Treatise on human physiology : For the use of students & practitioners of medicine / By Henry C. Chapman. Illustrated with 595 engravings.

  • Henry Cadwalader Chapman
Date:
1899
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Treatise on human physiology : For the use of students & practitioners of medicine / By Henry C. Chapman. Illustrated with 595 engravings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    44/934 (page 38)
    of the economy is principally clue. Its importance may be appre- ciated from the fact that carbon dioxide will not pass from the tissues in acidified blood and that death can be prevented in an animal, whose blood has been acidified by feedino; with acid, by venous injection of sodium carbonate. Through reaction with the carbon dioxide given by the tissues to the blood the sodium car- bonate, in presence of water, liecomes sodium bicarbonate or acid carbonate (XaHCO,). ■ Na^CO, + CO.^ + H^O = XaHC03 + NaHCO^ Through the further action of acids both carbonates give up their carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide set free is usually regarded as being of advantage mechanically to the economy, the particles of the chyme, for example, being separated ])y it and rendered more susceptible to the action of the intestiual juice in the same manner as we shall see the digestion of fi^od by gastric juice is promoted by previous admixture Avith saliva. Salts of Potassium. Potassium Chloride, KCl.—This principle is found in the muscles, blood, saliva, ])ile, gastric juice, urine, etc. A greater part of it is introduced into the systeui witli the food, though probably some is ])roduccd through the double decomposition of the potassium phos- phate and sodium chloride existing in the blood, sodium phosphate and jiotassium chloride resulting. KH^PO^ + NaCl = NaH^PO^ + KCl The uses of potassium chloride and sodium chloride are probably the same in the economy. This })rinciple is discharged from the body in tlie nuicus and the urine. Potassium ])]iosphate is found in small (juantities in the solids and fiuids of tlic body, generally existing both in the form of mono- j)otassium phosphate (IvH.,POJ and the dipotassium phosphate (K^HPO^). The potassium phosphates are introduced into the l^ody with tlie food and are discharged in the feces and urine. Their function in the economy ap})ears to be associated with the activity of protoplasm in general, they constituting the principal salts of the cells of the body. The monopotassium phosphate or the so-called ])rimary phosphate contributes to the acidity of the urine, and is also the cause of tlie acidity exhil)ited by muscle during the coudition known as rigor mortis. Potassium Sulphate (K.,80,) exists in small cjuautities in the blood, etc. It is introduced into the body in the food, and dis- charged in the feces and urine. Potassium Carbonate is found in small quantities in tlie blood, lymph, and other ])arts of the body, both in the form of acid car- bonate (KHCO.j) and of nentral carbonate (K^CO.,). These salts are introduced to a great extent into the economy Avith food, and