Volume 1

The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer.

Date:
1835-37
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    CHAPTER III. THE BLOOD. Reasons for its fluidity;—erroneous views respecting its nature.—Anima- lization and vinification two distinct steps in the conversion of foreign matter into part of a living body.—Blood not merely fluid animal mat- ter;—has also become vivified;—arguments for this opinion.—Coagula- tion of blood;—its importance in determining the nature of blood;— varieties in the process.— Case proving the life of the blood.—Death of the blood preventing coagulation. What I have had hitherto principally in view has been the solid animal matter, its formation, and its aiTangement by which it is endued with .life, composing, as it were, the whole visible body. The fluid part of the compound now remains to be taken notice of. Blood is the material out of which the whole body is formed and out of which it is supported* *. It is fluid that it may be capable of moving to the very minutest part of the solid with ease, and may with less dif- ficulty be divided for the increase and repairs of the different parts of the machine ; easy of division and separation, to form various secretions, and also to bring back what was superabundant, and to carry off the parts which were useless. This part of the body has been considered as a passive, inanimate, moving fluid, found everywhere in the body, deriving motion from the heart for the various purposes of the whole, then returning to the heart to be sent out again. Those who have formed this idea of the blood have no adequate notion of the manner in which it is capable of per- forming those great uses above mentioned. Some, in considering this fluid, have been in a great measure satisfied with examining the spon- taneous changes which it undergoes out of the circulation. This might have led them to draw some natural conclusions, since all natural phe- nomena are facts, and teach enough of a thing to enable us to draw sound conclusions. Others have attended to the chemical analysis, which teaches nothing with respect to its use in the living body; for blood gives no analysis excepting that of common animal matterf. * [The expression of Bourdon is peculiarly elegant: “Ze sangest de la chair coulantS.”] f [This observation is no longer true. Some important additions to physiology have of late years been obtained from chemical investigation of the blood with the present improved means of analysis; and with further improvements we may expect still more light to be thrown on the subject. The subject will be more fully considered when the * Treatise on the Blood,’ &t\, conics before us.]