General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 3 (of 3)Bichat, Xavier
Science
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Bichat, Xavier
Human anatomy; Human physiology
It appears at first that the pulmonary perspiration which takes place
upon the mucous surface of the bronchia, which has so much relation
with that of the skin, which increases and diminishes according as this
diminishes or increases, and the matter of which is probably of the
same nature; it appears, I say, that the pulmonary perspiration is made
at least in great part by the system of exhalant vessels, and that if
the combination of the oxygen of the air with the hydrogen of the blood
contributes to produce it, during the act of respiration, it is but
in very small quantity, and it is the portion that is purely aqueous.
Besides, this last hypothesis of modern chemists, contradictory to the
production of all the other fluids thrown out by the mucous surfaces,
appears to me ill adapted to explain the formation of this. When the
same phenomenon is produced in many places, and the explanation that is
given of it is applicable only to one, we should be suspicious of this
explanation.
It should be observed in regard to the pulmonary perspiration, that the
solution of the mucous fluid which lubricates the bronchia, in the air
constantly inspired and expired, furnishes a considerable portion of
this vapour which, insensible in summer, is very evident in winter, on
account of the condensation of the air. The mucous juices are dissolved
like every other fluid; for wherever there is atmospheric air, heat and
moisture, there is evaporation. Here this evaporation is even a means
which nature employs to rid herself, as I have said, of the mucous
juices. If they are too abundant, as in a cold, then the quantity of
air which serves as a vehicle to them, not increasing in proportion,
it is necessary that there should be another mode of evacuation; this
is expectoration which compensates for what the air cannot remove by
solution.
The intestinal juice which Haller has especially considered, but
which appears to be in much less quantity than he thought it, the
œsophagean and gastric juices, particularly this last which has been
supposed to be distinct from the mucous juices, are probably deposited
by exhalation upon their respective mucous surfaces. But in general
it is very difficult to distinguish with precision what belongs in
these organs to the exhalant system, from that which is furnished by
the system of mucous glands, which, as we have said, are everywhere
subjacent to them. Thus we constantly see the mucous fluids of the
œsophagus, the stomach and the intestines, mixing with the œsophagean,
gastric and intestinal fluids.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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