Researches, tending to prove the non-vascularity and the peculiar uniform mode of organization and nutrition of certain animal tissues : viz. articular cartilage, and the cartilage of the different classes of fibro-cartilage, the cornea, the crystalline lens, and the vitreous humour, and the epidermoid appendages / by Joseph Toynbee.

  • Toynbee, Joseph, 1815-1866.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches, tending to prove the non-vascularity and the peculiar uniform mode of organization and nutrition of certain animal tissues : viz. articular cartilage, and the cartilage of the different classes of fibro-cartilage, the cornea, the crystalline lens, and the vitreous humour, and the epidermoid appendages / by Joseph Toynbee. 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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    [ 139 ] XIII. Researches^ tending to prove the Non-vascularity and the peculiar uniform Mode of Organization and Nutrition of certain Animal Tissues, viz. Articular Cartilage, and the Cartilage of the different Classes of Fihro-Cartilage; the Cornea, the Crystalline Lens, and the Vitreous Humour; and the Epidermoid Appendages. By Joseph Toynbee, Esq., Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and late Assistant to the Conservators of the Museum of that Institution. Communi- cated by Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, Bart. F.R.S. 8sc. 8^c. Received April 21,—Read May 20, 1841. Introduction. It is now generally acknowledged that the process of nutrition in most animal tissues consists in changes undergone by the nutrient liquor sanguinis, which has exuded into them through the coats of the capillaries ramifying throughout them. The vessels themselves vary in number in different structures : in muscle, the capillaries are very numerous, and the spaces between them very small; whilst in tendon and ligament, on the'other hand, the latter are comparatively large; but in all structures, whatever may be the degree of their vascularity, the tissue the furthest removed from the vessel is nourished equally well with that which is in immediate contact with it. In all vascular structures, therefore, there is of necessity a considerable extent of tissue which is nourished without being in contact with blood-vessels, and the know- ledge of this fact forms a necessary introduction to the study of the process of nutri- tion in those organs, into which, whilst in a healthy state, anatomists have never succeeded in tracing blood-vessels. The organized tissues, constituting such non- vascular organs, may be divided into three classes: The first, comprehending articular cartilage, and the cartilage of the different classes of fibro-cartilage; The second, the cornea, the crystalline lens, and the vitreous humour; The third, the epidermoid appendages, viz. the epithelium, the epidermis, nails and claws, hoofs, hair and bristles, feathers, horn, and teeth. It is to these tissues that the investigations I have now to communicate relate: I shall endeavour to prove that no vessel ever enters them when they are perfectly developed, and in a healthy state, and to demonstrate the manner in which they are j nourished. In the first place, no anatomist has ever been able to trace vessels into these tissues