active disposition, to make a body or organization, for itself to live in, that it will even do this achieve- ment, when by some accidental circumstance a small portion of it becomes extravasated. Ele- vations or tumors thus occasioned are called by various names, by surgeons. Extravasated blood may, however, die, for want of circulation and air. If such dead blood be not soon removed, by absorption, we may have inflammation, pus, or mortification, which is death of solid organization. The blood, when in its own large or proper vessels may become diseased, and even a part of it die, before the death of a person takes place.] The blood is the person, (speaking in a per- sonified sense)—the individual himself; the mind is in the blood, as are all our senses and feelings.