Prehensile organ

“ It is nothing more than a regulator; than an organ for directing the blood in a determinate course in order that this may not wholly stagnate, or only be the plaything of a force acting in another way, as, for example, through that afforded by the body-cavity and the inner digestive canal. At regular intervals a portion of the blood is sucked through the same, and then by means of the anterior supply tube it is pushed onward into the head, whence it passes into the cavities of the tissues. ”

“ The general secernent organ of the whole body together with all its systems is the sexual system, which having been elevated by virtue of this general character to the rank even of an animal, is a true sexual animal. That which is a general and not a partial excretion, is imparted by the sexual animal. It is the animal reversed.
2936. Thus the secernent organ of the general circulation must belong to the sexual system, and perform in it that which the liver, or in other words the reverse of the lungs, has done in the splanchnic circulation. The kidneys are the lungs reversed. ”

“ First, other congeries of glands occupy but a particular part of the system, or constitute a particular organ, as the liver, or kidneys; but those glands, which secrete the mucus, and perspirable matter, which are called capillaries, are of very great extent; they receive the blood from the arteries, separate from it the mucus, which lines every cell, and covers every cavity of body; and the perspirable matter, which softens and lubricates the whole surface of the skin, and the more extensive surface of the air-vessels, which compose the lungs. ”

“ Through this faculty of the lining tissue of the blood-vessels, the size of the lumen and the direction of branching are so regulated as to oppose the least possible resistance to the flow of the blood.
" (2) The faculty possessed by the endothelium of the capillaries of each organ of adapting itself qualitatively to the particular metabolism of the organ." This adaptedness of the capillaries is, however, more usually an inherited state, i.e., brought about in the first period of development. ”

“ Each organ is to every other as an excreting organ. In other words, to insure perfect health, every tissue, bone, nerve, tendon, or muscle should take from the blood certain materials and return to it certain others. To do this every organ must or ought to have its period of activity and of rest, so as to keep the vital fluid in a proper state to nourish every other part. ”

“ It may be imagined, from what has now been said, that the generative systems, considered under the relation of organs, forming a common and uniform base for all, ought to be sooner developed than others; and this, observation proves. While there is hardly an outline of the others81 in the first months of the fœtus, these predominate in a remarkable manner. The nerves, and their centre, which is the brain, the arteries, the veins and their central organ, which is the heart, the cellular texture, the exhalants and the absorbents, exhibit this phenomenon in a striking degree. ”

“ Hence the physicians were constantly searching for some object of corresponding shape to an organ of the body. The most natural application of this doctrine would be the use of the organs of the lower animals for the treatment of the corresponding diseased organs in man. Thus diseases of the heart were to be treated with the hearts of animals, liver disorders with livers, and so on. ”

“ Now, by some curious coincidence, explain it as we may, some of our oldest organs are youngest, in the sense of most vigorous, elastic, and resisting, while some of our youngest are oldest, in the sense of decrepit, feeble, and unstable. It is perhaps only natural that an organ like the stomach, for instance, which has a record of honorable service and active duty millions of years long, should be better poised, more reliable, and more resourceful than one which, like the lung or the appendix, has, as it were, a "character" of only about one-tenth of that length. ”

“ As a rule, those which inhabit a temporary host install themselves in a closed organ; in the muscles, the heart, or the lobes of the brain; those, on the contrary, which have arrived at their destination, and which, unlike the preceding, have a family, occupy the stomach, with its dependencies the digestive passages, the lungs, the nasal fossæ, the kidneys, in a word, all the organs which are in direct communication with the exterior, in order to leave a place of issue for their progeny. ”

“ For every structure, therefore, there is a period of emergence from something more general. The earliest discernible germ of any part or organ may be called its primordium. In this sense the ovum is the primordium of the individual, the primitive outer tissue the primordium of all structures of the skin and nervous system, the primitive inner layer of the intestine and all structures connected with it, etc. ”

“ Is not the entire series of parts, organs, and functions bound up in complete and inseparable unity? The vicarious action of one organ for another has been a question among physiologists; and if admitted, as in the case of the salivary glands acting for the kidneys in profuse spitting, and the skin for the liver, the vicarious function can only obtain to a slight degree and in a temporary manner. ”

“ The evolution of a special pumping organ, the heart, associated with the aeration of the body fluids in the gills, led to the perfection of the efficient system of circulation which is found, in the vertebrata.
The blood is to be regarded as alive in as strict a sense as any other- component of the living body. It is a tissue consisting of mobile elements—the blood corpuscles—and a plasma—a colloidal albuminous fluid which is analogous to the more solid intercellular material of other tissues. ”

“ This newly-developed connective tissue gradually contracts, and in so doing crushes the cells and obstructs the blood-vessels, making the organ much smaller than natural, and causing the surface to be covered with little projecting knobs, consisting of portions of liver-tissue that have been less compressed than the part that separates them. ”

“ So far the heart is a single tubular organ expanded into various cavities and having the characteristic ∾–shaped form seen in the human embryo; it contains only venous blood which is forced through the gills to be oxidized on its way to the tissues. In the Dipnoi (mud fish) , in which rudimentary lungs, as well as gills, are developed, the auricle is divided into two, and the sinus venosus opens into the right auricle. ”

“ The general character of tertiary manifestations may be stated as follows: They attack by preference the tissues derived from the mesoblastic layer of the embryo—the cellular tissue, bones, muscles, and viscera. They are often localised to one particular tissue or organ, such, for example, as the subcutaneous cellular tissue, the bones, or the liver, and they are rarely symmetrical. They are usually aggressive and persistent, with little tendency to natural cure, and they may be dangerous to life, because of the destructive changes produced in such organs as the brain or the larynx. ”

“ Near the posterior end of the figure the pelvic girdle (pl) is seen. The largest organ of the embryo, as seen in this section, is the heart, of which the ventricle (vn) seems to be closely surrounded, both in front and behind, by the auricles (au) . The liver (li) is the large, reticular mass back of the heart. Dorsal and anterior to the liver is the lung (lu) , now of considerable size and development. The enteron is cut in several places (oe, i) and its walls are beginning to show some differentiation, though this cannot be seen under the magnification here used. ”

“ As every organ is nourished, and as the mechanism of nutrition is uniform, it follows that these two systems belong to all the organs. After them the cellular system is the most generally found. Where there are no blood vessels, it is sometimes met with, and it always exists where these vessels are. Next to this, the arteries and veins are spread to the greatest number of parts. Oftentimes no nerve is discoverable, where they penetrate, as in the aponeuroses, the fibrous membranes, &c. ”

“ Each organ has the shape of a biconvex lens, sunk to about half its thickness in the skin. The inner half is formed of radially-arranged gland tubes filled with small granular cells, and converging towards the centre of the organ. Into the connective-tissue walls of the tubes extend blood-vessels and nerves. External to the gland tubes there is a layer of long slender cells arranged perpendicularly to the surface, and more externally still a layer of ganglion cells. There is evidence that these organs multiply by division. ”

“ There is a large amount of reciprocity among the tissues; in the case of paired organs the loss of one can be made good by increased activity of the remaining, and certain of the organs are so nearly alike in function that a loss can be compensated for by an increase or modification of the function of a nearly related organ. The various internal parts are connected by means of a close meshwork of interlacing fibrils, the connective tissue, support and strength being given by the various bones. Everywhere enclosing all living cells and penetrating into the densest of the tissues there is fluid. ”

“ Reason would say that an organ can be deranged in two general ways, namely: structurally and functionally. In a structural way it may be impaired either by coming in violent contact with extraneous objects, or it may be crowded or pressed upon by enlarged or displaced associate organs. ”

“ It is only by slow degrees that the great complicity which characterizes many organs is finally attained. For example, the heart is at first only a straight tube. By enlargement and the formation of longitudinal and transverse partitions, the fully developed organ is finally produced. The stomach and intestines are also at first but a simple straight tube. The stomach and large intestine are formed by dilatation; and by a growth of the tube in length while the ends are confined, the small intestines are formed. The other internal organs are successively developed by similar processes. ”

“ In mammals the organ is as a rule of that peculiar shape which is called "kidney-shaped"; a depression termed the hilum, which receives the ducts of the glands, indenting the border of an otherwise oval-shaped gland. In some few mammals the kidney is broken up into lobules ”

“ I do not intend to follow the various steps that were made from time to time to bring nearer to perfection the rude instrument we have just seen; suffice it to say that the organ had its origin from these primitive attempts. If we admit this, which I think we must, what a marvel then, it is, that our glorious organ, with its myriads of pipes, its net-work of mechanical detail, its powerful wind apparatus, its array of stops, and its tiers of key-boards for hands and feet ”

“ Instead of the aliment being obliged to flow, as unto the plant, in a state of suspension in water, the animal moves itself toward its food.
2187. The members are the first organs of prehension. But these are repeated in the head as jaws and teeth. The teeth are the second organs of prehension, but the first which belong to the cephalic intestine; they are called organs of seizure or prehension.
2188. The organ of digestion is, however, one of a chemical character. It must be therefore repeated as such in the head. This is shown in the salivary glands. ”

“ Douce, that it referred to an instrument "with a double row of pipes." Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire, says, "a pair of organs was the term at that time when there were two kinds of organs, the one fixed and the other portable." A more recent writer, Mr. Ashpitel, enlarging upon this passage, adds, "a payre of organs consisted of two organs conjoined, with two sets of keys one above the other; one small, and called the choir, or more probably the chayre organ; and the other the great organ, built, as its name imports, on a large scale, and used in forte passages." ”

“ Whereas the great organ consists of eight stops, namely, two diapasons, two principals, two fifteenths and two two-and-twentieths, one of which stops, and several pipes in the other, have been spoiled by Preston; finding by experience that when two unisons are together in an organ as two principals, two fifteenths, etc., that they never agree well together in time, and one stop of each sort is in a manner as loud as two of the same name ”

“ Et in purificatione [pulsacione?] organorum per annum, iijs. iiijd. 1419. In factura, costarum follium corundem organorum per Johannem Couper, xijd. 1457. Johanni Roose, fratri ordinis Predicatorum, civitatis Ebor, emendanti et reparanti organa ad altare B. M. V. in Eccl. Cath. cum i pari follium pro eisdem, xxxvjs. viiid. ”

“ but at yours, sir!—And meaty jelly too, especially when a little salt, which is the case where there’s ham, is mellering to the organ, is very mellering to the organ.’ Mr Wegg did not say what organ, but spoke with a cheerful generality. ”

“ Hence in the embryo, there is almost no use for the liver, but the umbilical vein passes directly through, a foramen or anastomosis existing from the vena portæ, so that the blood returns from the intestines of the fœtus, not through the liver, but into the umbilical vein mentioned, and flows at once into the heart, mingled with the natural blood which is returning from the placenta; whence also it is that in the development of the fœtus the liver is one of the organs that is last formed ”