Copy 1, Volume 1

The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good].

  • John Mason Good
Date:
1834
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    81/784 page 27
    ' restricts the function of the lacteals entirely to the absorp- tion of chyle, and of no other matter, mainly depends. Chyle, derived from sugar, contains hardly any fibrin; while that from flesh has a great deal. The appearances and, quality of this fluid are, therefore, considerably modified by the kind of food; and it deserves particular recollection, that, as it is not always white, its pink or transparent look is not to be regarded as a proof, either of the lacteals having imbibed madder, or of the imperfect formation of the chyle.] M. Magendie’s experiments lead him to conclude, that a dog, upon an average, forms about six ounces of chyle every hour. The subject is highly interesting: but to pursue it further, and especially into that diversity of structure which the digestive organs present in almost all the different classes and orders, adapted, as it is in each of them, with the most skilful attention, to the general economy of their nature, and the mode of life they are destined to lead, would occupy more space than we can spare, and carry us into the regions of general physiology. Enough has perhaps been said, and this is all that has been aimed at, to give a compendious view of the organs, which form the seat of that class of idiopathic diseases, with which the nosological system about to be unfolded commences, and consequently to enable the reader to follow up those diseases with greater clearness and comprehension in their distinctive characters and descriptions.* I have limited the above remark to ¢diopathic diseases ; and it is necessary the limitation should be attended to. For, from the intimate connection, which the organs of digestion maintain with other organs, and sets of organs, there are few general complaints, in which the first do not evince some sympathetic affection. This is particularly the case with the stomach, which, in the opinion of Mr. Hunter, is the seat and centre of universal sympathy: a doctrine which appears to have been taught in France by M. de Bourdeu+, though with less caution, and from fewer premises, at the-very time Mr. Hunter was teaching it in London. The sympathetic affections, here spoken of, cannot fall within the range of the present class; but must necessarily appertain to those diseases, and divisions of diseases, under which they rank as peculiar symptoms, and which can only be removed by removing the idiopathic malady. * Dr. Abercrombie sums up, in a few words, the principal circumstances necessary for the healthy condition of the process cf digestion: 1. A healthy state of the muscular action of the stomach; 2. A healthy, consecutive, and harmo- nious action of the muscular coat of the intestinal canal; 3. A healthy state of the fluids of the stomach; 4. A healthy state as to the quantity and quality of other fluids, derived from the liver, pancreas, and mucous membrane of the in- testines; 5. A healthy state of the mucous membrane itself, both in the stomach and the intestines. See Abercrombie’s Pathol. and Pract. Researches on Diseases of the Stomach, &e. p. 71. ed. 2. S. C. + See his Thesis, “An Omnes Corporis Partes Digestioni opitulantur?” Paris, 1754. Its quantity calculated. Class li- mited to idiopathic diseases. Stomach the seat of universal sympathy.
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