M.D. Henry Lee

“ PART I. ON INFLAMMATION OF THE VEINS:
WITH EXPERIMENTS ILLUSTRATING THE EFFECTS OF A VITIATED CONDITION OF THE BLOOD.
I. John Hunter expressed his belief that the blood has "the power of action within itself", [1] and that when it coagulates, it does so in consequence of an "impression" which it receives. Such an impression may be communicated by separation from the living vessels, or from "cessation of natural action" [2] in them. In certain circumstances also the living vessels themselves may be the means of exciting coagulation. ”

“ The first octopus received at the Brighton Aquarium was caught in a lobster-pot at Eastbourne in October 1872, and great was the joy that reigned in “London-by-the-sea.” For in the state of public feeling then existing, an aquarium without an octopus was like a plum-pudding without plums. Share-holders might construct a handsome building, and stock its magnificently gigantic tanks with a variety of most interesting fishes, but fashion and public [8] opinion demanded of them a “devil-fish,” and if they were unable to exhibit one, all other attractions were disregarded. ”

“ The most direct way in which diseased blood produces disease in the parts to which it is conveyed, is by communicating to them its own condition. Even foreign substances, which have no natural connexion with the body, may, in this way, be conveyed in the blood, and deposited in the organs of the body. ”

“ His cousin the cuttle-fish (Sepia) has an eye, round like that of an owl, which stares you out of countenance, and puzzles you by its immobility; the pupil of the eye of an octopus is like that of a tiger turned half round. The perpendicularly-elongated pupil of the cat gleams with hot ferocity: the calm, cunning gaze of the octopus from out the narrow horizontal slit of its compressed eyelids freezes by its cold cruelty. ”

“ The irritability of a wound frequently appears nothing else than a series of attempts to bring about an action, which it has not the power to accomplish: as soon as that is fulfilled, which the necessity of the parts demands for their healthy condition, irritation will cease. In such cases, everything that will confer strength to carry out the intended action, will prevent inflammation. ”

“ If terror was the object of its creation, it is perfection.
“The ‘pieuvre’ has no muscular organisation, no menacing cry, no breast-plate, no horn, no dart, no tail with which to hold or bruise, no cutting fins, or wings with claws, no prickles, no sword, no electric discharge, no venom, no talons, no beak, no teeth.... It has no bones, no blood, no flesh. It is soft and flabby. It is an empty flask; a skin with nothing inside it. Its eight tentacles may be turned inside out, like the fingers of a glove. It has a single orifice, which is both vent and mouth. ”

“ This fact, which, taken by itself, might appear of little consequence, assumes considerable importance when considered as one of the inherent properties of the blood, at all times ready, under favourable circumstances, to be called into action in the living body. The conditions under which pus will determine the coagulation of the blood, and those under which it will circulate in the living vessels, require to be accurately ascertained, before we can rightly interpret the discordant evidence which we at present have upon this point. ”

“ Under a low power a young octopus was seen moving freely in the fluid contained in each transparent granule, the bright orange-brown colour in the pigment cells of its skin flashing, dying out, and re-appearing in another place, like sparks in tinder. And I was astonished to see that the little creature within the unbroken membrane was already endowed with the power of assimilating its colour to that of its surroundings. ”

“ In a certain number of cases no lesion will be found in any of the veins of the body, but the uterine veins will be found to contain some unnatural fluid; at other times coagula of blood, which have lost their elasticity, gritty to the feel, and greyish or light brown in appearance, [Pg 20] will be found filling the veins or leaving intervals in them, where lymph or pus may be recognized. It matters little whether the unnatural fluids, thus found in the uterine vessels, have been absorbed from the cavity of the uterus, or are the product of venous inflammation. ”

“ The process of repair goes on frequently during a continued flow of blood over the part, and sometimes during the constant action of the muscles in the neighbourhood: at other times, an injured vein will be situated immediately in the bend of a joint, and will be subject to be continually bent and extended with the motions of the limb. In the structure of the bones, the veins lie in unyielding channels, and are consequently deprived of the assistance derived from the approximation of their sides, as in soft parts, during the process of reparation. ”

“ I had always expressed very decidedly my opinion, derived from previous experiments on the eggs of the cuttle-fish and squid (Sepia and Loligo) that, the ova once impregnated, no incubation by the parent is required or takes place in a sense equivalent to that of a fowl developing a chick by the warmth of its body; but that her unremitting [61] attention to them is solely for the purpose of protecting them from injury, keeping them free from animal and vegetable parasites, and preventing their being devoured by fishes, or members of her own tribe—possibly by their own father. ”

“ It has been already shown that the blood, when in a natural condition, has a tendency to coagulate around pus, and, probably, many other fluids, even out of the body (Experiments i, v) , [Pg 8] and that this property is exercised in a still more remarkable manner in the living vessels (see Experiments vii, viii) . Foreign matter, even after it has got into the veins, may then, by the same means, be prevented from proceeding farther towards the centre of circulation. The process that takes place under such circumstances, is strictly analogous to union by the first intention. ”

“ If he had grasped it firmly round the neck it would have instantly let go its hold. Aristotle was well aware of this, and it may be well for bathers to remember it.
I have frequently allowed an octopus to fix itself upon, and crawl over, my bare arm. It can always be detached in this manner. None have ever attempted to bite me. But although it is “nothing when you are used to it,” it is not pleasant to have a stranger, of whose proclivities you know nothing, fasten himself upon you with such demonstration of attachment. ”

“ It will sometimes happen, that, after the symptoms of secondary inflammation of internal organs have commenced, an abscess will present itself near the surface of the body, and relief will be afforded to the part first affected; at other times, an obstinate and violent diarrhœa will precede recovery. Although the mode of treatment adopted may have little influence either in bringing on, or checking, such salutary actions, it is important to watch their occurrence, and perhaps still more important, to be careful not to mistake a remedial action for a symptom of the disease. ”

“ The examination of the blood, or of the vessels, in such cases, will by no means invariably indicate the presence of foreign matter after it has once become thoroughly mixed with the blood, nor will inflammation of the vein through which the fluid passes, be by any means invariably produced.
When a foreign substance is introduced into an artery, any immediate effects upon the blood may naturally be looked for in the system of capillaries which it supplies. If the blood then coagulates, local symptoms alone, will, in the first instance, be produced, and the constitution will remain unaffected. ”

“ The fishermen fasten the end of a line round a living female octopus or sepia, and lower her down towards a rocky bottom. On the male coming to woo he comes to woe, for both are pulled up together.
There is nothing incredible in this. The Japanese, at the present day, use a spawning female fish as a lure for others of the same species. Having found one nearly, but not quite, ready to deposit her roe, they squeeze from her a portion of it, which hangs suspended from the body, and then anchor her near the shore by a hook and line. ”

“ If the constitution is good, and the coagulating power of the blood unimpaired, the union may be frequently interrupted, and yet be as frequently re-established in the same way. When from any local cause, or from any constitutional peculiarity, the union by the first intention fails at the seat of the injury, it may yet be attempted at some distance up the vein ”

“ It sees and avoids every obstacle, and if you take it out of the water, in your hand, the precocious little creature, not a minute old, and not sufficiently matured to leave the egg naturally, will spurt its ink all over your fingers. You may tame an old cuttle-fish, and it will learn to know that you are a friend, and intend to do it no harm; but the youngsters are as shy as human babies, and regard every one but their mother as an enemy.
The preference for the light, which I described as exhibited by the young octopus, appears to be common also to the young squid and cuttle-fish. ”

“ He scrambles and shuffles away, and makes the best use he can of the jury-rigging he has fitted on to his old stumps. As he does so, his keen eyes, mounted on little hillocks, peer furtively around him; and while he sidles off from his too admiring persecutors, he casts a doubtful, half-frightened, half-defiant glance behind him, like a schoolboy, timid in the dark, who fancies a ghost is following him. ”

“ The most characteristic circumstance, attending the extension of disease to different organs of the body through the medium of the blood, is that several parts of these organs, or even different organs, will be simultaneously attacked. ”

“ He examined the belt more closely; and there, traced in indelible [17] lithographic ink, were the words, “Sieur Clubin.” The skull, the bones, and the belt were all that remained of the robber and hypocrite: the “devil-fish” had held him under water and drowned him; the crabs had eaten him.
Gilliatt started on his return passage to Guernsey in joyful certainty that he had earned the fulfilment of his wishes. Deruchette would be his wife. He had saved the engine of her father’s vessel, and, more than that, had recovered the old man’s stolen fortune. ”

“ The eggs of the octopus, when first laid, are small, oval, translucent granules, resembling little grains of rice, not quite an eighth of an inch long. They grow along and around a common stalk, to which every egg is separately attached, as grapes form part of a bunch. Each of the elongated bunches is affixed by a glutinous secretion to the surface of a rock or stone (never to seaweed, as has been erroneously stated) , and hangs pendent by its stalk in a long white cluster, like a magnified catkin of the filbert, or, to use Aristotle’s simile, like the fruit of the white alder. ”

“ Has taught the fish by tedious wants opprest
Life to preserve and be himself the feast.
The fact is, that the larger predatory fishes regard an octopus as very acceptable food, and there is no better bait for many of them than a portion of one of its arms. Some of the cetacea also are very fond of them, and whalers have often reported that when a “fish” (as they call it) is struck it disgorges the contents of its stomach, amongst which they have noticed parts of the arms of cuttle-fishes which, judging from the size of their limbs, must have been very large specimens. ”

“ Their shells were soon broken and torn apart by her powerful beak, and when she had devoured the contents the hard débris was cast out of her den.
But although the old naturalist of Stageira was mistaken in supposing that the female octopus does not take food during the period of the development of her ova, he was right in believing that her anxiety for her progeny, and her unremitting care of them, tell injuriously upon her health. A brooding octopus shows signs of diminished bodily vigour, as a sitting hen bird loses flesh whilst hatching her eggs. Her respiration at times becomes laboured. ”

“ In a second the crab was completely pinioned. Not a movement, not a struggle was visible or possible: each leg, each claw, was grasped all over by suckers—enfolded in them—stretched out to its full extent by them. The back of the carapace was covered all over with the tenacious vacuum-discs, brought together by the adaptable contraction of the limb, and ranged in close order, shoulder to shoulder, touching each other ”