Let us now follow the purified stream, with its oxygen-laden
blood-discs, as it leaves the capillary tubes of the lungs. It generally
collects, augmented by blood from other similar vessels, into large
veins, which pour their contents into the left receiver. Thence it
passes on into the left force-pump, by which it is propelled, through a
great arterial vessel and the numerous branches it gives off, to the
head and brain, to the body and limbs, to the abdominal viscera; in
short, to all parts of the body except the lungs. In all the parts thus
supplied, the vessels at length break up into a delicate capillary
network, so that the blood-fluid is separated from the tissue-cells only
by the delicate organic film of the capillary walls. Then the blood
begins to re-collect into larger and larger veins. But a change has
taken place; the blood-discs have delivered up to the tissues their
freight of oxygen; the stream in which they float has been charged with
carbonic acid gas. The veins leading from various parts of the body
converge upon the heart and pour their contents into the right receiver;
thence the blood passes into the right force-pump, by which it is
propelled, by arteries, to the lungs. There the blood-discs are again
laden with oxygen, the stream is again purified of its carbonic acid
gas, and the blood proceeds on its course, to renew the cycle of its
circulation.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Diagram of circulation.
L.A., left auricle of the heart; L.V., left ventricle; H., capillary
plexus of the head; B., capillary plexus of the body; A.C., alimentary
canal; Lr., liver; R.A., right auricle of the heart; R.V., right
ventricle; Lu., lungs.]
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