A Practical Physiology: A Text-Book for Higher Schools — John Shaqi
A Practical Physiology: A Text-Book for Higher SchoolsBlaisdell, Albert F. (Albert Franklin)
Science
A Practical Physiology: A Text-Book for Higher Schools
Blaisdell, Albert F. (Albert Franklin)
Human physiology; Physiology
The extent to which these three great classes of organic materials of
the body exist in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and are utilized
for the food of man, will be discussed in the chapter on food (Chapter
V.). The Proteids, because they contain the element nitrogen and the
others do not, are frequently called nitrogenous, and the other two are
known as non-nitrogenous substances. The proteids, the type of which is
egg albumen, or the white of egg, are found in muscle and nerve, in
glands, in blood, and in nearly all the fluids of the body. A human
body is estimated to yield on an average about 18 per cent of
albuminous substances. In the succeeding chapters we shall have
occasion to refer to various and allied forms of proteids as they exist
in muscle (myosin), coagulated blood (fibrin), and bones (gelatin).
The Carbohydrates are formed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the last
two in the proportion to form water. Thus we have animal starch, or
glycogen, stored up in the liver. Sugar, as grape sugar, is also found
in the liver. The body of an average man contains about 10 per cent of
Fats. These are formed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, in which the
latter two are not in the proportion to form water. The fat of the body
consists of a mixture which is liquid at the ordinary temperature.
Now it must not for one moment be supposed that the various chemical
elements, as the proteids, the salts, the fats, etc., exist in the body
in a condition to be easily separated one from another. Thus a piece of
muscle contains all the various organic compounds just mentioned, but
they are combined, and in different cases the amount will vary. Again,
fat may exist in the muscles even though it is not visible to the naked
eye, and a microscope is required to show the minute fat cells.
10. Protoplasm. The ultimate elements of which the body is composed
consist of “masses of living matter,” microscopic in size, of a
material commonly called protoplasm.[2] In its simplest form protoplasm
appears to be a homogeneous, structureless material, somewhat
resembling the raw white of an egg. It is a mixture of several chemical
substances and differs in appearance and composition in different parts
of the body.
Protoplasm has the power of appropriating nutrient material, of
dividing and subdividing, so as to form new masses like itself. When
not built into a tissue, it has the power of changing its shape and of
moving from place to place, by means of the delicate processes which it
puts forth. Now, while there are found in the lowest realm of animal
life, organisms like the amœba of stagnant pools, consisting of nothing
more than minute masses of protoplasm, there are others like them which
possess a small central body called a nucleus. This is known as
nucleated protoplasm.
Illustration: Fig. 1.—Diagram of a Cell.
A, nucleus;
B, nucleolus;
C, protoplasm. (Highly magnified)
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