The family physician : or, Domestic medical friend : containing plain and practical instructions for the prevention and cure of diseases, according to the newest improvements and discoveries : with a series of chapters on collateral subjects : comprising every thing relative to the theory and principles of the medical art, necessary to be known by the private practitioner : the whole adapted to the use of those heads of families who have not had a classical or medical education / by Alexander Thomson, M.D.

  • Alexander Thomson
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The family physician : or, Domestic medical friend : containing plain and practical instructions for the prevention and cure of diseases, according to the newest improvements and discoveries : with a series of chapters on collateral subjects : comprising every thing relative to the theory and principles of the medical art, necessary to be known by the private practitioner : the whole adapted to the use of those heads of families who have not had a classical or medical education / by Alexander Thomson, M.D. 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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    The gullet is compofed both of longitudinal and circular fibres, but chiefly circular, much more fo than the interlines ; becaufe this has no foreign power to aflift it, and becaufe it is necefTary that the food fhould make a fhorter flay in the throat than in the bowels. The inner furface is a fmooth membrane, well fupplied with mucilage, to fheath the organ, and render the paflage of the aliment or food eafy. The ftomach lies acfofs the upper part of the abdomen, and is covered by the liver ; when diflcnded it preffes on the fpleen. It nearly refembles in figure the pouch of a bag-pipe, its upper fide being concave, and the lower convex. Its left end is the molt capacious. On the left fide is the entrance from the gullet ; on the right is the opening, called pylorus, by which the chyle pailes into the interlines. Here is a circular valve, or fphin£ler« mufcle, which prevents a regurgitation of the aliment. The fto- mach has circular and longitudinal fibres, and its inner membrane is covered with a flrong vifcid mucus. The liver, the Iargeil gland in the body, is fituated immediately under the vaulted cavity of the midriff, chiefly on the right fide, and fomewhat on the left over the ftomach. Exteriorly, or ante- riorly, it is convex, inwardly it is concave ; very thick in its fupe- rior part, and thin in its inferior. The upper fide adheres to the midriff; and it is fixed to this, and xhzjlernum, or breaft-bone, by a broad ligament. It is alfo tied to the navel by a ligamentous band, which is the umbilical vein of the unborn infant,degenerated into a ligament. Both thefe bands ferve to fufpend it, while lying on the back, from bearing too much on the fubjacent cava; other- wife it might prefs on this important returning veffel, flop the circulation, and put a period to life. Dogs and cats, and other animals who are defigned for leaping, have their liver divided into many diflin£l lobules, to prevent too great a concuflion of the or- gan. The liver is the vifcus or bowel which performs the fecre- tion of the bile. The gall-bladder is fituated under the great lobe of the liver, a little to the right. In a Handing polture it lies forwards and down- wards. Its bottom is raifed by a fulnefs, and deprefTed by the emptying of the ftomach. The ufe of the gallbladder is to ferve * as a receptacle for the bile. The inteftiries are deflined to receive the food from the ftomach, nnd after expofmg the ufeful part of it to the faclcals, a fett of ex- tremely fmal] veilels, to convey the remainder out of the body. The inteftinal canal is ufually five times the length of the individual: it is curioufly convoluted in the abdomen, and is extremely irritable. Anatomills have divided this canal, although one continued pipe.