A treatise on human physiology / By John C. Dalton, jr.

  • Dalton, John Call, 1825-1889.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on human physiology / By John C. Dalton, jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    seen to be made up of minute bodies, of definite size and figure, which, are so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, and which, after separation from each other, cannot be further subdivided with- out destroying their organization. They are, therefore, called ana- tomical elements. Thus, in the liver, there are hepatic cells, capil- lary bloodvessels, the fibres of Glisson's capsule, and the ultimate filaments of the hepatic nerves. Lastly, two or more kinds of ana- tomical elements, interwoven with each other in a particular manner, form a tissue. Adipose vesicles, with capillaries and nerve tubes, form adipose tissue. White fibres and elastic fibres, with capillaries and nerve tubes, form areolar tissue. Thus the solid parts of the entire body are made up of anatomical elements, tissues, organs, systems, and apparatuses. Every organized frame, and even every apparatus, every organ, and every tissue, is made up of different parts, variously interwoven and connected with each other, and it is this character which constitutes its organization. But besides the above solid forms, there are also certain fluids, which are constantly present in various parts of the body, and which, from their peculiar constitution, are termed animal fluids. These fluids are just as much an essential part of the body as the solids. The blood and the lymph, for example, the pericardial and synovial fluids, the saliva, which always exists more or less abundantly in the ducts of the parotid gland, the bile in the biliary ducts and the gall-bladder: all these go to make up the entire body, and are quite as necessary to its structure as the muscles or the nerves. Now, if these fluids be examined, they are found to be made up of many different substances, which are mingled together in certain propor- tions ; these proportions being constantly maintained at or about the same standard by the natural processes of nutrition. Such a fluid is termed an organized fluid. It is organized by virtue of the numerous ingredients which enter into its composition, and the regular proportions in which these ingredients are maintained. Thus, in the plasma of the blood, we have albumen, fibrin, water, chlorides, carbonates, phosphates, &c. In the urine, we find water, urea, urate of soda, creatine, creatinine, coloring matter, salts, &c. These substances, which are mingled together so as to make up, in each instance, by their intimate union, a homogeneous liquid, are called the proximate peikciples of the animal fluid. In the solids, however, even in those parts which are apparently homogeneous, there is the same mixture of different ingredients. In the hard substance of bone, for example, there is, first, water,