Blood relation

“ The blood has been called the life of the body from the fact that upon it depends our bodily existence. The blood is so essentially the nutrient element that it is called sometimes very aptly “liquid flesh.” It is a red, warm, heavy, alkaline fluid, slightly salt in taste, and has a somewhat fetid odor. Its color varies from bright red in the arteries and when exposed to the air, to various tints from dark purple to red in the veins. The color of the blood is due to the coloring constituent of the red corpuscles, hæmoglobin, which is brighter or darker as it contains more or less oxygen. ”

“ In such a case bleeding should not be again resorted to, but the deranged residue should be subdued by means of pacifying or absorbing remedies.
Blood is the origin of the body. It is blood that maintains vitality. Blood is life. ”

“ But I trust that we have facts enough to establish it as a certainty, 1st, That the black blood after the interruption of the chemical functions of the lungs, continues for some time to circulate, and 2dly, That it penetrates into the organs, where it replaces the red blood; these circumstances explain the reason, why on opening the body we always meet with black blood even in the vessels which are destined for the circulation of arterial blood. ”

“ However, when we come to the blood of persons suffering from disease, there are changes in the diameter and even the form of the corpuscles which much complicate the matter; while, in blood-stains of any age, the blood-corpuscles, even with the most artfully-contrived solvent, are so distorted in shape that he would be a bold man who should venture on any definite conclusion as to whether the blood was certainly human, more especially if he had to give evidence in a criminal case. ”

“ That the blood of the living has a peculiar vivifying force, in its transference from one organism to another, is one of the clearly proven re-disclosures of modern medical science; and this transference of blood has been made to advantage by way of the veins, of the stomach, of the intestines, of the tissue, and even of the lungs—through dry-spraying. ”

“ It is that the hemoglobin or red colouring-matter of the blood forms crystals. That has long been known, but working on this fact Dr. Reichert and Professor Brown of the University of Pennsylvania have made some wonderful discoveries.
"We could distinguish human from animal blood before, it is true. But the discovery of these two scientists takes us much further. By means of blood-crystals we can distinguish the blood of man from that of the animals and in addition that of white men from that of negroes and other races. ”

“ Of most of the inferior animals, which, as compared with man, are quite helpless, the blood coagulates more rapidly, and in the case of the birds, almost instantly. The relative composition of fluid and coagulated blood may be thus represented:
Fluid Blood. Coagulated Blood. Plasma----------Serum---------Serum \ \ --------Fibrin-------- \ \ Corpuscles------Corpuscles-------Clot.
12. The blood, as a provider and purifier? What uses does the blood subserve? Experiments? Transfusion? ”

“ That so much of the blood must remain as is appropriated to the nutrition of the tissues, is matter of necessity; for it cannot nourish unless it be assimilated and become coherent, and form substance in lieu of that which is lost; but that the whole of the blood which flows into a part should there remain, in order that so small a portion should undergo transformation, is nowise necessary; for no part uses so much blood for its nutrition as is contained in its arteries, veins, and interstices. ”

“ Change of Color.—The blood undergoes a variety of changes in its journey through the system. As it visits the different organs it both gives out and takes up materials. In one place it is enriched, in another it is impoverished. By reason of these alterations in its composition, the blood also changes its color. In one part of the body it is bright red, or arterial; in another it is dark blue, or venous. In the former case it is pure and fit for the support of the tissues ”

“ No less certain is the fact that human blood differs from the blood of animals, that in faint variations the blood of no two people is alike, that the blood of any living thing, man or beast, is affected by various things—an infinite number almost—most of which are positively known to modern medical investigators. ”

“ There is no part of the body, within or without, that has not a vast many small blood-vessels, running in every direction, that carry the blood to nourish all parts. But there are more blood-vessels in the skin than anywhere else, so that the quantity of blood in our skin is greater than all that is to be found, in all the rest of the body put together. ”

“ The properties of blood are of great importance from a medico-legal point of view."
"Can you tell us what happens when a drop of blood—say from a cut finger—falls upon a surface such as the bottom of an iron safe?"
"A drop of blood from a living body falling upon any non-absorbent surface will, in the course of a few minutes, solidify into a jelly which will, at first, have the same bulk and colour as the liquid blood." ”

“ Let us conclude from all that has hitherto been said, 1st. that the essential part which the circulation of the black blood performs in the economy, is to introduce into this blood different new substances; 2d. that that of the system of red blood is to expend on the contrary, the285 principles that constitute it. One is constantly increasing, the other diminishing; to give is the attribute of one, to receive is that of the other. ”

“ The blood is thus spread out into a film and may be readily examined. At first the red corpuscles will be seen as pale, disk-like bodies floating in the clear fluid. Soon they will be observed to stick to each other by their flattened faces, so as to form rows. The colorless corpuscles are to be seen among the red ones, but are much less numerous.
182. The Coagulation of the Blood. Blood when shed from the living body is as fluid as water. But it soon becomes viscid, and flows less readily from one vessel to another. Soon the whole mass becomes a nearly solid jelly called a clot. ”

“ The pathology of the blood, especially of the corpuscular elements, though one of the most interesting, is certainly one of the most confusing, of all departments of pathology, and to those who have not given almost undivided attention to this subject it is extremely difficult to obtain a comprehensive and accurate view of the blood in disease. ”

“ The mode of inter-transference of blood, with all that this carries, has been deemed practicable, alike by way of the lips, and by way of the opened and inter-flowing veins. It has been also represented, by blood-bathing, by blood-anointing, and by blood-sprinkling; or, again, by the inter-drinking of wine—which was formerly commingled with blood itself in the drinking. ”

“ How is it, that the instant the black blood enters the system of red blood in the adult, alarming consequences follow, soon asphyxia, then death, take place, whilst in the fœtus, the black blood circulates with impunity in the arteries? ”

“ Indeed, there is nothing to be met with in the animal body prior to the blood, or more excellent; nor are the spirits which they distinguish from the blood to be found anywhere separate from it; for the very blood itself, if without spirits or heat, does not deserve the name of blood, but of cruor.... ”

“ The elements of the blood are derived from the chyle, and, if it be vitiated, the blood also must suffer: if the blood be diseased, so must necessarily be all the organs which it supplies; and if the body be thus debilitated, can any wonder be felt that it should no longer be able to resist the action of offending causes which full health alone can withstand? ”

“ It is an actual fact that blood from which all the oxygen has been withdrawn is so much darker than ordinary venous blood that it gives the impression of being black, although it is really a dark purple. ”

“ But it is necessary that the heart shall be assisted considerably, in the circulation 357 of the blood, by a contractile power of the vessels themselves; and the same quantity of blood is not to circulate in the same body at all times, for animals are liable to frequent injuries, by which the quantities of blood in their bodies may be very suddenly reduced. ”

“ The blood contains the materials of all the secretions, of the nutrition of all the organs, and of all the exhalations. Each gland draws from this common reservoir what is necessary to its secretion, as each organ does what is proper for its nutrition, and as each serous surface does what is suitable for its exhalation. Now it is by its organic sensibility that each living part of the body distinguishes what its functions require. ”

“ If blood can be too pure and too good she might! When we take into account that the food we eat is converted into blood; that if the food be good the blood is good; and that if the food be improper or impure, the blood is impure likewise; and, moreover, when we know that every part of the body is built up by the blood, we cannot be considered to be too particular in making our selection of food. ”

“ Why the Blood is Red. The first and main purpose of the blood-pipes and the heart is to carry the dissolved food from the stomach and intestines to the cells all over the body. But the cells need air as well as food; and, to carry this, there are little basket-cells—the red corpuscles. Take a drop of blood and put it under a microscope, and you will see what they look like. The field will be simply crowded with tiny, rounded lozenges—the red cells of the blood, which give it its well-known color. ”

“ To anybody who looks at the blood-vessels with an unprejudiced eye it seems so natural that the blood should all come out of the liver, and be distributed by the veins to the different parts of the body, that nothing can seem simpler or more plain ”

“ Some, whilst they attempt to lessen the difficulty here, affirming that the blood is spirituous and arterious, virtually concede that the office of the arteries is to carry blood from the heart into the whole of the body, and that they are therefore filled with blood; for spirituous blood is not the less blood on that account. ”

“ The principal cause depending on the blood, consists in the great quantity of this fluid, which passes from the arteries into the veins. In fact we shall soon see, that the black blood when it circulates in the arteries, is not capable of furnishing the materials of secretion, exhalation, or nutrition, or if it be so, that it is not a stimulus to the organs which are the agents of these functions. ”

“ Therefore, if I shall add the causes and uses of the circulation and reveal other secrets of the blood, showing how much it conduces to mortal happiness and to the welfare of soul as well as body, that the blood be kept pure and sweet by a right regimen, I truly believe that I shall do a work as useful and grateful to philosophers and physicians as it will be new; and that the following view will seem to nobody so improbable and absurd as it formerly seemed to Aristotle, viz.: that the blood, a domestic deity as it were, is the very soul within the body, as Critias and others thought of old ”

“ Reflecting, now, on the organic and physico-chemical conditions required for the support of life and the discharge of its functions, we find that they are the same in the brain as in all the other organs. The blood acts on the anatomical elements of all the tissues by supplying their indispensable conditions of nutrition, temperature, and humidity. When a diminished supply of blood flows to any organ, its activity of function declines, and the organ rests; but if the blood is quite cut off, the elementary properties of the tissue slowly change, while at the same time its function perishes. ”

“ It is allowed, and has been promulgated by all authors, that the blood is one of the most active agents in the animal economy—in repairing waste, in affording peculiar fluids necessary in that economy, in supplying organs with materials for carrying on their functions, &c.; and yet all this, according to some, is accomplished by a dead animal fluid; no one can plausibly object to the laws by which the blood is governed being referred to the power of life, and to their being called Vital Principles. ”

“ For one thing—among many—there is the matter of blood supply. Incorrect blood matching causes death in a transfusion. This is not because of the mismatch in the blood stream per se, it is because the metabolism of the entire human body is not matched to the different type of blood. ”

“ The serum, mostly composed of albumen, is a transparent, straw-colored fluid, having the odor and taste of blood. The whole quantity of blood in the body is estimated on an average to be about one-ninth of its entire weight. The distinctions between the arterial and the venous blood are marked, since in the arterial system the blood is uniformly bright red, and in the venous of a very dark red color The blood-corpuscles contain both oxygen and carbonic acid in solution. When carbonic acid predominates, the blood is dark red ”

“ In these ceremonies, it is evident that the Zuñis, like the Orientals, [307] recognize the blood as the life, the heart as the epitome of life, the liver as a congealed mass of blood, and the transference of blood as the transference of life. Moreover, there is here a trace of that idea of the revivifying, by blood-bathing, of a being that had turned into stone ”

“ The interesting part of the experiment to us is, that if serum only, without globules, be restored to the unfortunate animal, it is of no use whatever, and the corpse does not revive.
It is evident, then, that all the power and virtue of the blood lies in the globules; and according as their number is great or small it is "rich" or "poor," as it is called; and where their number is not up to the mark, the blood acts more feebly on the organs, life is calmer, and people are no longer troubled with emotions—in other words, with violent heats of the blood. ”