General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)Bichat, Xavier
Science
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Bichat, Xavier
Human anatomy; Human physiology
1st. Acute diseases are rarely observed in the arteries. Among all the
bodies that I have examined, I have found but very few in which there
were traces of inflammation in the arterial texture. I would observe
upon this subject, that it is necessary to distinguish accurately
the redness which is, as we have said, the effect of maceration, and
which even appears spontaneously in the dead body some time after
death, especially in the cerebral arteries; it is necessary, I say,
to distinguish it from that which arises from inflammation. In one
the arterial fibres are really red, in the other they appear so only
by the injection of their vessels. Is the common membrane inflamed in
inflammatory fever? I am entirely ignorant. These simple fevers are
so rare, especially in hospitals that we have hardly an opportunity
of examining patients that have died of them. But by supposing that
this inflammation existed, the infrequency of these fevers considered
in their simple state, would prove even how little the arteries are
disposed to inflame. 2d. The arteries are not often the seat of chronic
affections. Except on the one hand aneurism, in which the arterial
texture is hardly altered, but merely broken, and in which consequently
its organic sensibility performs but a very small part; on the other,
the osseous incrustations, most of the alterations that are so frequent
in the other textures, are not observed in this.
This texture must be ranked with the cartilaginous, the
fibro-cartilaginous, the fibrous, the muscular even, &c. as it respects
the infrequency of organic alterations. These textures exhibit a
phenomenon opposed to that of the serous, mucous, glandular, dermoid
systems, &c. which are especially characterized by the frequency of
these alterations. Compare the organic properties, the sensibility
and insensible contractility in the two classes of textures; you will
see them very feeble in the first, in which in a natural state, they
preside only over nutrition; you will observe, on the contrary, that
they are very evident in the second, because there they preside over
nutrition, exhalation, absorption, secretion, &c.
The difficulty with which the arterial texture inflames and
participates in the different alterations of the neighbouring organs,
preserves the integrity of the circulation in many cases. What would
become of this function, if the arteries received as easily as the
other textures, the influence of surrounding diseases? Placed at every
moment by the side of inflamed, suppurating, swelled parts, &c. if they
become changed by their neighbourhood, especially in the great trunks,
a general derangement would soon be felt in the motion of the blood.
Dissect the arteries in the organic affections of the stomach, the
liver, the spleen, &c.; they are untouched, and only a little increased
in size; whilst a general swelling seems to confound in a new mass all
the neighbouring textures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account