An improved system of domestic medicine : founded upon correct physiological principles : comprising a complete treatise on anatomy and physiology, the practice of medicine, with a copious materia medica, and an extensive treatise on midwifery, embellished with over one hundred useful engravings, gotten up expressly for family use / by Horton Howard.

  • Howard, Horton, 1770-1833
Date:
1856, ©1848-1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An improved system of domestic medicine : founded upon correct physiological principles : comprising a complete treatise on anatomy and physiology, the practice of medicine, with a copious materia medica, and an extensive treatise on midwifery, embellished with over one hundred useful engravings, gotten up expressly for family use / by Horton Howard. 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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    [These glands are not supposed to secrete material into the lymphatic system, but simply to change the character of the fluid passing through them. In this sense they are considered the out-guards of the body, defending it from improper ma- terials that are carried in the lymphatics. When poison or any offensive material forced into the system, as in the extremi- ties, these glands, situated between the point of insertion of the poison and the body, become swollen and inflamed, and it is found that they secrete the foreign substance into their Cells and retain and neutralize it, or by their softening and sup- puration, they break out, and thus by a discharge remove the offensive material.] SECTION 2. OF THE LIVER. [By reference to Fig. 12, the position of this gland may be seen in the abdominal region. It is situated partly in the right hypochondriac and partly in the epigastric region, immediately below the diaphragm. It is the larg.est, by far, of all the glandular bodies. Its office is principally to secrete the bile, which is a very necessary agent in the process of digestion. The liver is lobular in its form, consisting mainly of two large and two smaller lobes, and the gall-bladder, anditsduct. The gall- bladder is situated in the sinus of the liver, on its under surface. The color of the liver differs from that of all the other glands. It is of a dark brown color and is sometimes stained yellow with bile. The liver is largely supplied with blood, and it is supposed that the blood is modified very materially in its passage through this gland, that it is decarbonized and purified by the liver.] SECTION 3. OF THE SPLEEN. [This is an oblong gland, situated in the back part of the left hypochondriac region, immediately below the diaphragm. It is of a spongy texture and of a reddish or violet appearance. It is singular that so large an organ as the spleen, is so little understood as to its office or use. It is supposed, however, to effect a change in blood by its glandular action, as this fluid