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Show i12 Conclusion ofibc First Part. facts which dispose me to believe that the first step in the removal of solids is not owing to the action of lymphatics or lacteals; I have observed, in internal exfoliations of cylindric bones, where a very large portion of the old bone had died throughout, that the cancelli were destroyed, and that the bone must have been thinned as much upon the inside as it was upon the outside; nearly the whole length of the tibia was in this way reduced to a tube whose sides were not thicker than a wafer, and resembled portions of cylindric bones which had been exposed for some time to the ac- tion of the gastricjuice in the stomach of a leopard; some of which I have preserved in the state I found them. As almost the whole bone died at the same time, which was evident by the lines of separation at the two extre- mities, without any intermediate similar lines, and which we constantly find on such occasions, whatever change after took place in its centre and inner surface, could not be owing to the action of vessels; they died at the same time the bone died. It may be objected, that it is impossible to discover what hashappened in a diseased bone, but by sawing it open, maceration in water, drying, &c. and we can never be certain what was the effect of these operations, and what actually took place while it remained in the living body. This is not true. There are opportunities of seeing what has hap- ported to diseased bones, without any ofthese processes. I have seen ap- pearance, similar to what I have here described, taking place in the living body after the operation of the trepan, or in other cases where a whole pa- rietal bonchad been killed, and left to separate by the powers of the body. Conclusion of 11717 Iv‘zi's/ I'd/7. 113 living than it does in the dead bone,- which is just the reverse of the fermentation that takes place to destroy dead animal matter in general. Dead animal matter, and dead vegetable matter, in general, go quickly into this fermentation; dead bone requires a long period before it is decomposed, but is at last converted into a powder. The oil in the cells of dead bones appears to undergo a fermentation, by which it is converted into a white powder, which shows no other symptoms of its having been originally oil, than that some partofit still liquefies when placedon a red-hot iron. But in whatever way the lymphatics and lacteals remove solids, it is, in the point ofview we are now considering it, of the utmost importance to the consti- tution. The solids 0f the human body are not ductile, as has been ima- gined ; not malleable, as some metals; and they acquire their shape from the arteries depositing matter on one side, and the absorbents taking it from the other. Itis also ofthe utmost consequence to the animal machine, that the living solids should be removed from the dead, as in the process of sloughing, by which the softer living solids are removed from the dead, and in the process of exfoliation, by which the parts ofliving bone are also se- parated from the dead. There is another absorption of these solids, but as it is a morbid process, it will be considered byitself presently. In the fifth place, the lacteals and the lymphatics introduce medicines into the blood-vessels, and by this means prevent as well as cure diseases. I have frequently observed, that the shedding teeth of horses wasted -There are some medicines which appear to produce theireffect by acting on the nerves ofthe skin or stomach before they could be absorbed or car- ried into the blood-vessels. Opium, for example, sometimes almost in- for an inch or two in length, after their connection with their own vessels were broken OH", and that this wasting had taken place though the teeth must have been all the while lying on the upper surfaces of the succeeding offdebility. The Peruvian bark has been vomited up in solid masses after it had cured the intermittent for which it was exhibited. There are other teeth, which we know are not at that place vascular. In the process of ex- foliation, when the living bone separates from the dead, it is the living bone which is removed, at the place where it is in contact with the dead bone; no medicines which produce their effect by sympathy, ina manner hitherto lll- explicablc, and some applications produce their elfect by counter-irritation. Thus, a blister applied to the head, or between the shoulders, on the first alteration whatever takes place in the dead bone, but it drops off as it were in consequence of the living bone's retiring from it: but this fermentation, by which a solid is converted into a fluid, may, in a greater degree, depend upon the living principle, and may therefore take place more readily in the living attack of a fever, has presently carried it off. But in order to prevent or to cure diseases, it is often absolutely necessary that the remedies be intro- stantly relieves pain, and wine and volatile alkali as quickly sometimes take duced into the blood-vessels. Mercury lying upon the surface of the skin, or passing over the surfaces of the stomach and intestines, without being Q absorbed |
