The servants of the stomach / by Jean Macé.

  • Jean Macé
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The servants of the stomach / by Jean Macé. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    what like a piece of wet bladder ; well, slight looking as this membrane is, it proves when necessary as good a keeper of order in the joint as the robust capsule with its indomitable fibres. This serous membrane and the soft synovia are so closely applied to the articular surfaces that they let nothing enter, and the articular surfaces cannot quit each other without creating a vacuum, and you know what a strong antagonist you have to deal with if you wish to produce a void anywhere. I gave you an in¬ sight into atmospheric pressure when I spoke to you about the lungs. The full pressure of the air is behind this feeble membrane, and opposes any displacement of the bones, which are thus rigorously kept in position even after the fibrous capsule has been removed. In such a case the most violent effort will not always sepa¬ rate the joint. Make the slightest cut into the synovial purse, and allow the air to penetrate the joint which it protects, and the powerful auxiliary is neutralised, and the object is accomplished with the greatest ease. You, my dear child, are not very strong, and probably never may be. Let this teach you what energetic resist¬ ance the feeble may oppose to brute force when the former have on their side reason, justice, right, all those great forces of the moral atmosphere, the irresistible pressure of which is everywhere obeyed, always pro¬ vided their natural and legitimate action be not broken in upon.
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