Fibrin : its origin and development in the animal organism, and its relation to life, health, longevity, and disease / by John Goodman.

Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fibrin : its origin and development in the animal organism, and its relation to life, health, longevity, and disease / by John Goodman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    FIBKIN: ITS OEIGIN ANT) SOUECES OF DEVELOP- MENT IN THE ANIMAL ORGANISM. ORIGIN OF FIBRIN. Life consists of waste and supply, action and extinction; living substance assuming the state of death, and dead materials, by the laws of vitality, the condition of life. In a galvanic battery, so long as the zinc water and acid con- tinue to be supplied, the current is maintained; but when the elements of development are used up, all electrical action ceases. Now, animal life, according to Liebig, emanates from the union of oxygen with blood and nutritive substances, producing the elimination of carbonic acid. But when oxygen or nutritive matters cease to be supplied, of course life becomes extinct. In addition to the above definition of life, we may further add that, in the higher animal and vegetable structures, its mainten- ance is specially dependent upon the encasement and protection of the living organism from the direct influence of those elements and forces which serve to excite and stimulate it to action. It is by this encasement that the interior su.bstances and liquids of the body are preserved in their original integrity and power, probably as electro-chemical elements. In order to show the necessity for this encasement, we may remark that in living animals and vegetables, whilst it remains entire, vital action con- tinues to be manifested; but when it is removed, death ensues. Even in fruits, peas, and other vegetables, when separated from the parent stem, a sort of waning vitality is still preserved for a time. But the moment the corticle—skin, peel, rind, or husk, &c.—is removed, then that chemical action sets in, which super- sedes death, and effects decomposition and putrefaction. By the construction of the organism in this manner, the vital stimuli and sustenance are admitted only under given restrictions into the interior of the body. Here they produce such cliemical changes as liberate the forces—caloric, or heat, and most pro- bably electricity. 1. They thus maintain the body at that degree of temperature which is best adapted to the performance of its functions. 13