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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    verse, and descending. The ascending colon passes upward from the right haunch-bone to the under surface of the liver. It then bends inward, and crosses the upper part of the abdomen, below the liver and stomach, to the left side under the name of the transverse colon. At the left side, it turns, and de- scends to the left haunch-bone, and is called the descending colon. Here it makes a peculiar curve upon itself, which is called the sigmoid jtexure, from its resemblance to the letter S. The colon has many sack-like folds on its internal surface which are designed to retain the food in its passage for a long period. The rectum is the lowermost, or last portion of the large intestine, and terminates in the anus, where it is surrounded by a sphincter or circular muscle that keeps it closed except at deffecation. The motion by which the contents of the bowels are carried downward comprises the peristaltic and vermicular movements of the bowels.] Digestion is one of the most important functions performed in the human system; and any considerable deviation from its regular action, has a ruinous influence on health. And in con- sequence of the great number of organs concerned in the digestive process, its operation is liable often to be disturbed; suffering more or less from every disease to which the human frame is liable. We believe that John Hunter was the first who remarked that the stomach was the center of sympathy in the system; and of this fact there appears to be but one opinion with physiologists of the present day. We have no where, that we recollect, seen any reason assigned for this phenomenon; but we think it may be found in the association of so many organs in the performance of one common function, and in the mutual dependence and connection of the stomach upon, and with, every other part of the system, and vice versa. It is only by considering the great end of the digestive pro- cess, that we shall be capable of fully appreciating its vast im- portance in the animal economy. By this process our food and drink is prepared to yield its nutritious particles to the blood, from which all the other fluids as well as the solids are made, and upon which our very existence depends: Whenever, there- fore, the digestion becomes too feeble, the living power must also become weak; and a long continued weakness of the diges- tive organs must produce disease, and ultimately death. [The lacteals are minute vessels, which commence in the villi, upon the mucous surface of the intestines. From the intestines they pass between the membranes of the mesentery to small glands, which they enter. The first range of glands