On the chemical circulation in the body / Henry Bence Jones.

  • Jones, Bence, 1814-1873.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the chemical circulation in the body / Henry 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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    Uou^l l^mtimion of C!5teat 13ritaiii, WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, Friday, May 26, 1865. Sir Henry Holland, Bart. M.D. D.C.L. F.R.8. President, in the Chair. Henry Bence Jones, M.A. M.D. F.R.S. Hon. Sec. R.I. Ofi the Chemical Circulation in the Body. All our knowledge usually passes through three stages as it advances to perfection. First, a stage in which we think we know everything ; then a stage in which we find we know nothing; and, finally, a stage in wliich we rapidly obtain those clear and connected ideas in which all sound knowledge consists. As regards the absorbent system of animals and the mode of action of remedies, we have long been in the first or second stage, and this evening I hope to show you that there is reason for believing that in regard to these subjects we are about to enter on the third stage ; for that, in addition to the circulation of the blood, there is the dawn of another or chemical circulation, dependent in part on the mechanical circulation, but carried on mostly by diffusion from the blood into the textures, and from the textures into the absorbents, which thus become necessary agents for performing those actions of oxidation and nutrition on which, in great part, animal life depends. Mr. Huggins, in his discourse last week, showed us how the spec- trum-analysis can determine the chemical composition and the physical constitution even of substances outside those circulating bodies that constitute our solar system. And as the nebulae and fixed stars are begitming to be analyzed, so in the microcosm of our own bodies sub- stances that are outside the circulating system of the blood can (by the peculiar light they give when burnt) be analyzed with such delicacy that elements can now be therein discovered which all other modes of analysis would entirely overlook.