Manual of physiology / by William Senhouse Kirkes ; assisted by James Paget.

  • William Senhouse Kirkes
Date:
1853
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of physiology / by William Senhouse Kirkes ; assisted by James Paget. 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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    Aluminium also is stated (Henle, xxxvii. p. 4) to exist in the ashes of hair, bones, and enamel; but neither V. Laer nor V. Bibra mention it. Copper.—r-AfteiF long disputes, the general existence of copper in the human liver may be regarded as proved by the experiments of Orfila, Heller, and others. It exists in especially large quantity in dark biliary calculi, and we may probably assume that it does not enter into the proper permanent substance of the liver, but is con- tained in the bile, within the bile-cells and ducts, and is destined with it to be excreted. It is true, that Harless and V. Bibra have found it constantly present in the blood, as well as in the liver, of many mollusca and fish : and that in their blood it takes the place of some proportion of the iron contained in the blood of other species, and may be regarded as a normal, necessary constituent; yet, it seems most likely that, in the human body, both copper, manganesium, and aluminium should be regarded as accidental elements, which, being taken in minute quantities with the food, and not excreted at once with the feces, are absorbed and deposited in some tissue or organ, of which, however, they form no necessary part. In the same manner arsenic and lead, being absorbed, may be deposited in the liver and other parts. This view is confirmed by the fact observed by Heller, that although copper is frequently present in the bile of adults, yet it is never found in that of infants (ix. vol. ii. p. 321). The researches of Cattanai di Momo also seemed to prove that neither copper nor lead exists in the bodies of new-born children or infants (xxv. 1813-4, p. 3). CHAPTER II. STRUCTURAL COMPOSITION OF THE HUMAN BODY. The component substances of the body are commonly divided into fluids and solids. The fluids are, 1st, formative fluids, from which are derived the materials for the formation of the solid tissues; and, 2d, secreted, fluids, which are separated from the tissues and the blood, through, speaking generally, the operation of special organs, such as cells arranged in glands or membranes. So little can be said that would apply to all the members of either of these classes of the fluids, that a general description of them would be useless; they will therefore be considered in their several more appropriate places.—[See chapters on Blood, Lymph, Chyle, the several Secretions, &c] 3*
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