Outlines of the history of medicine and the medical profession / by Joh. Hermann Baas ; translated, and in conjunction with the author rev. and enl., by H.E. Handerson.

Johann Hermann Baas

Date:: 1889

Credit: Outlines of the history of medicine and the medical profession / by Joh. Hermann Baas ; translated, and in conjunction with the author rev. and enl., by H.E. Handerson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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$tela choroidea, the venous sinuses, and the torcular Herophili. According to him the fourth cerebral ventricle is the seat of the soul. He discovered the chyliferous and lymphatic vessels. Described accurately the liver, Fallo- pian tubes, epididymis, duodenum (to which he gave its name), and also the os hyoides, the uvea, the vitreous humor, the retina, and the ciliary processes. He called the pulmonar}' artery the vena arteriosa, and the pulmonary vein the arteria venosa, and knew that the left spermatic vein sometimes originated from the renal. He distinguished in respiration asystole- a diastole, and a period of rest, the last of which arises from the desire to both expire and inspire. The vessels receive pneuma from the lungs and the skin (perspiration?). He founded the doctrine of the pulse (rythm, the bounding pulse, varieties according to age). The pulse is com- municated by the heart to the walls of the arteries. He distinguishes between arter- ies and veins, and admits that the former contain blood. .Etiology. Diseases originate in a corruption of the humors. Paralysis is due to a lack of influence of the nervous force. Sudden death depends upon paralysis of the heart. He laid little weight upon ^Etiol- ogy, but much more upon Symptomatol- ogy. convolutions of the cerebrum, and still more of the cerebellum, as the seat of thought, and located mental diseases in the brain. The development of the em- bryo takes place by new formation (epige- nesis). Knew the lymph and chyle vessels, and gave as their contents air and milk alter- nately. Named the parenchyma of the liver, whose invisible canals discharge the bile, the trachea (heretofore called arte- ria), the valve of the vena cava (val- vula trichlogyna), the chorda? tendinea^ of the heart. The latter organ, accord- ing to him, contains no blood, an idea which Galen refuted by puncturing its walls. Theoretical]}' he assumed anas- tomoses of the arteries and veins, which, however, normally terminate in closed extremities opposite each other. Respiration is the introduction of pneu- ma, which at first goes into the pulmo- nary veins, and thence through the heart into the bloodless arteries. This pneuma in the heart is vital spirits, in the brain animal spirits. The influx of the pneuma into the arteries occasions their dilatation and thus the pulse, which is a passive process propagated from the heart. The arteries contain simple air. Digestion takes place through friction of the walls of the stomach (Iatro-physi- cian!); nutrition, by the addition of new particles; secretion by the non-attractive force. The bile is useless ; likewise the spleen and other viscera. Drinks do not enter the air passages. He shows traces of pathological anat- omy : induration of the liver in dropsy. ^Etiology. The chief cause of disease is plethora and aberration of the humors {error loci); in fevers in the larger, in inflammation in the smaller arteries. Inflammation arises when the blood is detained in the small vessels by the pneuma driven from the heart into the arteries : fever occurs when the pneuma is crowded back to the heart by the venous blood, and blood gets into the large arteries. Dropsy always pro-$