The Internal Secretions and the Principles of Medicine Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ...to elaborate the original fluid in which our "anatomical elements can live as do fishes in water," and differing only from that of the ocean, as to constituents, in that it courses in canalicular systems. 8 Claude Bernard: "Lccons sur lea proprietfs des tissus vlvants," pp. 55-r,8, It would appear as if, gradually as the cells are grouped into increasingly complex colonies until an organization such as that of man is reached, their chances of life should be correspondingly reduced. Especially does such a conclusion seem to impose itself when we realize that long before the higher mammals are reached, the preservation of the living state depends upon a multitude of factors; that the structure as a whole is disposed into organs having totally different functions, secretory, contractile, nervous, etc., which in turn are disposed into systems whose functions include chemical processes of various kinds, respiratory, digestive, excretory, etc. Yet such does not appear to be the case under normal conditions, i.e., when the physiological functions of even the higher animal are carried on in accord with provisions of Nature. The normal longevity of the parrot, of the elephant, of man and other animals attests to this: it affords proof that increased complexity does not entail increased vulnerability. The reason for this becomes apparent when function is reduced to its simplest expression in the light of my own views: whenever an exacerbation of activity becomes manifest, it is always evoked by an increased flow of an oxygen-laden fluid whose physical and chemical properties are those of the sea, around cells specifically disposed to determine the function. Even the nerve-cell with its elongated axis-cylinder, its tufts of dendrites, ...