Body fluid

“ There are no living tissues so dense that the cells of which they are composed are completely cut off from contact with body fluid. In thinking of our own bodies we should realize that this same arrangement applies; every one of our millions of living cells has contact with the fluid with which all the spaces of our bodies are filled, and it is from this fluid that the cells obtain the materials for their metabolism, and into this same fluid they discharge whatever substances their metabolism may produce. ”

“ This is limpid like water, and remains permanently fluid, unless certain substances are employed to coagulate it, such as alcohol, alum, or a certain degree of heat. It dilutes the other parts of the blood, so as to reduce the whole to a proper state of fluidity. It is secreted, or naturally separated from the blood, and poured out by exhalent vessels in various cavities and parts of the body, as the chest, abdomen, cellular membrane, &c. It facilitates the easy motion of the various organs upon each other, and, when accumulated in large quantities, forms the fluid of dropsies. ”

“ In proportion as digestion and absorption of food become specialized and restricted to certain parts, circulation becomes more important in order to convey that food to the tissues, and carry from the tissues the worn-out material. To maintain the character of the fluid, it must itself undergo constant change, and hence the excretory processes—respiration being the most urgent—which increase the necessity for movement of the fluid. Circulation of the nutritive fluid is the immediate function for upbuilding and repairing the body. ”

“ Can any one explain how these partial sweats should relieve the difficulty of breathing in anasarca, but by supposing that the pulmonary branch of absorbents drank up the fluid in the cavity of the thorax, or in the cells of the lungs, and threw it on the skin, by the retrograde motions of the cutaneous branch? for, if we could suppose, that the increased action of the cutaneous glands or capillaries poured upon the skin this fluid, previously absorbed from the lungs; why is not the whole surface of the body covered with sweat? why is not the skin warm? ”

“ The blood is the principal fluid employed in distributing over the system the necessary elements of health and vigour, and for restoring the waste of the body. This fluid, in passing through the lungs, undergoes a very remarkable change, and not merely assumes a different colour, but [Pg 396] really acquires new properties, from its exposure to the air with which the cells of these organs are filled. By a true chemical process, the oxygen is separated from the air, that oxygen is made to combine with the carbon and hydrogen, and carbonic acid and water are formed. ”

“ In the examination of the body-cavities and hollow organs, as well as pathologic hollow structures, the first thing to note is the escape of gas or air under pressure. Occasionally it is best to open the organ under water to note the escape of bubbles. The odor of the gas, inflammability, etc., are to be noted. The fluid or solid contents (blood, bile, urine, féces, mucus, pus, exudates and transudates, altered secretions, food-remains, concretions, foreign bodies, parasites, etc.) ”

“ Nor do I much concern my self, to determine what the Figure of the particles of this exceedingly subtile fluid medium must be, nor whether it have any interstitiated pores or vacuities, it being sufficient to solve all the Phænomena to suppose it an exceedingly fluid, or the most fluid body in the world, and as yet impossible to determine the other difficulties.
That being so exceeding fluid a body, it easily gives passage to all other bodies to move to and fro in it. ”

“ We are familiar with the moving fluid under the name of blood; the system of pipes in which it moves are the blood vessels; the pump which keeps it in motion is the heart; the various supply stations include the digestive organs, the lungs, and the kidneys. ”

“ The tissue fluids which serve as the connecting links between the circulating blood and the individual cells are necessarily full of waste products, because these come directly from the cells to the tissue fluids and afterward pass on from them to the blood. The result is that the cells are constantly bathed in a solution of their own waste products. There is only one way in which relief from this condition can be obtained and that is by moving the used tissue fluid away bodily and letting it be replaced by fresh fluid. ”

“ Other changes take place in other parts of the body. In the walls of the food tube, especially in the small intestine, the blood receives its load of fluid food. In the muscles and other working tissues the blood gives up food and oxygen, receiving carbon dioxide and organic waste in return. In the liver, the blood gives up its sugar, and the worn-out red corpuscles which break down are removed (as they are in the spleen) from the circulation. In glands, it gives up materials used by the gland cells in their manufacture of secretions. ”

“ Water is the chief component of this fluid, there being about ninety-eight parts of water to two parts of solid matter. The quantity escaping from the body varies greatly, according to the temperature of the air, the occupation of the individual, and other circumstances. The average daily amount of this excretion, in the adult, is not far from thirty ounces, nearly two pints, or more than nine grains each minute.
17. What does perspiration set free from the blood? What other service does perspiration perform? ”

“ It here receives the oxygen from the atmosphere, and the chyle, or white blood, from the digested food, and becomes, in an instant, arterial blood, a vital principle, from which every solid and fluid of the body is constructed. Besides the lungs, Nature has provided another respiratory organ, a sort of supplemental lung, that, as well as being a covering to the body, _in_spires air and _ex_pires moisture;—this is the cuticle, or skin ”

“ As you rise higher and higher the weight of the air is less felt, and this makes people so uncomfortable that at a height of about 9,000 or 10,000 yards the liquids in our body—the blood, the water, the bile—tend to escape outwards. Why? Because they are no longer balanced by an outside pressure equal in force to them. In fact, if you continued to ascend, your fate would be that of the bladder in the first experiment—you would burst. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The serous vapour, in which the cellular atmosphere of each organ is constantly immersed, and the fat which floats there in greater or less abundance, powerfully assist in this insulation of vitality; both form for the different organs a line of separation, which, being fluid, enjoys in a much less degree than them the vital forces, which also in this point of view, is not at their level, if I may so express myself, and which is consequently very proper, to interrupt in a certain degree the vital communications that would otherwise exist. ”

“ Some four-fifths of the weight of the human body are nothing but water. The blood is just a solution of the body in a vast excess of water—as saliva, mucus, milk, gall, urine, sweat, and tears are the local and partial infusions effected by that liquid. ”

“ On a daily average, 2lb. of water is thrown off by the skin in moderate exercise. Water forms 70 per cent. of the whole body, and for the digestive fluids the proportion of water to solid is as 12 to 1. Liquidity is necessary, also, for the actual processes of decay and repair, by causing the passage of fluids of different densities through the various animal membranes from the oxydation of venous blood in the moist air of the lung cells to the repair of tissue by the smallest capillary in the extremities. ”

“ Colds and COUGHS are generally induced by a chill, that produces a contraction of the blood-vessels of the skin; and the waste material, which should be carried from the body by the agency of the vessels of this membrane, is retained in the system, and a great portion of it is returned to the mucous membrane of the lungs. For such is the harmony established by the Creator, that if the function of any portion of the body is deranged, those organs whose offices are similar take on an increased action. ”

“ Food in the stomach and air in the lungs, although surrounded by the body, are still outside of what is called the body proper. To gain entrance into the body proper, a substance must pass through the body wall. This consists of the skin on the outside and of the mucous linings of the air passages and other tubes and cavities which are connected with the external surface.
To get from the digestive organs into the blood, the nutrients must pass through the mucous membrane lining these organs and also the walls of blood or lymph vessels. ”

“ Those physiological functions of the human body that appear to be clearly marked off are really not completely demarcated. Take as example the excretory action of the skin, lungs, and the renal organs. The lungs get rid especially of carbon dioxide; the skin of water; the renal organs of the products of nitrogenous decay. ”

“ The blood is contained in a vast system of pipes, spreading through the whole body, connected with a force pump,—the heart,—which, by its position and by the contractions of its valves, keeps the blood constantly circulating in one direction, never allowing it to rest; and then, by means of this circulation of the blood, laden as it is with the products of digestion, the skin, the flesh, the hair, and every other part of the body, draws from it that which it wants, and every one of these organs derives those materials which are necessary to enable it to do its work. ”

“ To and from the islets of flesh between the capillaries, to the bloodless muscular fibre or bit of nerve or skin which the blood-holding capillaries wrap round. The oxygen has passed from the{88} blood within the capillaries to the flesh outside; from the flesh outside the carbonic acid has passed to the blood within the capillaries. And this goes on all over the body. Everywhere the flesh is breathing blood, is breathing gas dissolved in the blood, just as a fish breathes water, i.e. breathes the air dissolved in the water. ”

“ Your skins are always in the dark. They become pale and bloodless. The blood which should circulate in the skin, retires within the body, producing congestion of the liver, with bad complexion; congestion of the stomach, with dyspepsia; congestion of the heart and lungs, with short and labored breath, and congestion of the brain, with headache.
If the skin, which has so many blood-vessels, and is designed to hold so large a quantity of blood,—if the skin enjoyed a constant, free, vigorous circulation, it would relieve the organs within the body of most of their sufferings. ”

“ The oxygen is in a free, or uncombined, condition—the form in which it can be used in the body.
30.The peculiar work devolving upon the organs of respiration necessitates a special plan of construction—one adapted to the properties of the atmosphere. Being concerned in the movement of air, a gaseous substance, they will naturally have a structure different from the organs of circulation which move a liquid (the blood) . All the organs of the body are adapted by their structure to the work which they perform. ”

“ But the inside of the body also has a skin, as have all its organs. The interior of the head, the throat, the gullet, the lungs, the stomach, and all the intestines, are lined with a skin. This is called the mucous membrane, because it is constantly secreting from the blood a slimy substance called mucus. When it accumulates in the lungs, it is called phlegm. This inner skin also has nerves, blood-vessels, and lymphatics. ”

“ When we come to consider more in detail the results of these actions we find that the various secretions of the body, such as the sweat, gastric juice, bile, milk, urine, &c., may be increased or diminished; that the heart may have its muscular or nervous apparatus stimulated or depressed; that the nerve-centres in the brain, medulla and spinal cord may be rendered more sensitive or the reverse; and that the general metabolism of the body may be altered in various ways. ”

“ Under the pressure in these minute vessels, fluid matter oozes through their walls and bathes all the neighbouring tissues. This fluid holds in solution the matters needed for nourishing the tissues, and it also contains gases in solution. Thus the fluid is both a nutritive and respiratory medium; by it the tissues are nourished, and by it they breathe. ”

“ Comparisons are rightly regarded as objectionable, so it would hardly be safe to say that the group of movements whose primary object is filling the lungs, and which we must study next, is the most important in the body, especially when we have just been speaking of the circulation, which, however, would be of but little use if the blood could not be oxidized ”

“ Care must be taken to change the fluids so slowly that isolated cells will not be washed away.
1. Physiologic or Indifferent Fluids. Serous exudates, blood-serum, hydrocele fluid, etc.; artificial serum made by a mixture of 9 parts physiologic salt-solution with 1 part white of egg; or physiologic salt-solution (0.9 per cent for warm-blooded animals, 0.6 per cent for cold-blooded) .
2. Maceration Fluids. 33 per cent alcohol (24 hours) ; chromic acid 1:5000 (24 hours) ; potassium bichromate 0.1-0.2 per cent solution (2-4 days for nervous tissue) ; 0.1 per cent osmic acid (12-24 hours) ”