Part 17

"The ratio positiva is the perception of the idea, or image of the object moving or changing the fibre.

"The negatio formalis is a denial or refusal to communicate this image to the sensorium. In the process of transformation into sensation, the positive ratio is not changed, but remains the same, and is the first part, or basis, both of internal and external sensation.

"The negatio formalis is destroyed or abolished in any case of impression communicated to the sensorium. Natural perception, in its ratio positiva, is not abolished or degraded by being converted into sensation, but is rather exalted, or gifted with a more dignified nature. By as much as public or general knowledge is preferable to private, or public advantage to that of an individual, by so much is sensation preferable to natural perception. Hence nature formed so many organs of sense, that the phantasy might have notice of what ought to be done, desired, or avoided."

He does not doubt that external sensibility is inherent in the nervous parts of the external organ, whence he infers that it may readily incite the fibres of such organ ad appetendum et movendum; for, as external sensation is communicated to the brain by means of the nerves, it must of necessity be true, that these nerves and nervous parts (such as the fibres,) are the subjects of it. Since then sensibility causes its subject to feel, it consequently enables it to desire and move comformably. For perception in any subject is vain, unless it can desire, and appetence is useless, unless it can move. External sensibility, therefore, may be said to render the fibres _actu irritabiles_, for example, as often as the irritating cause is perceived; but as the irritation is perceived, not by a sensibility, but by a mere natural perception, this it is which constitutes their irritability.

Thus we may perceive that the triunit consisting of perception, appetence, and motion, constitutes the celebrated irritability of our author. But he has been too latitudinarian in his application of the theory; for he did not limit it, as HALLER has subsequently done, to one sort of fibres, or indeed to fibres alone, for he says in cap. IX., "It is to be remarked that natural perception belongs to other parts of the body besides fibres; to wit, to the parenchymata, bones, marrow, fat, blood, recrementitious juices, humours of the eye, and such like, all which are irritable, and increase the irritable constitution of the parts, but these parts hardly admit of the existence of animal perception." HALLER blames GLISSON for having gone so far in his application of the theory, and it is well known that he himself restrained it to the single tissue of muscular fibres, and denominated it vis insitum, or inherent force; whereby he distinguished it from his vis mortua or elastic contraction, on the one hand, and the vis nervosum or voluntary power, on the other; the former being something less, and the latter something more than irritability. GLISSON'S theory, when fully explained, which we cannot for want of space do here, will be found to bear a very strong resemblance, in many points, to that of BICHAT, who has invested the matters of the body with vital powers, far beyond those attributed by HALLER; and as we are not furnished in the present article with sufficient space, we hope in some subsequent number, to place this matter in a plainer light before our readers. In the mean time we may remark, that GLISSON seems to be the first of those who have placed the subject fairly before the medical public; for although faint traces of a similar theory may be perceived before him, especially by translating terms into their equivalents, yet he has the merit of using a term which, in spite of all subsequent modifications, is in daily use.

GLISSON'S latitudinarianism may be contrasted with HALLER'S rigid application: for the latter says, "I call that an irritable part of the human body, which on being touched by a foreign body, renders itself shorter;" thus while GLISSON attributes his triunit of perception, appetence, and motion to all the tissues and fluids, HALLER confines it to muscular fibre alone. No one can doubt that the membranes of the body are endowed with vital properties, but yet they do not shorten themselves on being touched by a foreign body. BICHAT has distinguished their vitality as organic vitality, and the contractile qualities displayed are divided into insensible organic contractility, and into contractility of tissue: but these sorts of contractility mount up by insensible gradations. He says, that "entre la contractilité obscure mais réelle, necessaire a la nutrition des ongles, des poils, &c. et celle que nous presentent les mouvements des intestins, de l'estomac, &c. il est des nuances infinies, qui servent de transition: tels sont les mouvements du dartos, des arteres, de certaines parties de l'organ cutané," &c. We will close with a comparison between GLISSON'S irritability, and BICHAT'S contractility. At page 70 of the Treatise _sur la Vie & la Mort_, BICHAT supposes that a "muscle enters into action, 1st. by the influence of the nerves which it receives from the brain, and this is a case of contractile animale," (which differs in no respect from perception regulated by animal appetency of GLISSON). 2ndly. According to BICHAT, the muscle enters into action "by the excitation of a chemical or physical stimulant applied to it, and which artificially determines a movement of the whole muscle, analogous to what is natural to the heart, and other involuntary muscles. This is sensible organic contractility or irritability," and corresponds to the sensitive perception of the old English physiologist. In the 3d place it enters into action by the stimulus of the fluids which circulate in it, and this is insensible organic contractility or tonicity of BICHAT, and is nothing different from GLISSON'S natural perception. BICHAT makes a fourth case; as for example, when a muscle is divided across, it contracts by a _contractilité de tissue_, or _par defaut d'extension_. We do not perceive how GLISSON'S natural perception can be applied to this case, but he treats of it in his fifth chapter under the head of Cessatio: it is that state to which a fibre is reduced when left to itself, and freed from all stimulus.

BICHAT has attributed to some fibres the power of active elongation. On this subject GLISSON says, "Impossible enim est, ut simplex fibra, sua sola actione, se secundum longitudinem distendat, nec modus quo hæc fiat concipi nedum effari queat non negavero quin in distensione hac, aliqualis fibræ actio includatur, sed ea tota contractiva est, & distensioni ab extranea causa factæ reluctatur." A doctrine as sound as that of the 47th proposition; a doctrine too, without admitting which, we think no man can understand the theory either of simple inflammation, or of the febrile affections. We hope to resume this subject at an early period.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] Hæc ei generatim videbantur, ex igne omnia constare eodemque interire. Diogenes Laertius.

[26] Quatuor æternus genitalia corpora mundus Continet; ex illis duo sunt onerosa, suoque Pondere in inferius, tellus atque unda, feruntur, Et totidem gravitate carent, nulloque premente Alta petunt, aer atque aere purior ignis.--OVID--_Metamorph._

[27] Lib. de Carnibus, HIPPOCRATES says: Quod Calidum vocamus, id mihi immortale esse videtur, cunctaque intelligere, videre et audire, sentireque omnia, tum præsentia tum futura: cujus pars maxima cum omnia perturbata essent in supremum ambitum secessit; quod, mihi veteres æthera appellasse videntur. Altera pars locum infimum sortita, terra quidem appellatur, frigida et sicca multas que motiones habens, et in qua multum sane calidi inest. Tertia vero pars medium aeris locum nacta est, calidum quid existens. Quarta pars terræ proximum locum obtinens humidissima et crassissima. His igitur in orbem agitatis cum turbata essent, calidi magna pars alias in terra relicta est, partim quidem magna, partim vero minor, alias etiam valde parva, sed in multas partes divisa. Et temporis successu a calido resiccata est terra, ista in ea tanquam in membranis contenta circumse putredines excitant, ac longo tempore incalescens quod quidem ea terræ putredine pinguedinem sortitum est et minimum humidi habet, id citissime exustum ossa produxit. Quæ vero naturam glutinosiorem sortita sunt et frigidi communionem habent, ea neque calefacta exuri potuerunt, neque etiam humida fieri ideo formam longe ab aliis diversam nacta sunt et nervi solidi exciterint, cum non multum in iis frigidi inesset. At venæ frigidi multum habebant cajus pars circumcirca ambiens et quod erat glutinosissimum, a calido exassatum membrana extitit. Quod vero erat frigidum, a calido superatum, dissolutum est ideoque humidum evasit.

[28] K. SPRENGEL, Hist. de la Medicine.

QUARTERLY SUMMARY

OF MEDICAL AND SURGICAL INTELLIGENCE.

I. ANATOMY.

1. _Papillæ of the Tongue._--At the upper surface of the tongue, say MM. LEURET and LASSAIGNE, in their recent work on digestion, the mucous membrane presents projections of three different species; and these are, the sensitive papillæ, the epidermoid papillæ, and the mucous cryptæ. The sensitive papillæ are numerous. They occupy the anterior four-fifths of the tongue, on which they are implanted by a narrow pedicle. The rounded head of these papillæ is much more prominent in the living subject, than after death; but injections are capable of restoring them to their pristine form. Nervous fibres from the lingual branch of the fifth pair have been distinctly traced to their roots. These papillæ are of various sizes; at the root of the tongue they form a V. They are all vascular and nervous. The sense of taste is referred by these writers almost exclusively to the above papillæ.

The epidermoid papillæ are of a nature similar to those retroverted prominences so remarkable on the tongue of the cat; as well as in the lion, and some other animals. They are larger in many species than in man, and, in general, the sensibility of the tongue appears to diminish in proportion to the remoteness of the subject from the human structure. The epidermoid papillæ are separated from the tongue along with the epidermis, or rather, epithelium, by maceration for a few days in vinegar. They are pyramidal in form. They are grouped round the sensitive papillæ, except on the edges and point of the tongue, where they are rare. Their base is perforated, and always gives outlet to a crypta. In an epithelium separated from the tongue, these minute and numerous perforations are easily distinguished from the larger ones left by the sensitive papillæ.

The office of the epidermoid papillæ appears purely mechanical.

The only cryptæ which produce, of themselves, a visible projection on the surface of the tongue, are situated at its base. They are formed by the mucous membrane, like other cryptæ, and are scattered between the sensitive papillæ.

In the tongue of birds, there is always a bone or cartilage; and the external membrane is dense. In reptiles the tongue is soft, possessed of little sensibility, and capable of great elongation. In fishes it is endowed with little motion, and is often wanting.--_Bulletin Medicale._

2. _Villi of the Stomach and Intestines._--MM. LEURET and LASSAIGNE state that the villi can be easily injected; most conveniently from the vena portæ, though the arteries may be employed. In the latter case, the matter of injection is effused into the intestinal or gastric cavity. The villi are peculiar to these parts; they are inversely conical, adhering to the membrane by their smaller end. The best mode of exhibiting them, is to tie the vena portæ of a living animal, when they erect themselves by the afflux of blood. These diminutive organs, about 3/100 of an inch long, then exhibit distinctly, under the microscope, four red longitudinal lines, being probably vessels.

Injections made retrograde from the thoracic duct, pass through the villi into the intestines. When the stomach of a man, who died of some complaint not deranging its condition, is examined, we sometimes find its lining membrane covered with a multitude of minute white points. These are the villi in a flaccid state. In those who have died during digestion, they are erected, and of a rosy colour.

When the intestine of a living animal is examined under a microscope, after being carefully washed, a great number of orifices are seen, from each of which exudes a minute drop of a transparent fluid. These rapidly disappear; and then the villi attract attention. What these foraminula are, the reviewer, M. DU FERMON, does not tell us.--_Ibid._

3. _Minute distribution of the Vessels of the Liver._--M. CRUVEILHIER gives, in his lectures, an account of the results he has obtained from a minute injection of the liver. He finds, 1. The acini surrounded with a dense, cellular texture, paler than themselves; 2. The ramifications of the hepatic artery distributed to this cellular envelope; 3. Those of the vena portæ spread around the acini, or granulations of the liver; and 4. Those of the biliary ducts, and of the hepatic veins, emerging from the cavities of these bodies.

Our readers will observe a great similarity, in this, to the arrangement of the lobules of the kidneys.--_Ibid._

4. _Trachea perforating the Aorta._--This odd distribution of parts, was observed by M. ZAGORSKY, at St. Petersburg, in 1802. The aorta divided itself, at its arch, into two branches, which received the trachea between them, and again united, exactly fitting the organ they received. They were found to have compressed the trachea, and probably produced difficulty of breathing.

In another case, in 1808, the right subclavian artery, instead of its usual origin, arose from the left extremity of the arch of the aorta, and crossed behind the trachea, thus including the latter between it and the aorta.

Why do we call the common trunk of the right subclavian and carotid, the arteria innominata? Is coining words so difficult a task, that we cannot find a proper and expressive name for it? The French call it _brachio-cephalic_, and this expresses its office and distribution.--_Ibid._

5. _Monsters._--These productions, hitherto considered as mere objects of wonder, from the study of which no useful inference could be drawn, have recently attracted a good deal of attention in Paris. There seem to be some close affinities discoverable in many of them, not only with the natural and complete forms of animals of various tribes, but even with the actual condition of their own species, while in the foetal state.

The views of M. GEOFFROY ST. HILAIRE seem to us rather mystical and vague. Those of BRESCHET, and the other practical anatomists, we can understand much better.

6. _Malformation of the Heart._--Drs. BAILLIE,[29] LANGSTAFF,[30] and FARRE[31] have each published cases; and M. TIEDEMANN, in his journal of Physiology, now adds a fourth, in which the aorta and pulmonary artery were found to have changed places. In professor TIEDEMANN'S case, the two circulations were entirely distinct; the systemic blood passing from venæ cavæ to right auricle, from right auricle to right ventricle, and from this, through the aorta, to the body at large; while the pulmonary blood ran through an equally simple circle, by the route of pulmonary veins, left auricle, left ventricle, and pulmonary artery. The only communications between the two circulations, were the foramen ovale, the ductus arteriosus, and, in the opinion of M. TIEDEMANN, the inosculations between the branches of the _pulmonary_ and _bronchial_ arteries.

The infant is recorded to have presented _no peculiar appearances_ till the ninth day; when attacks of suffocation came on, attended with the blackish blue colour, and followed by death, at the end of twelve days. Similar histories are said to be given of the cases mentioned above, and the references to which we have copied. We have not the time to consult them.--_Ibid._

7. _Acephalous Mummy._--M. GEOFFROY ST. HILAIRE has read a memoir of some length to the Academy of Sciences, on an acephalous mummy. It was found in a catacomb, destined, with this exception, exclusively to animals. It had an amulet suspended round its neck, being an earthen figure of a cynocephalus, for which it was very probably mistaken by the Egyptians. The collector, M. PASSALACQUA, who obtained it, showed it to M. G. ST. H. as a monkey, of which he wished to know the species. Yet the latter observes that these amulets were only put on human mummies.

M. G. concludes that the monkeys, elephants, &c. said by Livy, Valerius Maximus, Pliny, and others, to have been born of women in their times, and considered as omens of public calamity, were acephala.

8. _New Anatomical Plates._--Messrs. E. W. TYSON and GEORGE SIMPSON are publishing anatomical plates, in London. They are spoken of with approbation. The labours of the latter are designed for the use of painters.

9. _A Manual of Osteology_ has been undertaken by Dr. WEBER, of Bonn, and one volume published.

10. _Soemmering's fine work on the anatomy of the ear_, has been translated into French, and his splendid folio plates copied in lithography.

11. _Does the conjunctiva run over the cornea?_ Messrs. LECOQ, LEBLANC, and ARTUS, state that they have each seen a case in which regular _skin_ and _hair_ were seen, forming a small patch on the cornea of the eye of a quadruped. This is considered as a proof of the existence there of a membrane naturally analogous to the skin; which must, of course, be the conjunctiva. An officer saw another case, in which a hair was seen in the middle of the eye of a horse.--_Bulletin._

II. PHYSIOLOGY.

12. _Electro-Galvanic phenomena of Acupuncturation._--M. POUILLET, after making a complete circuit, through a needle introduced in acupuncture, through wires, and through the patient's mouth, found, by means of a multiplier of SCHWEIGHER with a magnetic needle, that the electro-magnetic rotation could be readily produced; at least so far as to effect small vibrations backwards and forwards. On repeating it with two needles, one of them run into an artery and another into a vein, or one into the medulla spinalis, at the neck, and another into an extremity, in a rabbit, no effect whatever took place.--_Magendie's Journ. de Physiologie._

13. _Variations in Milk._--Milk, says M. VALLOT, in his memoir read to the Academy of Dijon, may be _red_. The cause of this is unknown, though it has given rise to superstitious fears. Some have observed that the cow's teats are then tender. Whether this be cause or effect has not been ascertained.

_Yellow milk_ is said to have been produced by the cow's eating the caltha palustris, (marygold.) _Blue milk_, from a cause still unknown, in the departments of Seine-inférieure and Calvados. Some have ascribed it to the hyacinthus comosus; others to butomus umbellatus.

The _green milk_ of some writers is supposed to be only blue. _Milk not coagulable_ is produced by feeding on husks of green peas, and on mint. _Bitter milk_, from wormwood, sonchus alpinus, and the leaves of the artichoke; and in goats, from eating freely of elder, (sambucus nigra,) and potato-tops; _a disagreeable taste_, from turnips, in Upper Canada. _Garlicky milk_, from causes well known. _Insipid milk_, and _lead-coloured butter_, from equisetum fluviatile. _Milk unnaturally sweet and luscious_, (sucré,) from alpine clover, (trifolium alpinum;) and _red butter_, from the ripe berries of asparagus.--_Bulletin._

14. _Hyoscyamus dilates the pupils of the eyes_, the same manner as stramonium, several Eastern species of datura, and belladonna, which the Europeans use. The strongest species was datura fastuosa.--_Oriental Magazine, apud Du Fermon._

15. _Worms in the Eye._--Several cases of worms in the eye are mentioned in the Bulletin des Sciences Medicales, for Feb. 1826. DEGUILLEME saw several in the eye of a cow; and the case was published by GORIER, a veterinary teacher, in his memoirs. In the report of the proceedings of the veterinary school at Lyons, in 1822-3, there is the case of a mule, in which a knot of worms (crinons) was seen in one eye. _Two_ were extracted; (why no more is not said;) and another subsequently. No inflammation was produced; but a violent nervous agitation of the head, and a turning of it to the left side took place. Next follows an account of a memoir read before the Medical Society of Calcutta, but of which the name of the author is not given. He is represented as stating, that the strongylus armatus minor of RUDOLPHI, and the _filiaris_ (filaria) papillosa, are frequently found in the eyes of the horses in India, but much more so in the cellular membrane, particularly about the loins. He believes that they make their way into the blood-vessels, and, through them, into the eye. Their most ordinary seat is the cellular membrane of the loins; where they exist for years, producing emaciation, and, at length, paralysis of the hind legs. This last the Calcutta author is represented as ascribing to the penetration of the spinal marrow; but he does not appear to have verified it by dissection. TREUTTLER says, he has seen the strongylus armatus in _aneurisms_ of the mesenteric artery of the horse; but the writer in the Bulletin doubts whether any have ever been found in sound arteries.

Dr. KENNEDY, in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions, describes a worm, which he calls _ascaris pellucidus_, (pellucida,) as being common in the eyes of horses in India. A review of BREMSER'S work on worms is expected in our next, and inferences will then be drawn from these singular facts.

16. _Digestion._--MM. LEURET and LASSAIGNE, in their very interesting and valuable experimental essay on this subject, have met with many curious results.

They found no remarkable difference in the saliva of carnivorous and herbivorous animals. The purest saliva was obtained for their experiments directly from the parotid duct, in man, the horse, and dog. The composition was as follows:

Water, 99 parts; mucus, traces; albumen, soda, chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, carbonate of lime, and phosphate of lime, 1 part. Total, 100.

Their experiments on the bile confirmed the results of THENARD and CREVREUIL.

The pancreatic juice is of the specific gravity 1.0026; at 15° of the thermometer: (centigrade, we presume.) Its composition is:

Water, 99.1 parts; animal matter soluble in alcohol, animal matter soluble in water, traces of albumen, mucus, soda, chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, and phosphate of lime, 0.9 parts. Total, 100. This greatly confirms the analogy long observed between the pancreatic liquor and the saliva.

In the _gastric liquor_, there are:

Water, 98 parts; _lactic acid_, muriate of ammonia, chloride of sodium, animal matter soluble in water, mucus, and phosphate of lime, 2 parts. Total, 100.

Dr. PROUT and Mr. CHILDREN have announced the gastric acid, of which so much has been said, to be the muriatic, while M. CHEVREUIL had stated it to be the lactic. MM. LEURET and LASSAIGNE confirm the results of CHEVREUIL, and that with great confidence in their own accuracy. They found the contents of all the four stomachs of ruminating animals acid. MM. PREVOST and LEROYER had stated those of the three first to be alkaline. The observations of LEURET and LASSAIGNE agree with those of MONTEGRE, (vide Dict. des Sci. Med.) who believes digestion to produce acidity as a result of the regular process.

The _fæces_ become alkaline.

_Substances which contain no azote, from whatever class they are obtained, cannot serve for nutrition._ We cannot understand this, especially when compared with what follows. "If, on the contrary, they are soluble, one part is absorbed and another is expelled, either by urine or by the anus; such are sugar, gum, &c." This seems to us like a contradiction.

It is impossible, in the present state of science, to determine the chemical change which aliments undergo in the digestive organs; both on account of their mixture and the insufficiency of our means of analysis.

"The absorption of chyle takes place by the villi." "These communicate directly with the lacteals and the vena portæ."

"The transference of the chyle takes place by the lacteals; nevertheless, if they are obliterated, _this may be done through the vena portæ_."