Science and the Healing Art; Or a New Book on Old Facts (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Writeks On Physiology. As some persons may read this book who are not physicians, we will quote occasionally from medical authorities, so that they may know what is taught in the schools. And first we will quote a lew extracts from two of the most distinguished medical authorities in the United States touching questions alluded to in the foregoing chapter. Dr. Dalton, in his work on Physiology, says, "We can now estimate from the foregoing details the entire quantity of material assimilated and decomposed by the living body. For we have already seen how much food is taken into the alimentary canal and absorbed by the blood after digestion, and how much oxygen is appropriated from the atmosphere during the process of respiration. We have also learned the amount of carbonic acid evolved with the breath and that of various excretory substances discharged from the body. The following table shows the absolute quantity of these different ingesta and cgesta, compiled from direct experiments which have already been given in the foregoing pages: "absorbed During Twenty-four Hours. "Oxygen, .... 1.019 pounds. Water, . . . 4.735 " Albuminous matter, . . .396 " Starch, . . . .660 " Fat 220 " Salts, .... .040 " Total, . . . 7.070 " " Discharged During Twenty-four Hours. " Carbonic acid, . . . 1.535 pounds. Aqueous vapor, . . 1.155 " Perspiration, . . .1.930 Water of the urine, . . 2.020 Urea and salts, . . . .110 " Feces, . . . .320 " Total, . . . 7.070 " " Rather more than seven pounds are therefore absorbed and discharged by the healthy adult human subject; and, for a man having the average weight of one hundred and forty pounds, a quantity of material equal to the weight of the entire body thus passes through the syste...