6 CUASES, SYMPTO>rs AND TREATMEXT OK 



veins we have very small vessels, which form the connecting medium 

 and are called 



Capillaries, which are formed from the breaking down of the arteries, 

 and from the veins on the other side. They are very delicate and 

 minute, and during health the blood circalates through all these in a 

 regular manner, and the liquid portions of the blood continually exudes 

 to supply the various tissues, and at the same lime there are excreting 

 waste tissue, and it is in the capillaries that nutrition is primarily 

 effected. There are also lymphatic vessels, which take up this waste, 

 but the blood vessels also take it up to some extent. All the tissues of 

 the bod}', whether bone, muscle, hair, etc., are nourished by the blood. 

 Blood is the fluid contained in the heart, arteries, capillaries and veins, 

 and is formed chiefly from the chyle, and when first drawn from the 

 body it has the appearance of a homogeneous fluid. You would think 

 it composed of but one thing, but after a while it loses this appearance. 

 It has a saline taste. The halitu is a smell, or faint odour, which 

 arises from a watery vapour, from freshly drawn blood, and is character- 

 istic of the animal from which it was freely drawn. The temperature of 

 the blood is 98° to 100"^. Blood is of red colour, viewed as a whole, and 

 is a fluid, but not a perfect fluid. It is composed of a fluid portion, the 

 liquor sanguinis aud a solid portion, corpuscles, or blood cells. The 

 corpuscles are of two kinds, the red and the white ; the red being the 

 more numerous, the average being about 250 red to' 1 white, but they 

 vary both in health and disease. These corpuscles float in the liquor 

 sanguinis. These corpuscles a^e very important. They are said to 

 possess vital jDroperties ; are said to assimulate material from the blood, 

 which is called globuline, and haematine. They assimilate material for 

 the right composition of the blood. The red corpuscles give colour to 

 the blood. In warm-blooded animals, the white corpuscles are the larger 

 of the two, and are rather irregular in outline, and are found to change 

 their form to a great extent. The red corpuscles also change during 

 disease. If they do not receive a sufficient supply of water they become 

 dried up, to some extent ; the capillaries are differently arranged in 

 different tissues, as in the mucous membrane, the pkin, the villi of the 

 intestines, air cells (where interchange of gases take place), parotid 

 gland, etc. I will give you an outline of the blood, but different authors 

 give it differently. 



Water 785,0 



Albumen 69.0 



Fibrins. .. 3.0 



Alkaline and Neutral Salts 8.5 



Fatty and Extractive matters 7.5 



Corpuscles 127.0 



Albumen, fibrine and salts in solution form the liquor sanguinis. 



Liquor sanguinis 673, corpuscles 127 parts in 1000. 



Alkaline aud neutral salts : Chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, 



phosphate of soda, carbonate of soda, phosphate of magnesia, phosphate of 



lime, phosphate of iron, oxide of iron. 



There is a large amount of water that gives blood its fluidity. If the 

 water is drawn off by evaporation, there is a solid left, which is of no use 

 for nutrition. There is intense suffering from thirst on this account. 

 Albumen is a remarkable ingredient of the blood. The white of an egg 

 is a good example of albumen. Albumen is the original pabulum from 

 which all the tissues of the blood are formed ; it holds the salts in solu- 

 tion. Some say there is no fibrine to circulating blood, but we will sup- 

 pose that it does exist, and is the property of coagulation. Other 

 constituents are chloride of sodium, potassium, etc. Animals remote 



