The principles of anatomy and physiology applied to the preservation of health / by Joseph Brown Walker.

  • Walker, Joseph Brown.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of anatomy and physiology applied to the preservation of health / by Joseph Brown Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [10] absorbents, and its place supplied by a kind of cellular membrane, in the interstices of. which the earthy par- ticles are deposited ; the two forming by their union, a homogeneous whole called bone. Although it is to the softer material alone that vital properties essentially be- long, it is usual to speak of the life, the vessels, and the nerves of bones, as if life belonged equally to the earthy and animal portions. This is correct enough in reality, because the union betwen the earthy and animal tissues is always the product of life ; and the parts thus united are, to all intents and purposes, living parts. To carry on the processes of waste and renovation, by which every living structure is distinguished, all parts of the body are provided, first, with arteries conveying to them red or nutritive blood ; secondly, with exhalents, by which the new matter is deposited, and which are believed to be the minute terminations of the arteries ; thirdly, with veins by which the blood is carried back to the heart ; fourth- ly, with absorbent vessels, which take up and carry away the waste particles to be thrown out of the system ; and, lastly, with nerves to supply all these vessels, and the or- gans on which they are distributed, with that nervous energy which is essential to their vitality and to their con- nection with other parts of the system. The bones, in- sensible as they may seem, possess all these attributes of living and organized parts. They are all provided with blood-vessels, nerves, and with exhaling and absorbing vessels ; and they are constantly undergoing the same process of decay and renovation to which all other living parts are subjected. That the bones are provided with blood-vessels is shown by the fact ,that anatomists are able to trace these vessels into their su'istance, and to inject those of a young sub- ject with wax, so minutely as to make the bones appear of a lively red color. That they are provided also with nerves is evident, both from dissection and from the ef- fects of injuries and disease. A healthy bone may be cut or sawn across without causing pain, but when the bone is inflamed, the most excruciating torture is felt. And as sensation is the exclusive attribute of the nerv-