An introduction to medical literature, including a system of practical nosology : intended as a guide to students, and an assistant to practitioners. Together with detached essays, on the study of physic, on classification, on chemical affinities, on animal chemistry, on the blood, on the medical effects of climates, on the circulation, and on palpitation / by Thomas Young.

Date:: 1823

Credit: An introduction to medical literature, including a system of practical nosology : intended as a guide to students, and an assistant to practitioners. Together with detached essays, on the study of physic, on classification, on chemical affinities, on animal chemistry, on the blood, on the medical effects of climates, on the circulation, and on palpitation / by Thomas Young. 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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quantity which would be propelled by such an operation, with a pulsation no stronger than that which is actually ob- served in the arteries, being absolutely inconsiderable. Those who are incapable of appreciating the degree of evidence, derived from mathematical considerations, will perhaps be disposed to pay some deference to the authority of Bichat, who is as decidedly antimathematical, and as absurdly antimechanical, as can possibly be desired. He advances, however, a number of arguments, some bad and some good,' to prove that the arteries are absolutely passive in transmitting the blood which circulates through them. He denies, indeed, altogether, the muscular nature of the arterial fibres ; but those who allow that parts, not mus- cular, may still possess a certain degree of contractility, will not be very solicitous respecting the name which is to be given to these fibres, provided that the question respecting their active powers in the circulation be previously de- cided. London, 30th April) 1810. [It must also be remembered, that a full share of influence is allowed to the effects of the nerves on the arteries, by the supposition that the state of tonic contraction of the smaller arteries in particular, is completely regulated by the nerves which govern them : and this explanation is suf- ficient to remove the objections to this theory which have been deduced from some late experiments, while it is on the other hand most amply confirmed by the direct experi- ments of the ingenious Dr. Parry.]

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