The medical assistant, or Jamaica practice of physic : designed chiefly for the use of families and plantations / by Thomas Dancer, M.D.
- Thomas Dancer
- Date:
- 1809
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The medical assistant, or Jamaica practice of physic : designed chiefly for the use of families and plantations / by Thomas Dancer, M.D. 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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![ase», and the effect of it ehanging the colour of the skin, SECT, v. when absorbed into the mass oi biood, has made it the subject ^-**-Y~a*-/ oi' peculiar attention. It has been the imaginary cause oi' a multitude oi* complaints. That it is never vitiate-], is not asserted; hut, in its natural state, it is a very necessary lienor lor producing, in conjunction with the pancreatic juice, further changes on the digested matter from the stomach. It seems also to be a stimulus ibr exciting the action of the whole in- testinal canal, and may be called a natural cathartic; for, where there is a deficiency of it, co^tiveness always prevails. The ibod now being first digested in the stomach, and then mixed with the bile and other fluids in the intestinal canal, undergoes a further assimilation, and becomes chyle ;.* which being- absorbed by the numerous mouths of the lacteals, open- ing on the internal surface of the intestines, is conveyed to the glands of the mesentery; where it is diluted by the lymph brought by the lymphatic vessels; and then, alter being col- lected in a general receptacle, goes by the thoracic duct, in an ascending direction, to be poured into the subclavian vein, and mixed with the blood, as was before described. See p. 5. B The Tesin. Muriatic acir?, poured on hi!?, forms muriate of soda, that is to say, common salt. The prajteinatural flow of bile, which often occurs, is, probably, for the pur- pose of correcting something generated in the alimentary canal, in the same way as the lachrymal gland is made to pour out tears lor washing oft' any offending substance from the eyes. (Sec Dr. Mitchil N. V. Hipus. Saunders on the Liver.) Dr. Hush has lately advanced some novel and very singular opinions concerning the function of the liver, spleen; and thyroid gland.)£'l he spleen, he supposes, to be a reservoir to receive the blood, and relieve the h^art in all cases of quickened circulation, from cvicise, the passions, ike. The thyr.>id gland, he thinks, perforins the same office to the brain that the spleen does to the heart. The liver, he considers as an auxiliary organ to the stomach in digestion, not in the way it is generally thought, by the secretion of bile, but in pouring out chyle when digestion in the stomach is imperfect. These opinions are controverted, particularly by Saumarez.; Med. <$■ /'/'/. Jou. vol. It). * From an analysis or e^aaiiua.tioQ of the chyle, it appears to have an intinixte resemblance to milk,-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21113440_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
