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
When the phenomena of diseases are sympathetic, they follow the same
laws as when they arise from a direct affection. Much has been said of
the sympathies of the stomach, the intestines, the bladder, the lungs,
&c. But it is impossible to form an idea of them, if they are referred
to the organ as a whole, separate from its different textures. 1st.
When in the stomach, the fleshy fibres contract by the influence of
another organ and produce vomiting, they alone receive the influence,
which is not extended either to the serous or mucous surfaces; if it
were, they would be the seat, the one of exhalation, the other of
sympathetic exhalation and secretion. 2d. It is certain that when the
action of the liver is sympathetically increased, so that it pours out
more bile, the portion of peritoneum that covers it does not throw
out more serum, because it is not affected by it. It is the same of
the kidney, the pancreas, &c. 3d. For the same reason, the gastric
organs upon which the peritoneum is spread, do not partake of the
sympathetic influences that it experiences. I shall say as much of the
lungs in relation to the pleura, the brain in relation to the tunica
arachnoides, the heart to the pericardium, &c. 4th. It is undeniable
that in all sympathetic convulsions, the fleshy texture is alone
affected, and that the tendinous is not so at all. 5th. What has the
fibrous membrane of the testicles in common with the sympathies of its
peculiar texture? 6th. No doubt a number of sympathetic pains that we
refer to the bones, are seated exclusively in the marrow.
I could cite many other examples to prove, that it is not this or that
organ which sympathizes as a whole, but only this or that texture in
the organs; besides, this is an immediate consequence of the nature of
sympathies. In fact the sympathies are but aberrations of the vital
properties; now these properties vary according to each texture; the
sympathies of these textures then would do the same.
Observe what takes place in fever, accompanying the different kinds
of inflammation. That attending the mucous is slight, that with the
serous severe, and that with the cutaneous has the peculiar character
of showing itself some days before the eruption, as has been noticed
by Pinel. If we attentively observe the fever which attends the
inflammations of all the systems, we shall find as many differences, as
many peculiar characters, as there are systems. Whence does this arise?
From the difference of the relations that unite the heart to each kind
of texture; now this difference of relations is the result of the
difference of the vital forces peculiar to each.
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