Joseph Maclise

“ Every region of the body exhibits fixed character proper to its surface. The neck, the axilla, the thorax, the abdomen, the groin, have each their special marks, by which we know them; and the eye, well versed in the characters proper to the healthy state of each, will soonest discover the nature of all effects of injury—such as dislocations, fractures, tumours of various kinds, &c. By our acquaintance with the perfect, we discover the imperfect; by a comparison with the geometrically true rectangled triangle, or circle, we estimate the error of these forms when they have become distorted ”

“ In the human body there does not exist any such space as cavity, properly so called. Every space is occupied by its contents. The thoracic space is completely filled by its viscera, which, in mass, take a perfect cast or model of its interior. The thoracic viscera lie so closely to one another, that they respectively influence the form and dimensions of each other. That space which the lungs do not occupy is filled by the heart, &c., and vice versa. The thoracic apparatus causes no vacuum by the acts of either contraction or dilatation. Neither do the lungs or the heart. ”

“ The physiologist of the present day is too little of a comparative anatomist, and far too closely enveloped in the absurd jargon of the anthropotomist, ever to hope to reveal any great truth for science, and dispel the mists which still hang over the phenomena of the nervous system. ”

“ THE SURGICAL DISSECTION OF THE BEND OF THE ELBOW AND THE FOREARM, SHOWING THE RELATIVE POSITION OF THE ARTERIES, VEINS, NERVES, &c.
The farther the surgical region happens to be removed from the centre of the body, the less likely is it that all accidents or operations which involve such regions will concern the life immediately. The limbs undergo all kinds of mutilation, both by accident and intention, and yet the patient survives; but when the like happens at any region of the trunk of the body, the life will be directly and seriously threatened. ”

“ The anatomical mechanism of the human body, considered as a whole, or divisible into regions, forms a study so closely bearing upon practice, that the surgeon, if he be not also a mechanician, and fully capable of making his anatomical knowledge suit with the common principles of mechanics, while devising methods for furthering the efforts, of Nature curatively, may be said to have studied anatomy to little or no purpose. ”

“ The arterial system of vessels assumes, in all cases, somewhat of the character of the forms upon which they are distributed, or of the organs which they supply. This mode of distribution becomes the more apparent, according as we rise from particulars to take a view of the whole. With the same ease that any piece of the osseous fabric, taken separately, may be known, so may any one artery, taken apart from the rest, be distinguished as to the place which it occupied, and the organs which it supplied in the economy. ”

“ The heart varies in some measure, not only as to size and weight, but also as to position, even in healthy individuals of the same age and sex. The level at which the heart is in general found to be situated in the thorax is that represented in PLATE 23, where the apex points to the sixth intercostal space on the left side above K, while the arch of the aorta rises to a level with C, the second costal cartilage. In some instances, the heart may be found to occupy a much lower position in the thorax than the one above mentioned, or even a much higher level. ”

“ It is in relation to the epigastric artery alone that the direct hernia differs essentially from the oblique variety; for I find that both may be enclosed in the same structures as invest the spermatic vessels.
The external ring of the male groin is larger than that of the female; and this circumstance, with others of a like nature, may account for the fact, that the female is very rarely the subject of the direct hernia. In the male, the direct hernia is found to occur much less frequently than the oblique, and this we might, a priori, expect, from the anatomical disposition of the parts. ”

“ The spleen, as being one-fourth of the whole, is devoid of the duct. The liver having the duct, is functional as a gland, while the spleen having no duct, cannot serve any such function. If, in thus indicating the function which the spleen does not possess, there appears no proof positive of the function which it does, perhaps the truth is, that as being the ductless portion of the whole original hepatic quantity, it exists as a thing degenerate and functionless, for it seems that the animal economy suffers no loss of function when deprived of it. ”

“ Whether the air be admitted into the pleural sac, by an opening made in the side from without, or by an opening in the lung itself, the mechanical principle of the respiratory apparatus will be equally deranged. ”

“ The habitual use, for weeks or more, of a hard, resisting fulcrum in the axilla, must act in some degree like the pad of a tourniquet, arresting the flow of a vigorous circulation, which is so essential to the speedy union of all lesions of bones. And it should never be lost sight of, that all grievously coercive apparatus, which incommode the suffering patient, under treatment, are those very instruments which impede the curative process of Nature herself. ”

“ The organs of the thoracic region hold a certain relation to each other and to the thoracic walls. The organs of the abdomen hold likewise a certain relation to each other and to the abdominal parietes. The organs of both the thorax and the abdomen have a certain relation to each other, as they lie above and below the diaphragm. In dead nature these relations are fixed and readily ascertainable, but in living, moving nature, the organs influence this relative position, not only of each other, but also of that which they bear to the cavities in which they are contained. ”

“ It is true that to stop the circulation through the main vessel of the limb, is always attended with danger, and that such a proceeding is never to be adopted but as the lesser one of two great hazards. It is also true that to tie the main brachial artery for a haemorrhage of anyone of its terminal branches, may be doing too much, while a milder course may serve; or else that even our tying the brachial may not suffice, owing to a high distribution of the vessels of the arm, in the axilla, above the place of the ligature. ”

“ The normal relative anatomy of the bloodvessels is taken by anatomists to be the more frequent disposition of their main trunks and branches, considered per se, and in connexion with neighbouring parts. But it will be seen by this avowal that those vessels are liable to many various conditions; and such is the case, in fact. No anatomist can pronounce with exactness the precise figure of vessels or other organs while they lie concealed beneath the surface. An approach to truth is all that the best experience can boast of. ”

“ The comparison of facts already known must henceforward be the scalpel which we are to take in hand. We must return by the same road on which we set out, and reexamine the things and phenomena which, as novices, we passed by too lightly. ”

“ The lower wall, c, of the prostate is much diminished in thickness. A nipple-shaped process, a, is seen to be attached by a pedicle to the back of the upper part, b, of the prostate, and to act like a stopper to the neck of the bladder. The body a being moveable, it will be perceived how, while the bladder is distended with urine, the pressure from above may block up the neck of the organ with this part, and thus cause complete retention, which, on the introduction of a catheter, becomes readily relieved by the instrument pushing the obstructing body aside. ”

“ The iron scalpel has already made acquaintance with not only the greater parts, but even with the infinitesimals of the human body; and reason, confined to this narrow range of a subject, perceives herself to be imprisoned, and quenches her guiding light in despair. ”

“ Through the groin, as through the axilla, the principal blood vessels and nerves are transmitted to, the corresponding limb. The main artery of the lower limb frequently becomes the subject of a surgical operation. The vessel is usually described as divisible into parts, according to the regions which it traverses. But, as in examining any one of those parts irrespective of the others, many facts of chief surgical importance are thereby obscured and overlooked, I propose to consider the vessel as a whole, continuous from the aorta to where it enters the popliteal space. ”

“ While restricted to the study of the isolated human species, the cramped judgment wastes in such narrow confine; whereas, in the expansive gaze over all allying and allied species, the intellect bodies forth to its vision the full appointed form of natural majesty ”

“ The only difference which I can discover between the regions called thorax and abdomen, in the osseous skeleton, (considering this body morphologically,) results, simply, from the circumstance that the ribs, which enclose thoracic space, have no osseous counterparts in the abdomen enclosing abdominal space, and this difference is merely histological. In man and the mammalia the costal arches hold relation with the pulmonary organs, and these costae fail at that region where the ventral organs are located. ”

“ While the anatomist contents himself with describing the form and position of organs as they appear exposed, layer after layer, by his dissecting instruments, he does not pretend to soar any higher in the region of science than the humble level of other mechanical arts, which merely appreciate the fitting arrangement of things relative to one another, and combinative to the whole design of the form or machine of whatever species this may be, whether organic or inorganic. ”

“ He who would combine both modes of a relationary practice, such as that of medicine and surgery, should be well acquainted with the form and structures characteristic of all regions of the human body; and it may be doubted whether he who pursues either mode of practice, wholly exclusive of the other, can do so with honest purpose and large range of understanding, if he be not equally well acquainted with the subject matter of both. ”

“ When it does occur in this sex, its position, investments, and course through the inguinal canal, where it accompanies the round ligament of the uterus, are the same as in the male. When the hernia escapes through the external abdominal ring of the female groin, it is found to lodge in the labium pudendi. In the male body, the testicle and spermatic cord, which have carried before them investments derived from all the layers of the inguinal region, have, as it were, already marked out the track to be followed by the hernia, and prepared for it its several coverings. ”

“ Now, the abnormal conditions of the surface become at once apparent to our senses; but those diseased conditions which concern the internal organs require no ordinary exercise of judgment to discover them. The outward form masks the internal parts, and conceals from our direct view, like the covers of a closed volume, the marvellous history contained within. ”

“ If the greater size of the internal carotid artery, compared to that of the external carotid, be not sufficient to prove that the former is the proper continuation of the common carotid, a fact may be drawn from comparative philosophy which will put the question beyond doubt, namely—that as the common carotid follows the line of the cervical vertebrae, just as the aorta follows that of the vertebrae of the trunk, so does the internal carotid follow the line of the cephalic vertebrae. ”

“ The difference between a prostate and a uterus is simply one of quantity, such as we see existing between the male and the female breast. The prostate is to the uterus absolutely what a rudimentary organ is to its fully developed analogue. ”

“ On comparing this series of figures, it must appear that the third lobe of the prostate is the product of diseased action, in so far at least as an unnatural hypertrophy of a part may be so designated. It is not proper to the bladder in the healthy state of this organ, and where it does manifest itself by increase it performs no healthy function in the economy. When Home, therefore, described this part as a new fact in anatomy, he had in reality as little reason for so doing as he would have had in naming any other tumour, a thing unknown to normal anatomy. ”