The principles of surgery / [James Syme].

  • James Syme
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of surgery / [James Syme]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    42/752 page 14
    this isunnecessary, as there are some vessels in the sys- tem which beyond all dispute possess such a power. The vessels of the foetus, and those which absorb the chyle, can perform their office only by exerting an at- tractive force on the fluids exterior to them, similar to what must be exercised by the roots of vegetables. And if we admit the operation of such a power in some parts of the vascular system, we may not unreasonably suppose it to exist wherever similar effects are produced. The absorbing property, which is now acknowledged to belong to the veins, can hardly be explained in any other way—and then we have only to go a single step farther to grant it to the venous capillaries which communicate with those of the arteries. One will be more apt to adopt this opinion in examining the ca- pillaries of a frog’s foot after the heart of the animal has been cut out. It will then be seen that the glo- bules continue in motion for half-an-hour or more, running sometimes one way, sometimes another, but always fastest in the smallest vessels, which, as mea- sured by the globules, distinctly preserve their capa- city without the slightest change, so that they appear as if made of glass, or some such rigid and transpa- rent material. . Vacca seems to have perceived the necessity of attri- buting an attractive power to the capillary vessels, if we may judge from the following passage of his work above quoted: “ Ergo vis sanguinis, quae canales sanguineos distrahere, et distendere nititur, contra eadem oscula, quoque agit, ipsaque aperire tentat. Verum oscula illa in salubri corporis statu vigore
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3