OCR Text |
Show Conclusion of [be First Part. szclnrirm nff/Jc First Part. On the contrary, when the stomach receives and digests the food properly, and the chyle is formed, and nothing prevents it from being absorbed, the body is nourished and supported. I am confident that this fluid cannot be formed any where else than in the stomach and duodenum, or small intestines; and that it is the only fluid which can properly sustain life in man, the in the microscope, the chyle appears to contain globules, which are all of 100 inammalia, and birds. Glysters of milk, broth, and what are commonly called nutritious fluids, may be detained in the rectum, may be absorbed from it, and will support the body for some little time, in cases where no nourishment can be given by the mouth; as, for example, in strictures and 101 the same size; smaller, considerably, than those of the blood, and resem- bling the smallest globules found in cows milk. If the animal, from which the chyle is taken, happens to be in full vigor at the time, the chyle coagu- latcs wholly in the vessels into which it is received. Ifan animal in full vigor is killed at the time of the absorption of the clitle from the intestines, the chyle will be found firmly coagulated in the lacteals. It coagulates in the same manner in the lacteals of the human subject; and it is in conse- quence of this firm coagulation that I have been enabled to lay before the public the annexed engraving of the human lacteals and their orifices. In paralysis of the oesophagus, exostosis of the vertebrae of the neck behind the pharynx, and in the lockedj'aw; but I have notknown any patient sup- ported longer than three weeks by glysters only, excepting in one instance, mentioned hereafter. Perhaps warm baths Ofsuch fluids as are commonly used for our food would also support the body for some little time; and Paracelsus is said to have actually keptmen alive for some days by this method: but the reason why they do not support the body for any length of living body. In this last instance I have found the crassamcntum floating on the surface of the uncoagulated part; a circumstance in which it resem- bles blood in a similar situation. Perhaps the chyle would always separate into two parts, if a sufficient quantity were taken; as blood coagulatcs time is, that the rectum cannot convert these fluids into eliyle; neither is wholly when received into a small vessel, and always separates into two there any property in the surface ofthe body whiCh can produce this effect. The chyle in men and quadrupeds is ofa white colour; in birds and fishes it is transparent, and resembles water. Taken from quadrupeds, it com- monly tastes salt, and has no sensible smell. Haller says that it is acid, by which means it corrects the tendency to putrefaction in the blood. His words are, " Utilitas ehyli proxima est, putrescibilem naturam sanguinis acido suceo suppeditato contemperare. Absque chylo enim, ut ostensum parts, if received in a larger quantity in a large vessel. I have kept chyle a great many hours, even two days, in the heat of summer, without its becoming putrid. Haller's account of the Chyle is " Est in chylo Iactis natu- est, omnes succi humani in summatn acrimoniam transeunt, ct febris accen- ditur, intra paucos dies funesta." I never could perceive any marks of acidity in it, by tasting it, smelling it, nor by effervescence from mixture with salt of tarter, or changing paper, dyed purple with the juice of blue flowers, into red: and the effects, that he attributes to the want of the acid of the ehyle, are much better explained from the debility which want of food must produce in the body. The jaiLferer, for example, attacks the strongest persons, and produces universal dcbility, or dcpr ssion of strength, from the moment of its first attack; and, in consequence Ofthis, the srong- est symptoms of putrefaction of the fluids appear in a few days. 339-5 >~3§W new 1:... ,.., , Viewed in weaker animals, the chyle coagulates only in part, whether it is in the lac- teals of the dead body, or received into a spoon from the lacteals of the ra, color eerte idem et grams sapor subsalsus-Levis est, cx olcosa natura, Cum aqua intrita et sanguini innatat et ipsi sero; fluidior tamcn: sed ipse cremorem habct innatantem; facile ut lac eogitur-In eo chylo aqua est, et multa pinguitudo butyrosa, globulorum figura Acida natura in chylo dominatur, ut sibi permissus sponte acescat, et aliquando in anima- libus acidus fuerit sapor-tamcn is acor liactenus pingucdine obvolvitur ut succum heliotropii nullo tingat whore-Super iguem eoctus chylns rubescit, et adfuso vini spiritu, ipse aut rubrum aut flavum colorem in chylo nun- quem reperi Non nigricat cum gallis; etiam quando sal martis sumptus est, nascitur in intestinis intra duas, tres, qnatuor, quinque, vel sex horas." This fluid is absorbed from the cavity ofthc small intestines by the radiated extremities of the lacteals; is propelled through the laeteals by their muscular coats for some little way,- after which it is again deposited, by another set of radiated extremities, into the cavities of the glands; from whence |