Popular Lectures on Zoonomia Part 4

The magnitude of the veins is always greater than that of the corresponding arteries; hence the velocity of the blood must be less in the veins; and hence likewise we may account for their want of pulsation; for the action of the heart upon the arteries is at first very great; but as we recede from the heart, this effect becomes less perceptible; the arterial tube increases both in size and muscularity, in proportion to its distance from the source of circulation. The powers of the heart are spent in overcoming the different resistances which I have noticed, before the blood enters the veins; hence the blood will flow uniformly in these last.

The blood is subject in the veins to r.e.t.a.r.ding causes, similar to those which operate in the arteries, but perhaps not in an equal degree; for the flexures are less frequent in the veins than in the arteries. As the capacity of the arterial tube increases with its distance from the heart, the velocity, from this cause, as has already been observed, is continually diminished; but a contrary effect takes place in the veins; for the different branches uniting, form trunks, whose capacities are smaller than the sums of the capacities of the branches, hence the velocity of the blood in the veins will increase as it approaches the heart.

Another r.e.t.a.r.ding cause may be mentioned, namely, gravity, which acts more on the venous than the arterial system. The effects of gravity on the veins may be exemplified, by a ring being pulled off the finger with ease when the hand is elevated; also by the swellings of the feet that occur in relaxed habits, which swellings increase towards night, and subside in the morning, after the body has been in a horizontal posture for some hours.

In weak persons, the frequency of the pulse is increased by an erect posture, which may probably depend on gravity; as we know, from the observations of Macdonald and others, that an erect posture will make a difference of 15 or 20 beats in a minute. The experiments alluded to, were made by gently raising a person fastened to a board, where there being no muscular exertion, respiration would not be increased; so that the whole effect was probably owing to gravity accelerating the column of arterial blood.

The inverted posture produces a still more remarkable effect in accelerating the pulse, than the erect, for it sometimes causes it to beat 10 or 12 times more in the former case than in the latter.

While we are on this subject, it may not be improper to take notice of the effects of swinging on the circulation, which have been found by Dr. Carmichael Smyth, and others, to diminish the strength and velocity to such a degree, as to bring on fainting. These effects have never been satisfactorily accounted for; but they would seem to admit of an easy explanation on mechanical principles: they are undoubtedly owing, at least in a great measure, to the centrifugal force acquired by the blood.

By a centrifugal force, I mean, the tendency which revolving bodies have to fly off from the centre, which arises from their tendency to move in a straight line, agreeably to the laws of motion. Hence a tumbler of water may be whirled in a circle vertically without spilling it; the centrifugal force pus.h.i.+ng the water against the bottom of the tumbler. In the same manner when the human body is made to revolve vertically in the arch of a circle, this centrifugal force will propel the blood from the head and heart towards he extremities; hence the circulation of the blood will be weakened, and the energy of the brain diminished. The contrary, however, will take place on a horizontal swing, as I have frequently observed, both on myself and others; for the centrifugal force in this case will propel the blood from the extremities towards the head.

It has been already observed, that the pulsations of the artery which we feel at the wrist, are occasioned by its alternate dilatations and contractions, which vary according to the strength and regularity of the circulation, which is liable to be affected by the smallest changes in the state of health. Hence physicians make use of the pulse as a criterion whereby to judge of the health of the body. And we may observe that there are few more certain characteristics of the state of the body than the pulse; yet the conclusions that have been drawn from it have often been erroneous; and this has arisen from trusting to observation without the aid of reason.

That we may better understand the phenomena of the pulse, I shall lay down the following postulata. 1st. It is now generally believed, that every part of the arterial system is endowed with irritability, or a power of contracting on the application of a stimulus, and that the blood acting on this contractibility, if the term may be allowed, causes contraction; and that the alternate relaxation and contraction gives the phenomenon pulsation. 2d. The greater the action of the stimulus of the blood, the greater will be the contraction, that is, the nearer will the sides of the artery approach towards the axis.

3d. That the velocity with which a muscular fibre, in a state of debility, contracts, is at least equal to that with which a fibre in a state of strength contracts, is a fact generally allowed by physiologists.

We shall afterwards see, that a deficient action of stimulus on the vessels may arise, either directly from diminis.h.i.+ng the quant.i.ty of blood contained in them, or indirectly, from the application of too great a stimulant power, which has diminished the capability of contracting inherent in the vessels.

From these postulata, it will be evident, that the greater the action of the arteries, that is, the more powerful their contraction, the longer will be the intervals between the pulsations.

For the velocity being at least equal in debility and in strength, the times between the pulsations will be proportioned to the approach of the sides of the artery towards its axis: but the approach of the sides towards the axis is greater when the arteries are in a state of vigour than when debilitated; consequently the intervals between the pulsations will be greater when the arteries are in a state of vigour than when debilitated.

Hence it is evident, that a frequency of pulse must generally indicate a diminished action or debility; while a moderate slowness indicates a vigorous or just action.

Hence likewise the opinion of increased action, which has been supposed to take place in fevers, because a frequent pulse was observed, must be false, because the frequency arises from a directly opposite state, and indicates a diminished action of the vascular system.

In a sound and adult man the frequency of the pulse is about seventy beats in a minute; and in an infant, within the first five or six months, the pulse is seldom less than one hundred and twenty, and diminishes in frequency as the child grows older. But though seventy beats in the minute may be taken as a general standard; yet in persons of irritable const.i.tutions the frequency is greater than this, and many, who are in the prime of life, have the pulse only between fifty and sixty.

It is generally observed, that the pulse is slower in the morning, that it increases in frequency till noon, after dinner it again becomes slow, and in the evening its frequency returns, which increases till midnight.

These phenomena may be rationally explained on the principles just laid down. When we rise in the morning, the contractibility being abundant, the stimulus of the blood produces a greater effect, the pulse becomes slow, and the contractions strong; it becomes more frequent, however, till dinner time, from a diminished contractibility; after dinner, from the addition of the stimulus of food and chyle, it again decreases in frequency, and becomes slow till the evening, when its frequency returns, because the contractibility becomes exhausted: and this frequency continues till the vital power have been recruited by sleep.

By the same principles it is easy to explain the quickness of the pulse in infancy, its gradual decrease till maturity, its slowness and strength during the meridian of life, and the return of its frequency during the decline.

Having now described the phenomena of the circulation, it will be proper to examine the changes produced by this function on the blood; and, in the first place, it may be observed, that the blood which returns by the vena cava to the heart, is of a dark colour inclining to purple; while that which pa.s.ses from the left ventricle into the arteries, is of a bright vermilion hue. The blood which is found in the pulmonary artery has the same dark purple colour with that in the vena cava, while that in the pulmonary vein resembles the aortal blood in its brightness. Hence it would appear, that the blood, during its pa.s.sage through the lungs, has its colour changed from a dark purple to a bright vermilion, in which state it is brought by the pulmonary vein to the left auricle of the heart; this auricle, contracting, expels the blood into the corresponding ventricle, by whose action, and that of the arteries, it is distributed to all parts of the body. When it returns, however, by the veins, it is found to have lost its fine bright colour. It would appear, therefore, that the blood obtains its red colour during its pa.s.sage through the lungs, and becomes deprived of it during its circulation through the rest of the body.

That the blood contains iron, may be proved by various experiments: if a quant.i.ty of blood be exposed to a red heat in a crucible, the greatest part will be volatilised and burnt; but a quant.i.ty of brown ashes will be left behind, which will be attracted by the magnet. If diluted sulphuric acid be poured on these ashes, a considerable portion of them will dissolve; if into this solution we drop tincture of galls, a black precipitate will take place, or if we use prussiate of potash, a precipitate of prussian blue will be formed. These facts prove, beyond doubt, that a quant.i.ty of iron exists in the blood.

I shall not now particularly inquire how it comes there; it may partly be taken into the blood along with the vegetable and animal food, which is received into the stomach; for the greatest part of the animal and vegetable substances, which we receive as food, contain a greater or less quant.i.ty of iron. Or it may be partly formed by the animal powers, as would appear from the following circ.u.mstance. The a.n.a.lysis of an egg, before incubation, affords not the least vestige of iron, but as soon as the chick exists, though it has been perfectly shut up from all external communication, if the egg be burnt, the ashes will be attracted by the magnet.

But, however we may suppose the blood to obtain its iron, it certainly does contain it; if the coagulable lymph and serum of the blood be carefully freed from the red particles, by repeated was.h.i.+ng, the strictest a.n.a.lysis will not discover in either of them a particle of iron, while the red globules thus separated will be found to contain a considerable quant.i.ty of this metal.

That the red colour of the blood depends upon iron, appears likewise from the experiments of Menghini, which show, that the blood of persons who have been taking chalybeate medicines for some time, is much more florid that it is naturally; the same is agreeable to my own observation. A late a.n.a.lysis, by Fourcroy, has likewise proved, that the red colour of the blood resides in the iron; but, though the red colour of the blood may reside in the iron which it contains, we shall find that this colour is likewise connected with oxidation.

If the dark coloured blood, drawn from the veins, be put under a vessel containing oxygen gas, its surface will immediately become florid, while the bulk of the gas will be diminished. Mr. Hewson enclosed a portion of a vein between two ligatures, and injected into it a quant.i.ty of oxygen gas; the blood, which was before dark coloured, instantly a.s.sumed the hue of arterial blood. Thuvenal put a quant.i.ty of arterial blood under the receiver of an air pump; on exhausting the air it became of the dark colour of venous blood; on readmitting the air, it became again florid. He put it under a receiver filled with oxygen gas, and found the florid colour much increased.

Dr. Priestly exposed the blood of a sheep successively to oxygen gas, atmospheric air, and carbonic acid gas; and found, that in oxygen gas its colour became very florid, less so in atmospheric air, and in carbonic acid gas it became quite black. He filled a bladder with venous blood, and exposed it to oxygen gas; the surface in contact with the bladder immediately became florid, while the interior parts remained dark coloured.

All these facts prove, that the red colour which the blood acquires in the lungs, is owing to the oxygen, which probably combines with it, and the last mentioned fact shows, that oxygen will act on the blood, even though a membrane similar to the bladder, be interposed between them.

The same effect, probably, takes place in the lungs; the blood is circulated through that organ by a number of fine capillary arteries; and it is probable that the oxygen acts upon the blood through the membranes of these arteries, in the same manner that it does through the bladder.

In short, it seems likely, that the blood, during its circulation through the lungs, becomes combined with oxygen; that this oxidated blood, on its return to the heart, is circulated by the arteries to all parts of the body; and that, during this circulation, its oxygen combines with the hydrogen and carbon of the blood, and perhaps with those parts of the body with which it comes into contact; it is therefore brought back to the heart, by the veins, of a dark colour, and deprived of the greatest part of its oxygen.

This is the most probable theory, in the present state of our knowledge; it was proposed by Lavoisier, who imagines the focus of heat, or fireplace to warm the body, to be in the lungs: others, however, have thought it more consonant to facts, to suppose, that, instead of the oxygen uniting with carbon and hydrogen in the lungs, and there giving out its heat, the oxygen is absorbed by the blood, and unites with these substances during the circulation, so that heat is produced in every part of the body; and this doctrine seems certainly supported by several facts and experiments.

The circulation of the blood, though so simple and beautiful a function, was unknown to the ancient physicians, and was first demonstrated by our countryman, Harvey; when he first published his account of this discovery, he met with the treatment which is generally experienced by those who enlighten and improve the comfort of their fellow creatures, by valuable discoveries. The novelty and merit of this discovery drew upon him the envy of most of his contemporaries in Europe, who accordingly opposed him with all their power; and some universities even went so far, as to refuse the honours of medicine to those students, who had the audacity to defend this doctrine; but afterwards, when they could not argue against truth and conviction, they attempted to rob him of the discovery, and a.s.serted that many of the ancient physicians, and particularly Hippocrates, were acquainted with it. Posterity, however, who can alone review subjects of controversy without prejudice, have done ample justice to his memory.

LECTURE IV.

DIGESTION, NUTRITION, &c.

The human body, by the various actions to which it is subject, and the various functions which it performs, becomes, in a short time, exhausted; the fluids become dissipated, the solids wasted, while both are continually tending towards putrefaction. Notwithstanding which, the body still continues to perform its proper functions, often for a considerable length of time; some contrivance, therefore, was necessary to guard against these accelerators of its destruction.

There are two ways in which the living body may be preserved; the one by a.s.similating nutritious substances, to repair the loss of different parts; the other to collect, in secretory organs, the humours secreted from these substances.

We are admonished of the necessity of receiving substances into the body, to repair the continual waste, by the appet.i.tes of hunger and thirst. For the stomach being gradually emptied of its contents, and the body, in some degree, exhausted by exercise, we experience a disagreeable sensation in the region of the stomach, accompanied by a desire to eat, at first slight, but gradually increasing, and at last growing intolerable, unless it be satisfied.

When the fluid parts have been much dissipated, or when we have taken, by the mouth, any dry food, or acrid substance, we experience a sensation of heat in the fauces, and at the same time a great desire of swallowing liquids. The former sensation is called hunger, and the latter thirst.

From the back part of the mouth pa.s.ses a tube, called the oesophagus or gullet, its upper end is wide and open, spread behind the tongue to receive the masticated aliment: the lower part of this pipe, after it has pa.s.sed through the thorax, and pierced the diaphragm, enters the stomach, which is a membranous bag, situated under the left side of the diaphragm: its figure nearly resembles the pouch of a bagpipe, the left end being most capacious; the upper side is concave, and the lower convex: it has two orifices, both on its upper part; the left, which is a continuation of the oesophagus, and through which the food pa.s.ses into the stomach, is named cardia; and the right, through which the food is conveyed out of the stomach, is called pylorus: within this last orifice is a circular valve, which, in some degree, prevents the return of the aliment into the stomach.

From the pylorus, or right orifice of the stomach, arise the intestines, or bowels, which consist of a long and large tube, making several circ.u.mvolutions, in the cavity of the abdomen; this tube is about five or six times as long as the body to which it belongs.

Though it is one continued pipe, it has been divided, by anatomists, into six parts, three small, three large. The three small intestines are the duodenum, the jejunum, and the ileum; the duodenum commences at the pylorus, and is continued into the jejunum, which is so called from its being generally found empty: the ileum is only a prolongation of the jejunum, and terminates in the first of the great intestines, called the caec.u.m. The other great guts are the colon and the r.e.c.t.u.m.

The whole of what has been described is only a production of the same tube, beginning at the oesophagus. It is called by anatomists the intestinal ca.n.a.l, or prima via, because it is the first pa.s.sage of the food. It has circular muscular fibres, which give it a power of contracting when irritated by distension; and this urges forward the food which is contained in it. This occasions a worm like motion of the whole intestines, which is called their peristaltic motion.

The mesentery is a membrane beginning loosely on the loins, and thence extending to all the intestines; which it preserves from twisting by their peristaltic motion. It serves also to sustain all the vessels going to and from the intestines, namely the arteries, veins, lacteals, and nerves; it also contains several glands, called, from their situation, mesenteric glands.

The lacteal vessels consist of a vast number of fine pellucid tubes, which arise by open mouths from the intestines, and proceeding thence through the mesentery, they frequently unite, and form fewer and larger vessels, which pa.s.s through the mesenteric glands, into a common receptacle or bag, called the receptacle of the chyle. The use of these vessels is to absorb the fluid part of the digested aliment, called chyle, and convey it into the receptacle of the chyle, that it may be thence carried through the thoracic duct into the blood.

The receptacle of the chyle is a membranous bag, about two thirds of an inch long, and one third of an inch wide, at its superior part it is contracted into a slender membranous pipe, called the thoracic duct, because its course is princ.i.p.ally through the thorax; it pa.s.ses between the aorta and the vena azygos, then obliquely over the oesophagus, and great curvature of the aorta, and continuing its course towards the internal jugular vein, it enters the left subclavian vein on its superior part.

There are several other viscera besides those I have described, which are subservient to digestion; among these may be mentioned the liver, gall bladder, and pancreas. The liver is the largest gland in the body, and is situated immediately under the diaphragm, princ.i.p.ally on the right side. Its blood vessels that compose it as a gland, are the branches of the vena portarum, which, as I mentioned in the last lecture, enters the liver and distributes its blood like an artery.

From this blood the liver secretes the bile, which is conveyed by the hepatic duct, towards the intestines: before this duct reaches the intestines, it is joined by another, coming from the gall bladder: these two ducts uniting, form a common duct, which enters the duodenum obliquely, about four inches below the pylorus of the stomach.

The gall bladder, which is a receptacle of bile, is situated between the stomach and the liver; and the bile which comes from the liver, along the hepatic duct, partly pa.s.ses into the duodenum, and partly along the cystic duct into the gall bladder. When the stomach is full, it presses on the gall bladder, which will squeeze out the bile into the duodenum at the time when it is most wanted.

The bile is a thick bitter fluid, of a yellowish green colour, composed chiefly of soda and animal oil, forming a soap; and it is most probably in consequence of this saponaceous property that it a.s.sists digestion, by causing the different parts of the food to unite together by intermediate affinity. When the bile is prevented from flowing into the intestines, by any obstruction in the ducts, digestion is badly performed, costiveness takes place, and the excrements are of a white colour, from being deprived of the bile.

This fluid, stagnating in the gall bladder, is absorbed by the lymphatics, and carried into the blood, communicating to the whole surface of the body a yellow tinge, and other symptoms of jaundice.

The jaundice therefore is occasioned by an obstruction to the pa.s.sage of the bile into the intestines, and its subsequent absorption into the blood: this obstruction may be caused either by concretions of the bile, called gall stones, or by a greater viscidity of the fluid, or by a spasm, or paralysis of the biliary ducts.

The pancreas, or sweet bread, is a large gland lying across the upper and back part of the abdomen, near the duodenum. It has a short excretory duct, about half as wide as a crow quill, which enters the duodenum at the same place where the bile duct enters it.

The food being received into the mouth, is there masticated or broken down, by the teeth, and impregnated with saliva, which is pressed out of the salivary glands, by the motions of the jaw and the muscles of the mouth. It then descends, through the oesophagus, into the stomach, where it becomes digested, and, in a great measure, dissolved, by the gastric juice, which is secreted by the arteries of the stomach. It is then pushed through the pylorus, or right orifice of the stomach into the duodenum, where it becomes mixed with the bile from the gall bladder and liver, and the pancreatic juice from the pancreas. These fluids seem to complete the digestion: after this, the food is continually moved forwards by the peristaltic motion of the intestines.

The chyle, or thin and milky part of the aliment, being absorbed by the lacteals, which rise, by open mouths, from the intestines, is carried into the receptacle of the chyle, and from thence the thoracic duct carries it to the subclavian vein, where it mixes with the blood, and pa.s.ses with it to the heart.