OP NUTRITION. !>K5 



I apprehend, be said, respecting the entire restoration of organs 

 in the human body. Portions of cutis, bone, membrane, blood- 

 vessels, absorbents, and nerves are replaced. That portions 

 of large nerves, fully capable of all the functions of the destroyed 

 pieces, are reproduced, is now a matter of certainty. Minute 

 blood-vessels and absorbents are of course allowed on all hands to 

 be produced in the cure of all solutions of continuity ; * but 

 Dr. Parry, senior, has proved most satisfactorily that in the ram, 

 at least, when a blood-vessel which proceeds some way without 

 giving off a branch is obstructed, new branches sprout forth and 

 establish a communication on each side of the obstruction. f The 

 continuance of circulation was previously attributed to the enlarge- 

 ment of the small anastomosing vessels. Muscle is supplied by 

 tendinous matter. 



Brutes far surpass man in both the ordinary renewal 

 of the integuments and appendages, and in the extraordinary 

 restoration of destroyed organs. The horse periodically sheds 



* Mr. Bauer has observed vegetable tubes to be constnicted by the extrication 

 of carbonic acid gas into a slimy matter prepared for nutrition. Some such 

 opinion was held by Borelli, Tabor, and Hales. He has reason to explain 

 the formation of blood-vessels in coagulated fibrine and pus in an analogous 

 manner, but his experiments have not yet advanced far enough for me to dwell 

 upon them. Phil. Trans. 1818 and 1819. 



Not only divided parts reunite, but even portions completely separated and 

 cold, and parts of different bodies. A soldier's arm was struck off at the battle 

 of Arlon, with the exception of a piece of skin and the subjacent vessels and 

 nerves, and yet the muscles, bones, &c. completely reunited in about eight 

 months. Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales. T. xii. 



Garengeot saw a nose unite after being bitten off, trampled upon, and allowed 

 to lie in the dirt till it was cold. Trait des Operations de Chirurgerie. T. iii. 

 Dr. Balfour saw a similar occurrence in the instance of a finger. Edinburgh 

 Med, and Surgical Journal. 1815. 



Transplantation, for instance, of the cock's testes to the lien's abdomen as 

 well as of the spur to the head, is very common, and was mentioned a century 

 and a half ago by Bartholin. Epist. Cent. 1 74. 



t See Ch. VII. (F.) 



