Inquiry into the Nature and Properties of the Blood. 201 



source than from the blood ; we may also be enabled to see 

 in what manner, and under what sense, it may be regarded as 

 the life of the body ; inasmuch as our experience proves to 

 us, that the state and condition of animal life depends upon 

 the nature, cu7istitution, determination, continuity and quantity 

 of the blood; and that under the same view, its vessels, or the 

 arteries and veins, are neither more nor less than its determi- 

 nations, composing in fact for the most part the entire body. 

 Moreover, when the proofs to be derived from the best che- 

 mical authorities are adduced, of the variety of elements, whe- 

 ther ultimate or proximate, that enter into the composition of 

 the blood, it will be seen that this fluid is in fact a complex of 

 many things existing in the world, and as it were, a semi- 

 nary and storehouse of whatsoever exists in the body ; for it 

 contains, as will be shown in the next lecture, salts of various 

 kinds, both fixed and volatile, and the gaseous elements, — as 

 oxygen, hydrogen, and azote ; in short, numerous products 

 from the three kingdoms of nature, — the animal, vegetable, and 

 mineral ; and imbibes also those things which the atmosphere 

 conveys in its bosom or holds in solution ; for by means of 

 the lungs or respiratory apparatus, it exposes itself to the air, 

 to be enriched with its treasures. 



Now as the blood contains in itself, in this compendious man- 

 ner, so many of the productions of the whole world, and of 

 its several kingdoms ; may it not be allowable to infer that 

 these were all created for this end, — namely, to administer to 

 its composition and continual renewal ? For it may be ra- 

 tionally argued, that if all things were created for the sake of 

 man, and to afibrd him the means of subsistence and thence of 

 life ; then all things were created for the sake of the blood, 

 which is the parent and nourisher of every part of the bodv: 

 Jbr nothing exists in tlic body 'which did not Jirst exist iii the 

 blood. 



So true is this, that if the texture of any muscle or gland, 

 of which the viscera are for the most part compounded, be 

 divided into its minutest parts, it will be found to consist 

 chiefly of vessels containing blood, and of fibres or nerves 

 containing, or conducting, without doubt, a corresponding 

 and more eminent fluid or blood. And even those parts which 

 do not apj)ear to consist of such vessels, — as the bony, cartila- 

 ginous and tendinous structures, — will nevertheless be found ia 

 their soft and infant state, or during infancy, to be similarly com- 

 posed, as experience can prove. The blood then is not only 

 a treasury and storehouse enriched with all the various pro- 

 ductions of nature, and thence enabled to bestow on the body, 

 as its oUspriiig, whatever it requires for necessity and use ; 



Neva Series. Vol. 1. No. 3. Mar. 1827. 'i D but 



