General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 2 (of 3) — John Shaqi
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 2 (of 3)Bichat, Xavier
Science
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Bichat, Xavier
Human anatomy; Human physiology
The difference of the heat of each system situated in the interior
has not yet been analyzed; I am persuaded that if it was done with
precision, by insulating those which can be, so that they might
communicate by the vessels, we should observe that each separates a
different quantity of caloric, and that consequently there are as
many distinct temperatures in the general temperature, as there are
organized systems.
I am convinced that the ligaments, the cartilages, &c. approximate in
this respect the organs of animals with cold blood, and that if man
was composed of organs analogous to those, his temperature would be
much inferior to what it naturally is. The systems which disengage more
caloric communicate it to those that disengage less. If the hair was in
the middle of the body, it would be as warm as the neighbouring parts,
though its temperature would be independent; it is now always inferior
to that of the body, because it is insulated. Each system has then its
peculiar mode of heat, as each has its peculiar mode of secretion, each
exhalant surface its peculiar mode of exhalation, each texture its
peculiar mode of nutrition; and all this depends immediately on the
modifications that the vital properties have in each part.
It is in consequence of this peculiarity of heat in each system, that
each gives a different sensation in inflammation. Compare the sharp and
biting heat of erysipelas with that of phlegmon; certain dull, obscure
heats, the forerunners of organic affections, with the acute heats
of different inflammations; apply the hand to the skin in different
fevers, you will see that each is almost marked by a particular kind of
heat. Animal bodies alone exhibit these varieties of nature in heat;
minerals have only varieties in degree.
We understand from the principles explained above, not only the
local alterations of heat, but also the general derangement that
takes place in its disengagement, from the effect of diseases,
whether this disengagement is increased, diminished, or affected with
irregularities, as in certain ataxic fevers, in phthisis, when the
palms of the hands and the face are warmer in some cases, &c. Who does
not know that oftentimes when the extremities are frozen, the patient
feels an extraordinary internal heat? It is sufficient that the forces
of the capillary system be differently modified, that the heat may be
so also.
Observe, in fact, that the alterations of heat in diseases are as
frequent as those of the exhalations and secretions, and that they
always present, like the first, a previous derangement in the vital
forces. If chemists apply their theories to these morbid changes of
heat, instead of considering them as a necessary consequence of the
state in which the vital forces are then found, they will necessarily
find in them an insurmountable obstacle.
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