The anatomy and physiology of the human body Volume 3
John Bell
Paperback
(RareBooksClub.com, May 9, 2012)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1829 Excerpt: ...of the system. The thoracic duct, the trunk of this system, conveys these fluids thus mingled together into the right side of the heart, where they are received into the vortex of the circulating red blood. These fluids, now agitated and wrought up with the blood in the cavities of the heart, are sent through the circulation of the lungs, and submitted to the influence of their action and the exposure to the atmospheric air. When chyle is formed in the stomach and intestines, it is observed to consist of albumen, serum, globules, and salts; but the change which it may undergo by its reception into the lacteals, its being deposited in their glands, its mingling with the lymph, its agitation in the heart, have not been observed, though it is natural to suppose, that by degrees it is assimilated in its nature to that of the circulating blood, and does at last become perfectly similar by the operation of the lungs. By the exposure of the circulating fluids to the atmosphere in the lungs, the carbon of the blood is thrown off, and the blood, resuming its purity, is again suited to circulate in the body. What is life? we see it in its effects only; we can in no other way comprehend it. Is the blood alive as the solids are? both are alive; that is to say, they have properties which distinguish them from inanimate matter. The term will only be objectionable to those who have defined life to be the effect of the re-union of the N several parts composing; an animal body. The blood possesses properties while circulating in the vessels distinct from those which it shows out of the body; and these do not depend on the agitation and incessant motion, nor on the degree of heat, nor on any similar circumstance, but apparently on some secret influence which the vessels exer...