4 o8 THE BLOOD AND VITAL POWER. 



the patient is rendered much more serious than before. 

 Formerly a patient was bled to cut short the disease ; 

 now, he is bled only for the purpose of relieving the 

 tension of over-distended capillaries. 



The blood has been, and still continues to be, re- 

 garded as a living fluid which carries life to all the 

 tissues. Vital power is said to be reduced by abstrac- 

 tion of blood. Vital power is said to be restored or 

 " renewed " by those remedies which increase the 

 quantity of blood or improve its quality. -That the 

 blood is the medium by which nutrient matter is dis- 

 tributed to. all the tissues of the body, is beyond 

 question. That its qualities are altered in disease, 

 and that in many instances the blood is as it were 

 the starting point of certain morbid changes, is un- 

 doubtedly correct. But that the blood transmits vital 

 power to the body generally, to the tissues of the 

 body individually that vital power is diminished by 

 its abstraction, or increased by any alteration occur- 

 ring in the blood seems to me utterly untenable. 

 There is no reason whatever for assuming that 

 what we call vital power can be carried from one 

 place to another by any fluid or solid, and distributed 

 to structures in a distant part of the body. Nor is it 

 probable that this wonderful vital power can be added 

 to or taken from any tissue at all. When we give 

 stimulants, we do not increase vital power at all. 

 The blood will, I dare say, continue to be called a 

 vital fluid, but the term' is not correct ; for there 



