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
I will not treat of the chemical nature of fat, of the acid it
contains, of the particular alterations it undergoes under different
circumstances, that for example, that it experiences when animal
substances that contain it, such as the skin, the muscles, &c. are for
a long time macerated in water. This would lead me into details foreign
to this work. Besides, I could add nothing to what modern chemists have
said upon this subject.
I will terminate this article with an important remark; it is this,
that in those parts which nature has deprived of fat, it would have
injured their functions. The penis increased in size by it, would not
have had a proper relation to the vagina. The eyelids loaded with
fat could scarcely be raised. Accumulated in the sub-mucous texture,
it would have contracted the cavity of the organs which the mucous
surfaces line. Spread in that which surrounds the arteries, the veins
and the excretories, it would have obstructed the caliber of these
vessels; and here observe, that its uniform absence in the sub-arterial
texture is a proof against the opinion of Haller upon its transudation.
Accumulated in the cerebral cavity, it would have compressed the brain
on account of the resistance of the bony parietes of the cranium, &c.
which do not yield like those of the abdomen, when the gastric viscera
are loaded with fat. In the thorax, the diaphragm can descend, and the
lungs can without danger occupy less space when there is considerable
fat exhaled in the mediastinum. This remark, applicable also to the
serum, explains an important phenomenon in diseases, viz. that a
very small quantity of fluid poured out upon the tunica arachnoides
can disturb the functions of the brain, whilst a great effusion is
unattended with danger in the abdomen or the thorax.
ARTICLE FOURTH.
ORGANIZATION OF THE CELLULAR SYSTEM.
The cellular system, like almost all the others, is composed of a
peculiar texture and of common parts.
I. _Of the texture peculiar to the organization of the cellular system._
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