Hand-book of physiology / by W. Morrant Baker and Vincent Dormer Harris.

Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hand-book of physiology / by W. Morrant Baker and Vincent Dormer Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    acid is present in the blood and other fluids, and is excreted in large quantities by tlie lungs, and in very minute amount by the skin. It will lie specially considered in the chapter on Eesjiiration. Water, the most abundant of the pioximate piinciples, forms a large proportion,—more than two-thirds of the weight of the whole bod}-. Its relative amount in some of the principal solids and fluids of the body is shown in tlie following table (quoted by Dalton, from Eobin and Verdeil's table, compiled from various authors) :— Quantity of Water in iooo Pahts. Teeth Bones . Cartilage . Muscles Ligament. Urain . Blood Synovia ICQ 130 768 789 795 805 Bile Milk. . Pancreatic juice Urine . Lymph Gastric juice Persijiration Saliva. 880 887 goo 936 960 975 986 995 Uses of the Water of the Body.—The importance of water as a constituent of the animal body may be assumed from the ]ireceding table, and is shown in a still more striking manner by its withdrawal. If any tissue,—as muscle, cartilage, or tendon be subjected to heat sufficient to chive off the greater part of its water, all its characteristic physical properties are destroyed; and what was previously soft, elastic, and flexible, becomes hard and brittle, and horny, so as to be .scarcely recogrusable. In all the fluids of the body—blood, lynqjli, &c., water acts the part of a general solvent, and by its means alone circulation of nutrient matter is possible. It is the medium also in which all fluid and solid aliments are dissolved before absorption, as well as the means by which all, except gaseous, excretory products are remo\-ed. All the A'arious processes of secretion, transudation, and nutrition, depend of necessity on its presence for their performance. Source.—The greater part, by far, of the water present in the body is taken into it as such from without, in the food and drink. A Miiall amount, however, is the result of the chemical union of hydingen with oxygen in the blood and tis.sues. The total amount taken into the body every day is about 4! lbs. ; while an uncertainty quantity (perhaps i to | lb.) i,s formed l)y chemical action within it.— (Dalton.) Loss.—The loss of water from the body is intimately connected with excretion from the lungs, skin, and kidneys, and, to a less extent, from the alimentary canal. Tlie loss from these various organs may be thus apportioned (quoted by Dalton from A'arious observers).