General Anatomy, Applied To Physiology And Medicine - free ebook by Xavier Bichat

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General Anatomy, Applied To Physiology And Medicine

Xavier Bichat

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GENERAL ANATOMY, APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE;

GENERAL ANATOMY, APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE;

BY XAVIER BICHAT, PHYSICIAN OF THE GREAT HOSPITAL OF HUMANITY AT PARIS, AND PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. Translated from the French. BY GEORGE HAYWARD, M.D. FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, AND OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOLUME I. BOSTON : PUBLISHED BY RICHARDSON AND LORD. J. H. A. FROST, PRINTER. 1822. Table of Contents DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit : District Clerk's Office. Be it remembered, that on the seventeenth day of April, A.

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PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

I commenced the present translation while pursuing the study of medicine in Paris in the winter of 1813-14. It was then my intention to have completed and published it immediately upon my return to the United States; but I learnt in England in the spring following, that a translation of this work was about to appear from the London press. This information induced me to abandon my undertaking, but after waiting more than six years for the appearance of the English edition, and finding from letter

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PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.

The work which I now offer to the public, will appear to them new, I trust, in three points of view; 1st, in the plan that has been adopted; 2d, in most of the facts which it contains; and 3d, in the principles which constitute its doctrine. 1st. The plan consists in considering separately and presenting with all their attributes, each of the simple systems, which, by their different combinations, form our organs. The basis of this plan is anatomical, but the details that it embraces belong also

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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

There are in nature two classes of beings, two classes of properties, and two classes of sciences. The beings are either organic or inorganic, the properties vital or non-vital, and the sciences physiological or physical. Animals and vegetables are organic—minerals are inorganic. Sensibility and contractility are vital properties; gravity, elasticity, affinity, &amp;c. are non-vital properties. Animal and vegetable physiology, and medicine form the physiological sciences; astronomy, physics,

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SECOND CLASS.—FUNCTIONS RELATIVE TO THE SPECIES.

SECOND CLASS.—FUNCTIONS RELATIVE TO THE SPECIES.

A COMPARISON OF THE TWO SEXES. HERMAPHRODISM. This is a sketch of the general plan that I have adopted in my lectures. Those who have attended them, will find here some changes in one part, and additions in another. But they can easily arrange under it all the facts that are contained in this work, if they wish to refer them to a physiological classification, instead of distributing them according to the anatomical order in which I present them here. Though a line of demarcation separates each o

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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

The organized systems of the living economy may be divided into two great classes. One, generally distributed and every where present, concurs not only in the formation of all the apparatus, but even in that of the other systems, and offers to every organized part a common and uniform base; this includes the cellular, arterial, venous, exhalant, absorbent, and nervous systems. The other, on the contrary, placed in certain determinate apparatus, foreign to the rest of the economy, has a less gene

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CELLULAR SYSTEM.

CELLULAR SYSTEM.

This system, which many know still, under the name of the cribriform body, the mucous texture, &amp;c. is an assemblage of filaments, and of white soft layers, intermixed and interwoven in different ways, leaving between them spaces communicating together, more or less irregular, and which serve as a reservoir for the fat and serum. Placed around the organs, the different parts of this system act at the same time as a bond to connect, and as an intermediate body to separate them. Carried int

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE OTHER ORGANS.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE OTHER ORGANS.

The cellular system, considered in an insulated manner, and in relation to each organ of the animal economy, can be described in two secondary relations. 1st. It forms for each organ a covering, a boundary which is exterior to it. 2d. It enters essentially into the structure of each, and forms one of the essential bases of this structure. The different conformation of the different organs, establishes two very distinct modifications in the relations of the cellular texture, that is exterior to t

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ARTICLE SECOND. OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM, CONSIDERED INDEPENDENTLY OF THE ORGANS.

ARTICLE SECOND. OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM, CONSIDERED INDEPENDENTLY OF THE ORGANS.

After having considered the cellular system in relation to the organs, let us consider it separate from all the parts that it covers and penetrates, in order to represent it as a body continued on all sides, found every where in the interstices of the organs and being analogous in this point of view to almost all the other primitive systems. Let us trace it in the head, the trunk, and extremities. The cranium and face differ extremely as it respects the cellular texture; it is found in very smal

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ARTICLE THIRD. OF THE FORMS OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM, AND THE FLUIDS IT CONTAINS.

ARTICLE THIRD. OF THE FORMS OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM, AND THE FLUIDS IT CONTAINS.

The general conformation of the cellular texture is not the same every where. The interstices or cells between the different layers, are more or less wide; their size is remarkable upon the eyelids and the scrotum, and in general where there is no fat, or where it is in small quantity. Moreover the capacity of the cells is extremely variable; nothing definite can be determined upon this point, as they are capable of contraction and expansion. When fat and serum fill them, they are double, triple

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ARTICLE FOURTH. ORGANIZATION OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. ORGANIZATION OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM.

The cellular system, like almost all the others, is composed of a peculiar texture and of common parts. Much has been written upon the nature of this texture; Bordeu has given some vague ideas upon it, but no experiments. Fontana has made researches which lead but to few results, upon its intimate structure and upon the tortuous cylinders of which, according to him, it is an assemblage. Let us throw aside all hypotheses that examination does not support; let us follow nature in the phenomena of

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ARTICLE FIFTH. PROPERTIES OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIFTH. PROPERTIES OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM.

The properties of texture are strongly characterized in the cellular system. Extensibility is proved in a variety of cases, as in œdema, in the accumulation of fat, and in different tumours, in which the cells are much spread and the membranes remarkably elongated. All the natural motions suppose this extensibility; the arm cannot be raised without the texture of the axilla acquiring an extent double, or even treble, what it has when the arm is down. The flexion and extension of the thigh, of th

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ARTICLE SIXTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CELLULAR TEXTURE.

ARTICLE SIXTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CELLULAR TEXTURE.

In the first periods after conception, the fœtus is only a mucous mass, homogeneous in appearance, and in which the cellular texture seems almost exclusively to predominate. In fact, when the organs begin to be developed in this mass, the spaces that are left between them are filled with a substance which, exactly similar to that which before formed the whole of the body, can be considered as the residue of it, or rather perhaps it exists in a distinct manner, because it has not been penetrated

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ARTICLE FIRST. EXTERNAL FORMS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

ARTICLE FIRST. EXTERNAL FORMS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

I shall consider these forms, 1st. in the origin; 2d. in the course; 3d. in the termination of the cerebral nerves. The word origin should only be understood in relation to anatomical arrangement. In fact, the nerves are formed at the same time as the brain; they are rather organs of communication with this viscus, than elongations of it. If we take a view of the functions of one part of the nervous system, we shall see that the termination is at the brain, and the origin is upon the surface. Is

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

Every nerve is formed, as I have said, of a greater or less number of cords lying in apposition to each other. These cords arise from filaments likewise in apposition and united together, like the cords by cellular texture. I have already mentioned how both are interlaced in the interior of the nerve, so as to form a kind of plexus, which differs from the true plexus only in this, that the branches applied to each other, do not allow us at first view to see their intermixing. The general charact

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

Few systems exhibit these properties more obscurely than this. If we draw a nerve, in an opposite direction, in a living animal, it is extended with difficulty, makes great resistance, and acquires a length but little more than what is natural to it; this appears to depend particularly on the nervous coat. The medullary substance would yield much more. We know how much that of the brain is stretched in the dropsy of the ventricles. If a great trunk is distended by a subjacent tumour, as in popli

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

The nervous system of animal life is one of the first that is developed. If the heart is the first that has motion, the brain is the first that has any considerable size. The disproportion of the head to the other parts is remarkable in the first periods after conception; its size is monstrous when compared with that of the subsequent ages. Now it is evident, that it is the brain that produces this, and that the increase of the size of the bones and the membranes that surround it, is owing to it

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GENERAL REMARKS.

GENERAL REMARKS.

No anatomist has yet considered the nervous system of the ganglions in the point of view in which I shall present it. This point of view consists in describing each ganglion as a distinct centre, independent of the others in its action, furnishing or receiving particular nerves as the brain furnishes or receives its own, having nothing in common, except by anastomoses, with the other analogous organs; so that there is this remarkable difference between the nervous system of animal life, and that

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE GANGLIONS.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE GANGLIONS.

The ganglions are little reddish or greyish bodies, situated in different parts of the body, and forming so many centres, from which goes an infinite number of nervous ramifications. Their position most generally is along the vertebral column, where are seen successively below each other, the superior and inferior cervical, the intercostal, the lumbar, and the sacral. It is these especially whose communicating branches form the great sympathetic. But besides these ganglions, which are placed as

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ARTICLE SECOND. OF THE NERVES OF ORGANIC LIFE.

ARTICLE SECOND. OF THE NERVES OF ORGANIC LIFE.

Each ganglion is, as we have seen, a centre from which go in different directions, various branches, the whole of which form a kind of little separate nervous system. The manner of the origin of these branches has but very little relation with that of the branches of the brain and of the spinal marrow. The following are some differences that distinguish it. 1st. The adhesion is much stronger; the nerve breaks any where else rather than at its origin; the opposite of this takes place in the prece

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ARTICLE FIRST. GENERAL REMARKS UPON THE CIRCULATION.

ARTICLE FIRST. GENERAL REMARKS UPON THE CIRCULATION.

All authors have considered the circulation in the same way, since the celebrated discovery of Harvey. They have divided this function into two; one has been called the great circulation, the other, the small or pulmonary. The heart, being between the two, is their common centre. But in presenting in this point of view the course of the blood, it is difficult at first sight to perceive the general object of its course in our organs. The method in which I explain in my lectures this important phe

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ARTICLE SECOND. SITUATION, FORMS, AND GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM OF RED BLOOD.

ARTICLE SECOND. SITUATION, FORMS, AND GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM OF RED BLOOD.

From the general idea that we have given of the two vascular systems, we should form the following of the position in the economy of that with red blood. 1st. The capillary system of the lungs gives rise to many minute ramifications, which soon unite into small branches, then into larger ones, and finally into four great trunks, two for each lung. These trunks open into the left auricle towards its superior part. 2d. This, distinguished from the right by having fewer fleshy columns, by its small

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ARTICLE THIRD. ORGANIZATION OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH RED BLOOD.

ARTICLE THIRD. ORGANIZATION OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH RED BLOOD.

The red blood circulates, as I have said, in a membrane arranged in the shape of a great canal, variable in its form, extended from the pulmonary capillary system to the general one, and having every where the greatest analogy. At the exterior of this membrane, nature has added a fibrous coat for the arteries, fleshy fibres for the heart, and a peculiar membrane for the pulmonary veins. I shall speak here only of the arterial coat. The fibres of the heart and the membrane of the pulmonary veins

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ARTICLE FOURTH. PROPERTIES OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH RED BLOOD.

ARTICLE FOURTH. PROPERTIES OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH RED BLOOD.

What we have to say of these properties, will refer particularly to the arteries, as well as what we have said of the organization. In fact the fleshy parietes of the heart and the membranous ones of the pulmonary veins, possess properties that will be examined hereafter, and which differ from those of the arteries, on account of the difference of texture. As to those of the common membrane they are nearly the same in the whole course of the red blood, the organization differing but very little.

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ARTICLE FIFTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH RED BLOOD.

ARTICLE FIFTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH RED BLOOD.

The fœtus differs essentially from the infant that has breathed, in this, that its two great vascular systems in reality form but one, since the foramen ovale on the one hand, and the ductus arteriosus on the other, form a direct communication between the two. This communication is much more evident at the period nearest conception; these openings contract towards the period of birth. 1st. The foramen ovale is formed, in the first months, by two productions in the form of a crescent, whose conca

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ARTICLE FIRST. SITUATION, FORMS, DIVISION AND GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

ARTICLE FIRST. SITUATION, FORMS, DIVISION AND GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

We shall now examine the veins as we have the arteries, in their origin, course and termination. Only we shall do it inversely, to accommodate our ideas to the course in which the blood flows in their channels. This origin is in the general capillary system. I shall point out in this system, how the veins are continued with the arteries. I would only remark here that these vessels never arise from any organ that the arteries do not enter, as the tendons, the cartilages, the hair, &amp;c.; wh

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

This organization is nearly the same for the whole system, in the common membrane that forms the great canal in which the black blood is contained; but it differs in the textures that are connected exteriorly with this membrane. In the heart the texture is fleshy; it is analogous to the texture of the divisions of the aorta, in the pulmonary artery; it has a peculiar character in the veins; it is this that will now particularly engage our attention. In order to see this membrane, it is necessary

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

The veins are in general but little elastic, soft, and loose; they partake of the character of many of the animal textures, and are essentially distinguished in this respect from the arteries, which as we have seen are very elastic. We shall now treat of the vital properties and the properties of texture in these vessels. The veins have in regard to this property, an arrangement entirely opposite to that of the arteries, which are very extensible longitudinally, but very little so transversely.

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

The veins have in the fœtus an arrangement inverse of that of the arteries; they are in proportion much less developed. It is not in the great trunks, as in the venæ cavæ, subclavians, iliacs, &amp;c. that we should compare these vessels, because the reflux of the blood at the moment of death often dilates these trunks, so as to make us believe that they are much larger than they really are in a natural state. It is in the branches and the ramifications that we should make the comparison; no

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ARTICLE FIFTH. REMARKS UPON THE PULMONARY ARTERY AND VEINS.

ARTICLE FIFTH. REMARKS UPON THE PULMONARY ARTERY AND VEINS.

Though in the exposition of the two systems of black and red blood, I have considered the pulmonary artery as making a part with the veins, and the pulmonary veins as a continuation of the arteries, yet their nature is wholly different. There are in truth but two general membranes, forming the two great tubes in which are contained the two kinds of blood, which are every where of the same nature, from the capillary system to the pulmonary. The textures added to the exterior of these two common m

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ARTICLE SIXTH. ABDOMINAL VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

ARTICLE SIXTH. ABDOMINAL VASCULAR SYSTEM WITH BLACK BLOOD.

There is in the abdomen a system of black blood wholly independent of the preceding, arranged precisely like it, with the difference, that its course is shorter, and that it has no agent of impulse. This system, usually known by the name of Vena Porta, is found in most animals. It arises from that part of the general capillary system which belongs to the intestines, the stomach, the omen tum, the spleen, the pancreas, &amp;c. and generally to all the abdominal viscera connected with digestio

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GENERAL ANATOMY, APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE;

GENERAL ANATOMY, APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE;

BY XAVIER BICHAT, PHYSICIAN OF THE GREAT HOSPITAL OF HUMANITY AT PARIS, AND PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. Translated from the French. BY GEORGE HAYWARD, M.D. FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, AND OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOLUME II. BOSTON : PUBLISHED BY RICHARDSON AND LORD. J. H. A. FROST, PRINTER. 1822. Table of Contents DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit : District Clerk's Office. Be it remembered, that on the seventeenth day of April, A.

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE GENERAL CAPILLARY SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE GENERAL CAPILLARY SYSTEM.

This system exists in all the organs; all are in fact composed of an infinity of capillaries, which cross, unite, separate and unite again, by communicating in a thousand ways with each other. The vessels of any considerable size, those among the arteries, in which the blood circulates by the influence of the heart, and those among the veins, which correspond to the first, have really no connexion with the structure of the organs; they wind along their interstices; and are lodged in the cellular

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ARTICLE SECOND. PULMONARY CAPILLARY SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. PULMONARY CAPILLARY SYSTEM.

I call by this name the assemblage of the fine and delicate ramifications, which serve for the termination of the black blood and the origin of the red, which consequently finish the pulmonary artery and give origin to the pulmonary veins. The capillaries between the bronchial arteries and veins have nothing to do with them, they have no communication, and evidently belong to the general capillary system. In comparing the preceding system with this, it is difficult to understand how they can exa

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ARTICLE FIRST. GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE EXHALANTS.

ARTICLE FIRST. GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE EXHALANTS.

Authors have formed very different ideas concerning the exhalants. We know the decreasing vessels of Boerhaave, and the error loci for which his imagination created these vessels. Lately all the white vessels continuous with the arteries have been rejected, and in order to explain exhalation, recourse has been had only to inorganic pores in the arterial parietes, through which the fluids transude upon the organs. Frequent observation of similar transudations upon the dead body, as those of the b

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ARTICLE SECOND. PROPERTIES, FUNCTIONS, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE EXHALANT SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. PROPERTIES, FUNCTIONS, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE EXHALANT SYSTEM.

The vessels of the exhalant system are too delicate to allow us to analyze their properties of texture. Do they enlarge when the red globules enter them? I am wholly ignorant. Haller, who admitted that there were exhalants, thought that white fluids alone entered them, because their diameter was disproportioned to that of the red globules. This opinion is also that of the school of Boerhaave. Who has ever measured comparatively the respective diameters of the vessels and the particles of the flu

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ARTICLE FIRST. Of the Absorbent Vessels.

ARTICLE FIRST. Of the Absorbent Vessels.

We shall examine these vessels in their origin, their course and their termination. The origin of the absorbents can hardly be demonstrated by inspection; it is like the termination of the exhalants. Such is in fact the extreme delicacy of these vessels at their origin, in most parts, that they cannot be seen with the best optical instruments. In some places we see pores; but it is difficult to distinguish their nature, whether they are exhalant or absorbent. Their origin then must be determined

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ARTICLE SECOND. LYMPHATIC GLANDS.

ARTICLE SECOND. LYMPHATIC GLANDS.

These glands are scattered in the different parts in greater or less number. In the superior and inferior extremities, we find but a small number, except at the upper parts, the axilla and the groin. In the ham and at the elbow there are some, and there are engravings of them at the instep. But upon the arm, the leg, the thigh, the fore-arm, &amp;c. they are not found. It is about the articulations that all are met with; in this respect, we can say, that they are constantly increasing from t

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE ABSORBENT SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE ABSORBENT SYSTEM.

We shall consider in the same article the properties of the absorbent vessels and those of their glands. Extensibility of texture exists in the absorbent system. 1st. The thoracic duct is distended in an evident manner by injection, before the rupture of its peculiar membrane takes place. 2d. I have said that the absorbents examined around the serous membranes in a living animal, principally in the liver, often exhibit little bladders or considerable dilatations. Are these dilatations varices? i

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ARTICLE FOURTH. OF ABSORPTION.

ARTICLE FOURTH. OF ABSORPTION.

The functions of the absorbents are not at the present day a subject of doubt with any anatomist; but the manner in which these functions are performed, are far from being so well agreed upon. The first idea has been to compare the action of the absorbents with that of capillary tubes. But if we reflect a little upon this action, it is easy to see that these phenomena are wholly different from those of inert, capillary tubes. I think that we never should be able to say precisely, how an absorben

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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

The former part of this work has been devoted to researches upon the systems common to the structure of all the apparatus, upon the primitive systems, which form if we may so say the nutritive parenchyma, the basis of all the organs, since there is hardly any one of these organs in which the arteries, the veins, the exhalants, the absorbents, the nerves and the cellular texture do not enter as a more or less essential part. Each is at first a texture of these common parts, then of other peculiar

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ARTICLE FIRST. Of the Forms of the Osseous System.

ARTICLE FIRST. Of the Forms of the Osseous System.

Considered in relation to their forms, the bones are of three sorts, long, flat and short. One dimension predominates in the first, viz. length; two are in nearly equal proportions in the second, length and breadth; these two last dimensions, with thickness especially added, characterize the short bones. Let us examine each in a general manner. The long bones belong in general to the apparatus of locomotion, in which they form a kind of levers that the muscles move in different directions. All a

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM.

The peculiar texture of the osseous system forms in it the principal and predominant part, especially as we advance in age. The common organs are in much less proportion. The texture of the bones, like that of most of the other organs, presents itself under the aspect of fibres whose nature is everywhere the same, but which differently arranged, form two principal modifications; in the one, these fibres being more or less scattered, exhibit many cells; in the other being close to each other, the

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM.

The bones have very strongly marked physical properties. Solidity and hardness are their peculiar portion; they derive these properties from the phosphate of lime which penetrates them, thus they are constantly increasing with age, because this substance becomes more and more predominant. Elasticity is another physical property of the bones, which is found combined with the two preceding, but which is in an inverse order; as it is in the gelatinous substance, in the cartilaginous portion of the

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ARTICLE FOURTH. OF THE ARTICULATIONS OF THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. OF THE ARTICULATIONS OF THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM.

All the bones are united together, and thus form the skeleton. The manner of their union varies, but whatever it may be, it is known under the general name of articulation. All the articulations can be referred to two general classes. Mobility is the character of the first, immobility that of the second. One belongs to all the bones which serve for locomotion, to some of those destined to internal functions, as the ribs, the lower jaw, &amp;c. The other is especially met with in the bones, t

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ARTICLE FIFTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIFTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM.

There is no system in which anatomists have traced in a more accurate manner than in this, the different states in the different periods of life. The remarkable difference of a bone examined in the first months when gelatine almost alone composes it, compared with a bone of an adult in which the calcareous substance predominates, has especially arrested their attention upon this point. Let us examine the phenomena of ossification in all the ages; these phenomena should be considered during and a

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ARTICLE FIRST. MEDULLARY SYSTEM OF THE FLAT AND SHORT BONES, AND THE EXTREMITIES OF THE LONG ONES.

ARTICLE FIRST. MEDULLARY SYSTEM OF THE FLAT AND SHORT BONES, AND THE EXTREMITIES OF THE LONG ONES.

This system appears to be the expansion of the vessels which penetrate the bones through the foramina of the second order, that is to say, through those that go to the common texture of the cells. These vessels having arrived on the internal surface of the cells, divide ad infinitum and anastomose in a thousand ways. Their interlacing gives to the interior of the texture of the cells that red appearance that characterises it, and which is so much the more evident, as it is examined at an age nea

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ARTICLE SECOND. MEDULLARY SYSTEM OF THE MIDDLE OF THE LONG BONES.

ARTICLE SECOND. MEDULLARY SYSTEM OF THE MIDDLE OF THE LONG BONES.

This system differs essentially from the preceding in its nature, its properties, its functions, &amp;c. It occupies the centre of the long bones, whose great cavity it fills. Each of the organs from the whole of which it results, exhibits it under the form of a delicate membrane, lining the whole cavity, folded a great number of times, giving origin to many elongations, of which some cover the fine threads of the texture of the cells which are met with in this cavity, others pass, without a

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE FORMS OF THE CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE FORMS OF THE CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

The forms of the cartilages vary according to the class to which the cartilage belongs. In every moveable articulation, there is at each osseous extremity, a cartilage which covers this extremity, which facilitates by its suppleness the motion of the two bones, the very hard substance of which would occasion by friction too great a shock; which reflects by its elasticity a considerable part of the motion, thus made more extensive; which breaks, by yielding a little, the violence of the shocks th

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

In examining a cartilage in its interior, it is difficult to recognize in it an organic texture; there is one however, which is composed of a peculiar texture and of common textures. The peculiar cartilaginous texture exhibits an interlacing of fibres so compact, that it appears at first view homogeneous, formed into a mass of gelatine, without order and without any particular direction. Yet with a little attention we distinguish longitudinal fibres, which are crossed by transverse and oblique o

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

Elasticity is a property generally extended to all organic and inorganic bodies. Among the first, it appears, that vegetables are endowed with it in the greater number of their organs; that animals, almost all of whose parts are soft, have some which return to their original state after having been stretched or compressed. Among these, the cartilages hold one of the first ranks in man. Their elasticity is very great, especially in the adult age, when their consistence is between the softness, wh

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

The osseous and cartilaginous systems are confounded in the embryo; as the first is developed, the second contracts; the latter very evidently has gelatine for its principal base; I shall not return to the proofs that have demonstrated it in the osseous system. I have shown, in speaking of that system, how the cellular and vascular parenchyma, existing at first alone and constituting the mucous state, is penetrated afterwards with this base, which forms the cartilage. The primitive mode of the f

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE FORMS AND DIVISIONS OF THE FIBROUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE FORMS AND DIVISIONS OF THE FIBROUS SYSTEM.

Though all the fibrous organs have precisely the same nature, and though the same fibre enters into the composition of all, yet the forms which they assume are extremely various; it is this variety of form, joined to that of their position and their functions, which has given them a different denomination, and made us designate them by the name of tendons, aponeuroses, ligaments, &amp;c.; for there is no general denomination for the whole system, no word which answers for example to that of

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE FIBROUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE FIBROUS SYSTEM.

In the midst of the varieties of form that we have just examined, the general organization of the fibrous organs is always nearly the same. I shall now consider this organization; I shall treat elsewhere of the varieties it experiences in each part. It arises from the union of a peculiar texture and of the vascular, cellular systems, &amp;c. Every fibrous organ has for a base a fibre of a peculiar nature; hard, but slightly elastic, insensible, scarcely at all contractile, sometimes in juxta

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE FIBROUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE FIBROUS SYSTEM.

The fibrous system has but a slight degree of elasticity in the natural state; but when its different organs are taken from the body and dried, they acquire it very considerably; thus the tendons, the aponeurotic expansions, &amp;c. which in a fresh state would be incapable of any vibration, are found to resound in instruments when they are very dry. The properties of texture are evident in the fibrous system, but they are less so than in many others. Extensibility is seen in the dura-mater,

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIBROUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIBROUS SYSTEM.

In the midst of the mucous state of the embryo, we cannot distinguish the fibrous organs. All is confounded; it is not until many other organs are formed, that we discover any traces of them. Those in the form of membranes appear at first like transparent nets; those arranged in fasciæ seem to be a homogeneous body. In general the fibres are not distinct in the first age; the aponeuroses, the fibrous membranes, the tendons, &amp;c. do not exhibit any trace of them; all then seems to be unifo

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ARTICLE FIFTH. OF THE FIBROUS MEMBRANES IN GENERAL.

ARTICLE FIFTH. OF THE FIBROUS MEMBRANES IN GENERAL.

After having considered the fibrous system in a general manner, as it relates to its organization, its life, its properties and its nutrition, I shall now examine it more particularly in the great divisions it offers, and which we have pointed out above. I begin with the fibrous membranes. These membranes which comprehend, as has been said, the periosteum, the dura-mater, the sclerotica, the albuginea, the peculiar membrane of the spleen, the kidneys, the corpus cavernosum, &amp;c. are almos

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ARTICLE SIXTH. OF THE FIBROUS CAPSULES.

ARTICLE SIXTH. OF THE FIBROUS CAPSULES.

The fibrous capsules are infinitely more rare in the economy, than they have heretofore been thought to be. The scapulo-humeral and the ilio-femoral articulations are almost the only ones furnished with them. Elsewhere there is nothing scarcely but synovial membranes. These capsules form a kind of cylindrical sac open at the two extremities, attached by the circumference of its openings, around the superior and inferior articular surfaces, intermixing at its insertion with the periosteum. They a

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ARTICLE SEVENTH. OF THE FIBROUS SHEATHS.

ARTICLE SEVENTH. OF THE FIBROUS SHEATHS.

The fibrous sheaths are, as we have said, partial or general. The partial sheaths destined to a single tendon are of two sorts; one runs a long course; such are those of the flexors of the foot and the hand, which correspond to the whole concave surface of the phalanges; the others form only a kind of rings, in which a tendon is reflected, an example of which is seen in the great oblique muscle of the eye. All in general form a semi-circle and make half of a canal which the bone completes; so th

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ARTICLE EIGHTH. OF THE APONEUROSES.

ARTICLE EIGHTH. OF THE APONEUROSES.

We have distinguished aponeuroses as being of two classes, those for covering and those for insertion. The aponeuroses for covering are general or partial. They are found around the limbs, whose muscles they tie down. The arm, the fore-arm and the hand, the thigh, the leg and the foot, are provided with them. They are, in their conformation, analogous to the form of the limb, which they in part determine, and which they especially maintain, by preventing the displacement of the subjacent parts,

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ARTICLE NINTH. OF THE TENDONS.

ARTICLE NINTH. OF THE TENDONS.

The tendons are a kind of fibrous cords, intermediate to the muscles and the bones, transmitting to the second the motion of the first, and performing in this function a part wholly passive. Usually situated at the extremities of the fleshy fascia, they sometimes however occupy the middle, as we see in the digastric muscle; they are almost always found at the most moveable extremity, that which serves for support having aponeuroses for insertion, as we see especially on the fore-arm and the leg,

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ARTICLE TENTH. OF THE LIGAMENTS.

ARTICLE TENTH. OF THE LIGAMENTS.

We have divided the ligaments into those with regular fasciæ, and into those with irregular ones. They are met with in general in almost all the moveable articulations, and especially upon their sides; hence the name of lateral ligaments by which most of them are designated. Some however are foreign to the articulations, as we see an example in that extending from the coracoid to the acromion process, in those which complete the different osseous fissures, the orbitary for example. These organs

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE FORMS OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE FORMS OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

We may divide the fibro-cartilaginous organs into three classes. The first comprehends those which are found in the ears, the alæ of the nose, the trachea, the eye-lids, &amp;c. They are very delicate, like membranes, sometimes arranged in an uniform manner, sometimes bent in various directions. As neither their position nor functions have any thing in common, we cannot give them a denomination derived from their forms. We may designate these substances by the name of membranous fibro-cartil

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

The texture peculiar to the organization of the fibro-cartilaginous system is composed, as its name indicates, of a fibrous substance, more than of a true cartilage. The fibrous substance is as the base of the organ. We distinguish this base very plainly in the fibro-cartilages of the tendinous grooves and of the articulations, in those especially of the body of the vertebræ; it is much less apparent in the membranous fibro-cartilages. Its fibres are sometimes interlaced, sometimes parallel. In

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

Elasticity belongs essentially to this system. This property is very evident, 1st, in the fibro-cartilages of the ears, when we bend them; 2d, in those of the nose, when twisted in various directions; 3d, in those of the trachea, when we compress them, or after having cut them longitudinally, we separate the edges of the division, as is done in tracheotomy, when the object is the extraction of a foreign body. It performs an important use in the kind of vibration which is made in the first in the

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIBRO-CARTILAGINOUS SYSTEM.

In the first periods of existence, the articular fibro-cartilages are much developed, which appears to be the effect of the size of the articulations at this period. In fact, as the extremities of the bones are larger in proportion, whilst they are cartilaginous, than when they are in the osseous state, the articulations are also proportionally larger, and the organs they contain more developed. The fibro-cartilages of the grooves, which are found almost all, as we know, situated at the extremit

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ARTICLE FIRST. Of the Forms of the Muscular System of Animal Life.

ARTICLE FIRST. Of the Forms of the Muscular System of Animal Life.

From their external forms, the muscles may be divided, like the bones, into long, broad and short. Their arrangement varies according to these three general forms. The long muscles occupy in general the limbs, to the conformation of which theirs is accommodated. Separated from the skin by the aponeuroses, from the bone by the periosteum, they are situated in a sort of fibrous gutter, which retains them powerfully, and in which they are arranged in layers more or less numerous, the deep ones are

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

The part peculiar to a muscle is what is commonly called the muscular fibre; the vessels, the nerves, the exhalants, the absorbents and the cellular texture, which is very abundant around this fibre, form its common parts. The muscular fibre is red, soft, of an uniform size in the great and small muscles, sometimes disposed in very evident fasciculi and separated from each other by remarkable grooves, as in the gluteus maximus, the deltoid, &amp;c. sometimes more equally in juxta-position, a

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

There are but few systems in the economy in which the vital properties and those of texture are found in so great and evident a degree as in this. It is from the muscles that examples must be selected to give a precise and accurate idea of these properties. The physical properties on the contrary are slightly marked in them; a remarkable softness characterizes them; there is no elastic power in their texture; there is but very little resistance from this texture after death; it is from vitality

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ARTICLE FOURTH. PHENOMENA OF THE ACTION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

ARTICLE FOURTH. PHENOMENA OF THE ACTION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

Thus far we have spoken of muscular mobility, abstractedly from the phenomena that it exhibits in the muscles, when it is in exercise in them. These phenomena are now to be considered. They relate especially to contraction, which is the essentially active state of the muscle, relaxation being a state purely passive. We shall easily understand the phenomena of this, when those of the other of which they are the reverse are known to us. The force of the contraction of the muscles of animal life va

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ARTICLE FIFTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

ARTICLE FIFTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.

The muscular system exhibits great differences, according as we examine it before the completion of growth, or in the ages that follow that in which this growth is terminated. In the first month of the fœtus, this system is, like the others, a mere mucous homogeneous mass, in which can be distinguished scarcely any line of demarcation. Aponeuroses, muscles, tendons, &amp;c. all have the same appearance. Gradually the limits are established, the muscular texture at first takes a deeper tinge,

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GENERAL ANATOMY, APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE;

GENERAL ANATOMY, APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE;

BY XAVIER BICHAT, PHYSICIAN OF THE GREAT HOSPITAL OF HUMANITY AT PARIS, AND PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. Translated from the French. BY GEORGE HAYWARD, M.D. FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, AND OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOLUME III. BOSTON : PUBLISHED BY RICHARDSON AND LORD. J. H. A. FROST, PRINTER. 1822. Table of Contents DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit : District Clerk's Office. Be it remembered, that on the seventeenth day of April, A

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE FORMS OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE FORMS OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

All the muscles of the preceding system take in general a straight direction. These are all on the contrary curved upon themselves; all represent muscular cavities differently turned, sometimes cylindrical as in the intestines, sometimes conical as in the heart, sometimes rounded as in the bladder, and sometimes very irregular as in the stomach. No one is attached to the bones; all are destitute of tendinous fibres. The white fibres arising from the internal surface of the heart, and going to be

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

The organization of the involuntary muscles is not as uniform as that of the preceding. In these all is exactly similar excepting the differences of the proportion of the fleshy fibres to the tendinous, of the length of the first, of the prominence of the fasciculi, of their assemblage into flat, long or short muscles; in whatever place we examine them, their varieties are in their forms and not in their texture. Here on the contrary, there is in this texture marked differences; the heart compar

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

Under the relation of properties, this system is in part analogous to the preceding, and in part very different from it. Extensibility is very evident in the organic muscles. The dilatation of the intestines and the stomach by aliments, by the extrication of gas, by the fluids that are found there, that of the bladder by the urine, by injections that are forced in, &amp;c. are essentially owing to this extensibility. This property is characterized here by two remarkable attributes; 1st, by t

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ARTICLE FOURTH. PHENOMENA OF THE ACTION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

ARTICLE FOURTH. PHENOMENA OF THE ACTION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

These phenomena are, as in the preceding system, relative to the state of contraction or to that of relaxation. It is never capable of being raised to the point which the force of the muscles of animal life sometimes attains. Between the strongest and the weakest pulse, between the feeble jet which precedes some retentions of urine, and the jet of the most vigorous man, there is much less difference than between the langour of the voluntary muscles of some women and the power of those of a mania

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ARTICLE FIFTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

ARTICLE FIFTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.

The organic muscular system is wholly the reverse of the preceding, as it respects development. This is but slightly characterized in the early ages, whereas the growth of the other is precocious. Let us follow it in all the ages. In the first days after conception, the heart is formed; it is the first point of motion, a punctum saliens, as it has been called. The researches of different authors, of Haller in particular, have rendered clear the successive progress of its increase in the early pe

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE DIVISIONS AND FORMS OF THE MUCOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE DIVISIONS AND FORMS OF THE MUCOUS SYSTEM.

The mucous membranes occupy the interior of the cavities which communicate with the skin by the different openings this covering has on the surface of the body. Their number at first view is very considerable; for the organs in which they are reflected are very numerous. The mouth, the stomach, the intestines, the œsophagus, the bladder, the urethra, the womb, the ureters, all the excretories, &amp;c. &amp;c. derive from these membranes a part of their structure. Yet if we consider that

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE MUCOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE MUCOUS SYSTEM.

The mucous system presents two things to be considered in its peculiar texture, viz. 1st, a layer more or less thick which constitutes principally this texture, and which by analogy with the cutaneous corion, may be called the mucous corion; 2d, many small elongations which surmount it, and which are called villi or papillæ. As to the epidermis which covers it, I shall treat of it with the cutaneous epidermis. This texture has nothing similar to the substance that colours the skin, and which is

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE MUCOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE MUCOUS SYSTEM.

Extensibility and contractility are much less in this system than they at first appear to be, on account of the numerous folds which it exhibits in the hollow organs during their contraction, folds which are developed only during extension, as we have seen. Yet these two properties become very evident in some cases. The excretories are capable of taking a size much larger than is natural to them. This is seen in the ureters in particular, which are sometimes found as large as an intestine. The d

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUCOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUCOUS SYSTEM.

The development of the mucous system follows in general the laws of that of the organs to which it belongs. Early in the gastric apparatus, later in the pulmonary and that of generation, it seems in its growth rather to obey the impulse it receives, than to give one to what surrounds it, an arrangement common to almost all the systems which contribute to form the different apparatus. Observe in fact that there is always in the growth certain parts to which all the others refer; thus in the cereb

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE EXTENT, FORMS, AND FLUIDS OF THE SEROUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE EXTENT, FORMS, AND FLUIDS OF THE SEROUS SYSTEM.

The serous system occupies the exterior of most of the organs of which the mucous lines the interior; such are the stomach, the intestines, the bladder, the lungs, &amp;c. We see it around all those that are essential to life, as around the brain, the heart, all the gastric viscera, the testicles, the bladder, &amp;c. It does not form, like the mucous system, a surface everywhere continuous upon the numerous organs on which it is spread. But it is always found insulated in its different

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE SEROUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE SEROUS SYSTEM.

The first characters of the structure of these membranes are a white, shining colour, less brilliant than that of the aponeuroses; a variable thickness, very evident upon the liver, the heart, the intestines, &amp;c. hardly discoverable upon the arachnoides, the omentum, &amp;c.; a remarkable transparency whenever these membranes are raised for a considerable extent, or are examined where they are detached on both sides, as on the omentum. All have but a single layer which it is possible

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE SEROUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE SEROUS SYSTEM.

The serous membranes are endowed with an extensibility much more limited, than the enormous dilatations of which they are capable in certain cases, would at first lead us to believe. The mechanism of their dilatation evidently proves it. This mechanism depends upon three principal causes; 1st, upon the development of the folds that they form, and this is the most powerful of the three causes. Hence why the peritoneum, which of all the membranes of this class, is the most exposed to dilatations,

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEROUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEROUS SYSTEM.

All the serous surfaces are extremely delicate in the fœtus. In opening the thorax by a longitudinal section of the sternum and examining the pleura in the mediastinum where it is free on both sides, it is found to have less thickness than the transparent layers of the omentum or the arachnoides in the adult. The peritoneum is a little thicker in proportion, but yet its delicacy is very great. The comparison of soap bubbles is hardly sufficient to convey an idea of the fineness of the texture of

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ARTICLE FIRST. ARTICULAR SYNOVIAL SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. ARTICULAR SYNOVIAL SYSTEM.

I believe that I first described this essential portion of the synovial system. I shall relate here what I have said of it elsewhere. I shall examine first how it is separated from the blood, afterwards the fluid itself, and then I shall describe the organ which furnishes it. Every fluid differing from the blood, can be separated from it to be afterwards transmitted to an organ, but in one of the three following ways; 1st, by secretion, a function characterized by the existence of a gland interm

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ARTICLE SECOND. SYNOVIAL SYSTEM OF THE TENDONS.

ARTICLE SECOND. SYNOVIAL SYSTEM OF THE TENDONS.

This system noticed by many authors and described by Fourcroy, Soemmering, &amp;c. is precisely of the same nature as the preceding, from which it differs only by its situation; it is often even confounded with it. Thus the synovial membrane of the tendon of the biceps is continuous with that of the scapulo-humeral articulation; thus those of the gemelli are so with the synovial membrane of the femoro-tibial articulation; it is the same membrane which belongs at the same time to the tendon a

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ARTICLE FIRST. SITUATION, FORMS, DIVISION, &c. OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. SITUATION, FORMS, DIVISION, &c. OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM.

The glands have two different positions. Some of them are sub-cutaneous, as the mammæ, the salivary glands, &amp;c.; the others deep seated, as the liver, the kidneys, the pancreas and almost all the mucous ones are removed from the action of external bodies. The greatest number occupy places where there is constantly much motion, as the salivary glands on account of the jaw, the mucous on account of the neighbouring fleshy layer, the liver on account of the diaphragm, &amp;c. It is this

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM.

The glandular texture is distinct from most of the others in this, that the fibrous arrangement is wholly foreign to it. The elements that compose it are not placed at the side of each other, in longitudinal or oblique lines, as in the muscles, the fibrous bodies, the bones, the nerves, &amp;c. They are found agglomerated, united by cellular texture, and adhere but very slightly. Thus whilst the organs with distinct fibres resist much, especially in the direction of their fibres, these are t

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM.

These properties are in general very inconsiderable in this system, which appears to me to be particularly owing to its non-fibrous texture. In fact, in order to be elongated and afterwards contracted and preserve their integrity, it is necessary that the particles of an organ should possess a certain degree of adhesion and cohesion; now, it is to the fibre that especially belongs this double attribute. Observe also that the glandular system is subjected to much less frequent causes of distensio

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM.

Though the secretions are not active in the fœtus, the glandular system is in general much developed. All the salivary glands and the pancreas are larger in proportion than afterwards; the liver is enormous; and the kidneys have a size much greater in proportion than they have in the adult. The same probably is true of the mucous glands, though I have not made any very precise researches upon this point. The form is different in many; the kidney for example is evidently uneven, whilst afterwards

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ARTICLE FIRST. FORMS OF THE DERMOID SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FIRST. FORMS OF THE DERMOID SYSTEM.

The covering which forms this system, being proportioned to the parts that it covers, is applied to these parts, adapted to their great inequalities, and allows the largest external prominences to be visible, but conceals a great number on account of their small size; thus the appearance of the body stripped of skin differs very much from that with the skin on. This covering everywhere continuous is reflected through different openings in the interior of the body and goes to give origin to the m

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE DERMOID SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE DERMOID SYSTEM.

This texture comprehends, 1st, the chorion; 2d, that which is called the reticular body; 3d, the papillæ. The chorion is the essential part of the dermis; it is that which determines its thickness and form. The reticular body appears to be but little distinct from it. The papillæ arise from it also, but are more evident. The chorion is of a very variable thickness. 1st. In the head, that of the cranium and that of the face exhibit an opposite arrangement. The first is very thick and also dense a

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE DERMOID SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE DERMOID SYSTEM.

These properties are much developed in the skin. The alternations of emaciation and corpulency through which our organs, the limbs especially, pass sometimes from a determinate size to one double or even treble, and afterwards return to their primitive state, prove these properties; and so do all the different tumours, deposits of pus, external aneurisms, sudden engorgements which accompany great contusions, aqueous collections in the abdomen, pregnancy, scirrhi, numerous affections which increa

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE DERMOID SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE DERMOID SYSTEM.

In the first periods after conception, the skin is but a kind of glutinous covering, which seems to be gradually condensed, forms a transparent envelope, through which we see in part the subjacent organs, the vessels especially, and which is torn by the least jar. This state continues for a month and a half or two months. The consistence constantly increasing, soon gives to the skin an appearance more nearly like that which it has in infants after birth. Its delicacy is extreme at this period. I

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ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE EXTERNAL EPIDERMIS.

ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE EXTERNAL EPIDERMIS.

The external epidermis is a transparent membrane, more or less thick, according to the regions in which it is examined, covering everywhere the skin, and receiving immediately the excitement of external bodies which would act too powerfully upon this. We see upon the epidermis the same wrinkles as upon the skin, because being exactly contiguous, both wrinkle at the same time. Different pores open on its surface after having passed through it. Some transmit the hairs; these are the most apparent;

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ARTICLE SECOND. INTERNAL EPIDERMIS.

ARTICLE SECOND. INTERNAL EPIDERMIS.

All authors have admitted the epidermis of the mucous membranes. It appears that most have believed that it is only this portion of the skin which descends into the cavities to line them. Haller in particular is of this opinion. But the slightest inspection is sufficient to show, that here as upon the skin, it forms only a superficial layer over the papillary body and the chorion. Boiling water which detaches it from the palate, the tongue and the pharynx even, enables us to see the two other la

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ARTICLE THIRD. OF THE NAILS.

ARTICLE THIRD. OF THE NAILS.

All the fingers have at their extremity, on the outer side or that of extension, hard, transparent and elastic lay ers, of the nature of the horns of many animals, and which are called nails. The nails of man differ from those of most other animals, in their breadth and want of thickness. The first makes them better adapted to support the extremity of the fingers, which is broader than in most animals for the perfection of touch; the second renders them less fit to serve for defence or as a mean

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ARTICLE FIRST. EXAMINATION OF THE PILOUS SYSTEM IN THE DIFFERENT REGIONS.

ARTICLE FIRST. EXAMINATION OF THE PILOUS SYSTEM IN THE DIFFERENT REGIONS.

This system must be considered on the head, the trunk and the extremities. The head is the part of the body in which this system predominates; it covers the whole cranium and defends it against the impression of external bodies, as the hairy coat of quadrupeds defends them. Thus this part is the least capable of exercising the sense of touch, either from the obscurity of the animal sensibility arising from this hairy covering, or because its convex form allows it to be in contact with external b

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ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE PILOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE SECOND. ORGANIZATION OF THE PILOUS SYSTEM.

Whatever varieties exist in the form, size and arrangement of the hairs, their organization is nearly the same in all. We shall now examine this organization in a general manner. Chirac, Malpighi and all anatomists since them, have explained very well in some respects, and very badly in others, the structure of the hairs of the head, which is nearly the same as that of all the other hairs. The following is what careful dissection has shown me concerning it. The hairs of the head, and in general

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ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE PILOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE THIRD. PROPERTIES OF THE PILOUS SYSTEM.

The hairs experience but a slight degree of the horny hardening when exposed to the action of caloric. They then turn in various directions, curl and twist; but this arises from a cause entirely different from that of the horny hardening of the other organs. The caloric then removes the moisture with which the hairs are constantly penetrated, and thus approximates their particles. Thus when the hair is moistened by fog, a bath, &amp;c. the curls disappear. The oily substances that are used a

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ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PILOUS SYSTEM.

ARTICLE FOURTH. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PILOUS SYSTEM.

In the first months of the fœtus there are no hairs on the skin which is then gelatinous. It is when the fibres of the dermoid texture are formed, that there begins to appear on the head a light down, an indication of the hairs which are afterwards to arise. This down is whitish and concealed by that fatty and unctuous substance, which we have said is deposited on the external surface of the skin at this age. Soon this down, which appears to be but the external covering of the hairs, which is th

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