Human physiology, statical and dynamical, or, The conditions and course of the life of man / by John William Draper.

John William Draper

Date:: 1856

Credit: Human physiology, statical and dynamical, or, The conditions and course of the life of man / by John William Draper. 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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$Schmidt shows that the intermediate circulation of water toward the intestine is far more considerable than its final excretion, and Water fumish- amounts in one day to nearly one fourth of the whole quan- ^[J^^ ^''° ''^*' tity of water in the body. As the digested mass passes onward, driven by the peristaltic motions through the convolutions of the intestine, it becomes of a Complex chan- more solid consistency, as the absorbents gradually remove fes\iaicw' its liquid portions. By the time it has reached the coecum, tents. the same etfect which arose in the stomach from salivary digestion is repeated, for the traces of unabsorbed lactic acid cause nutritive diges- tion to be again feebly resumed, at all events in herbivorous animals, if not in man, whose coecum is rudimentary, under the form of the appen- dix vermiformis. From Peyer's glands a secretion has exuded, which perhaps gives to the mass the characteristic odor it is now assuming, if, indeed, these organs are not connected with absorption. The effete re- mains are finally voided as faeces, which, due allowance being made for the water they contain, amounting to about 75 per cent., may be rep- resented as averaging about 1| ounce per day. These excrementitious remains, colored yellow by the coloring material of the bile, are partly de- rived from the residues of the food Avhich have been unacted upon, and partly from the decay of the system itself. The microscope shows the remains of cell membranes, and the walls of vegetable vas- Formation cular tissues, starch granules, and chlorophyll, the relics of car- ^^ feces. tilaginous and fibrous tissues, shreds of muscular fibre, fat-cells. From the digestive tract there have been derived mucus corpuscles, epitlielial cells, and the coloring matter of the bile. Perhaps, too, much of the wa- ter which gives consistency to the fgeces has been derived from the intes- tinal walls, for in quantity, under certain circumstances, it may exceed the amount that has been used as drink. In its passage through the intestine, that portion of the bile which has not been absorbed undergoes considerable changes, its conju- Disappearance gated acids degenerating into dyslysin, which may be recog- °^ ^^^ '^^^®- nized in the fa3ces, as is also the case with the modified pigmentary mat- ters ; the soluble mineral constituents are, for the most part, absorbed. The reducing agencies in the intestine, and the manner in which sub- stances can find their way into the urinary secretion, is well Incidenta] re- illustrated by the administration of indigo, which undergoes j^ tiiifintes- deoxidation into the condition of suboxide of isatine, and will, tine, notwithstanding the agency of arterial blood, appear in that condition in the urine, to which, upon contact of the air, it imparts a blue tint, becom- ing more intense under a prolonged exposure, and eventually indigo-blue being deposited. Such a result not only shows how energetic are the re- ducing agencies in the intestine, but also with what facility very oxidiz-$