A practical treatise on haemoptysis or spitting of blood : shewing the safety and efficacy of emetics.

  • Rees, George, 1776-1846.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on haemoptysis or spitting of blood : shewing the safety and efficacy of emetics. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    it is returned to the left side of that organ by veins, and thence sent immediately through the pulmonary artery to the lungs, in order to under- go a change by the action of the air we inspire, without which it would be no longer fit for the purposes of the animal oeconomy. This blood, which is conveyed to the heart through the veins, is very different in its character and appearance from the blood in the arteries; in- stead of being of a bright florid colour, it is very dark and black, and this blackness is found to depend on the presence of a peculiar matter si- milar in its properties to charcoal, and hence called, in the language of chymistry, Carbon. It must be rather difficult, I apprehend, for a person perfectly unacquainted with modern chy- mistry, to conceive at first glance the probability of this assertion, ©r to comprehend how charcoal should mix with the blood; I must therefore either refer him to some of our celebrated writers on the subject,* or prevail on him for the pre- sent to take it upon trust, as it will be too great a digression from the subject were I now to en- ter into the chymical demonstration of the fact. The blood which goes to the lungs is of a dark black colour, owing, as has just been stated, to * Thomson, Murray, Thornton, &c.
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