A treatise on the blood, inflammation, and gun-shot wounds / by John Hunter ; with notes by James F. Palmer.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the blood, inflammation, and gun-shot wounds / by John Hunter ; with notes by James F. Palmer. 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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    could be but very little, when a few ounces will make a person faint. I have an idea, however, that people can bear to lose more by the stomach than in any other way. Besides, it becomes a matter almost of surprise how little is commonly found in the dead body; but I believe in disease it in some degree diminishes with the body; for more is to be found in those who die suddenly, or of acute diseases; and even in some who die of lingering diseases, as of dropsy, we have a considerable quantity of blood. The only way of accounting for this is, that in a common lingering illness there is less blood, and in a dropsy it coagulates less; for the strong coagulation squeezes out the serum, which, I imagine, transudes after death, and is not observable. It would appear upon the whole, that the quantity of blood in an animal is proportioned to the uses of that blood in the machine, which, probably, may be reckoned three in number: the first is simply the support of the whole, which includes the growth or in- crease of parts, the keeping the parts already formed to their neces- sary standard, and also the supply of waste in the parts. The second is the support of action, such as the action of the brain and muscles, in which is produced uncommon waste ; and thirdly, se- cretion ; all of which will fluctuate except the simple support, but more particularly the support of action. I have already observed that the anastomosing of vessels gives greater space for blood. Probably a paralytic limb would give the necessary quantity for simple support.* There is nothing particular in the veins, so as to give an idea that they were intended to increase the quantity of blood : they hold, however, more than the arteries, which certainly adds to the quan- tity ; but the increase of size lessens the velocity. They form plexuses, and what are called certain bodies: as the plexus rete- formis in the female, and corpora cavernosa and spongiosa in the male. We see how little blood supports a part in an aneurism; and, probably, slowness of motion is suitable to little blood. It must have appeared in the account of the different colours of the different parts of the body, arising from the proportion of red blood, that some parts must have much more blood than others; and we have now to mention that some parts have much larger * [On bleeding a young ass to death, of the weight of 791bs., Percival ob- tained 5£lbs, of blood, that is, it perished from a loss of about -^th of its weight: Sir Astley Cooper estimated the proportion which an animal might lose before death at about ^th. Probably Mailer's estimate of the actual quantity of blood in the body approaches as nearly to the truth as any, viz., ]th its weight; of which gths or more were supposed to be in the veins, and ith'or less in the arte- ries. (El.Phy8.,v.\. 3.) As the proportional quantity of blood varies very considerably in different animals, it is probable that age, temperament, food, exercise, and other external circumstances have also a considerable influence in this respect in man. Thackrah found that the quantity of evaporable fluid in a dog was 621-6, the solid being 378-4 (op. cit., p. 232) : but this gives no idea of the actual quantity of blood in the body, for all the animal textures contain abun- dance of water, which would necessarily come into the account.]