An introduction to pathology and morbid anatomy / by T. Henry Green.

  • Green, T. Henry (Thomas Henry), 1841-1923.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to pathology and morbid anatomy / by T. Henry Green. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/628 (page 7)
    We have enumerated the compounds presented to cells in lymphj and also those which leave the body as the ultimate products of cell-action; but in no instance do we know the connecting links between the end-products. Whilst the ingesta of cehs must be tolerably uniform* in character, their excreta are probably as various as are the uses of the ceils in tlie body —witness the different compositions of the many secretions, and, the unequal distribution of the extractives, such as kreatin, xanthin, tfec. The breaking-down of tissue or waste, which is going on constantly on the one hand, and the building-up or repair which in health keeps pace with it, on the other, con- stitute the nutritive exchange of the cell or of the whole body. This process is constantly being disturbed from patho- logical causes; and, physiologically, formation exceeds waste during the period of growth, but the opposite obtains in old age, when the vital energy of all cells is failing^ and their func- tions are imperfectly discharged. The excreta pass in two directions : into lymph and back into the blood, or out to a mucous or cutaneous surface, whence part may be absorbed, e.g., saliva, gastric juice, and part of the bile. Conditions of Health of a Cell.—That the nutritive exchange of the cells of the body may be normal, the same conditions must be present as those necessary for the healthy life of an amoeba. These were—i : the possession of normal vital activity or ability to effect chemical change; 2 : a suffi- cient supply of food of suitable quality, depending in man upon the circulation and blood constitution ] and 3 : the presence of appropriate surrounding physical conditions. To these must be added—in the case, at least, of nerves, muscle and certain gland-cells—4: connection with a healthy nervous centre. Influence of the Nervous System upon Nutrition.— When motor nerve-fibres are cut off from the ganglion-cells of the anterior cornu, or when sensory are severed fi-om those of the posterior spinal ganglion, they rapidly atrophy, the axis- * The fluid exuding from the capillaries of different parts presents qualitative and even quantitative difference (Cohnheim).