Phosphates : their chemical composition and uses in the different tissues of the body / by M.F. Anderson.
- Anderson, M. F. (Mark French)
- Date:
- 1877
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Phosphates : their chemical composition and uses in the different tissues of the body / by M.F. Anderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![If there be any truth in this doctrine of the dual formation of the capillaries, it should agree with the evidences of pathology, and clinical observation ought to he able to confirm the existence of an inorganic material in the capillaries, by the symptoms which mark the absence of the materials necessary to its forma* tion. The symptoms of some diseases confirm', in a remarkable manner, the existence of this inorganic strengthening material (tribasic or tissue phosphate) in the capillaries. All organic diseases are dependent upon innutrition: this^ may depend upon local or general causes; in the majority of cases, although the symptoms may in the first instance be localised, the cause is in the system. In phthisis, cancer, and le]3rosy, although our attention may be directed to a particulwi- locality, as the seat of disease, there i& doubtless some systemic- cause producing the disease. In many cases there is hereditary predisposition to certain organic diseases, but even in these there is generally some exciting cause which lights up the mischief.,. In phthisis, ex* posure to cold, privation, or bad ventilation, are some of the exciting causes. These act by depressing the system, lowering the vital powers, producing loss of appetite, and thus preparing the way for innutrition of the tissues. The first tissues to suffer are the capillaries; these from the want of the saline ingi’edien'ts necessary to their healthy maintenance, lose tone and stability, and cease to act in transmitting the blood to the neighbouring tissues ; a capillary block takes place, and this leads to death of tlie part from innutrition. In cases where the x^rogress of the disease is slow, nature attempts to remedy the want of strength in the capillaries, by sux^idying material (fibrous tissue) ill* adapted for the purpose. This produces thickening and imperfect action of the cax^illaries ; or the capillaries become so weak and lax as to allow of exudation of blood through their walls. By adopting this tlieory of capillary innutrition as the immediate cause of many organic diseases, all the phenomena of these diseases admit of ready and comxdete explanation. Bcurvy is a disease which is universally admitted to depend upon » deficiency of some material in food necessary for the healthy condition of the blood. I maintain that the material, the deficiency of which is the cause of scurvy, is tribasic phosphate, and that all the phenomena of scurvy arise from a weakened and relaxed state of the capillaries, caused by an absence or insufficient supply of tribasic phosphate or its component parte ki the food. By referring to Table 6 in the appendix, it will be seen that a soldier on full diet Gonsumes about 4 grammes of x>hosphoric acid, together with a proportionate <xuaiiUty of bases for Uie-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2231605x_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
