On the importance of chemistry to medicine : an introductory address to the medical classes of King's College, delivered October 1, 1845 : with an inaugural lecture at King's College, given October 6, 1845 / by W. A. Miller.

  • Miller, William Allen, 1817-1870.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the importance of chemistry to medicine : an introductory address to the medical classes of King's College, delivered October 1, 1845 : with an inaugural lecture at King's College, given October 6, 1845 / by W. A. Miller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    I AN INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 9 distinct from the muscle that it once was. That which is true of fibrin is equally true of every other solid constituent of the body, and hence it is evident that, in the common acceptation of the term, absorption of the solids, or removal of them bodily, pos- sesses nothing more than an ideal existence. The agency in virtue of which certain particles, and only those, are removed, is concealed from our enquiries, but the steps by which that removal is effected have been somewhat more distinctly ascer- tained. We have already glanced at the provision made for main- taining the renewal of the blood, and have now to consider the mode of its purification. This fluid, in its passage through the various channels of our frame, must evidently become loaded with the debris of the tissues, which are constantly pouring into it from the process of decay just mentioned, as well as from the complementary products of secretion from certain glands to which we shall presently advert. Its composition must, there- fore, be continually changing, unless means be adopted for pre- venting such an occurrence. To effect the purification thus rendered needful, it is propelled through various filters in the form of glands, in each of which the blood undergoes changes dependent on the nature of the gland. And although the external configuration and general arrangement of the constituent parts of those organs may vary greatly, yet so closely do the smallest of these secreting parts resemble each other, that, placed side by side, they can hardly be distinguished by the microscope as belonging to glands whose functions may be widely different. The mystery of secretion is still unfathomed, but here again the results of the operation are manifest. The glands maybe divided into two great classes; the first are those which supply the materials required for consumption within the body in the performance of its several functions, and are termed the secernent glands, the second those which separate from it useless or noxious ingredients, the excreting glands; and the chemistry of these two classes differs greatly. In the secerning glands, the compounds produced appear dependent on the gland for their existence, and, having produced from the blood the materials of the secretion which they separate, the residual ingredients, or complementary portion, is returned into the mass of circulating fluid, and contributes fresh impurity to it: these complementary products furnish a part of the sub- stances separated by the excreting glands, in which, contrary to that which occurs in the secerning ones, the compounds are the result of operations taking ])laco at various distant points of the body, and the glands act 8imi)ly in effecting their separation.