Additional Experiments.

Experiment 66. Test a portion of C (Experiment 57) with solution of iodine; no blue color is obtained, as all the starch has disappeared, having been converted into a reducing sugar, or maltose.

Experiment 67. Make a thick starch paste; place some in test tubes, labeled A and B. Keep A for comparison, and to B add saliva, and expose both to about 104° F. A is unaffected, while B soon becomes fluid—within two minutes—and loses its opalescence; this liquefaction is a process quite antecedent to the saccharifying process which follows.

Experiment 68. To show the action of gastric juice on milk. Mix two teaspoonfuls of fresh milk in a test tube with a few drops of neutral artificial gastric juice;[[30]] keep at about 100° F. In a short time the milk curdles, so that the tube can be inverted without the curd falling out. By and by whey is squeezed out of the clot. The curdling of milk by the rennet ferment present in the gastric juice, is quite different from that produced by the “souring of milk,” or by the precipitation of caseinogen by acids. Here the casein (carrying with it most of the fats) is precipitated in a neutral fluid.

Experiment 69. To the test tube in the preceding experiment, add two teaspoonfuls of dilute hydrochloric acid, and keep at 100° F. for two hours. The pepsin in the presence of the acid digests the casein, gradually dissolving it, forming a straw-colored fluid containing peptones. The peptonized milk has a peculiar odor and bitter taste.

Experiment 70. To show the action of rennet on milk. Place milk in a test tube, add a drop or two of commercial rennet, and place the tube in a water-bath at about 100° F. The milk becomes solid in a few minutes, forming a curd, and by and by the curd of casein contracts, and presses out a fluid,—the whey.

Experiment 71. Repeat the experiment, but previously boil the rennet. No such result is obtained as in the preceding experiment, because the rennet ferment is destroyed by heat.

Experiment 72. To show the effect of the pancreatic ferment (trypsin) upon albuminous matter. Half fill three test tubes, A, B, C, with one-per-cent solution of sodium carbonate, and add 5 drops of liquor pancreaticus, or a few grains of Fairchild’s extract of pancreas, in each. Boil B, and make C acid with dilute hydrochloric acid. Place in each tube an equal amount of well-washed fibrin, plug the tubes with absorbent cotton, and place all in a water-bath at about 100° F.

Experiment 73. Examine from time to time the three test tubes in the preceding experiment. At the end of one, two, or three hours, there is no change in B and C, while in A the fibrin is gradually being eroded, and finally disappears; but it does not swell up, and the solution at the same time becomes slightly turbid. After three hours, still no change is observable in B and C.

Experiment 74. Filter A, and carefully neutralize the filtrate with very dilute hydrochloric or acetic acid, equal to a precipitate of alkali-albumen. Filter off the precipitate, and on testing the filtrate, peptones are found. The intermediate bodies, the albumoses, are not nearly so readily obtained from pancreatic as from gastric digests.

Experiment 75. Filter B and C, and carefully neutralize the filtrates. They give no precipitate. No peptones are found.

Experiment 76. To show the action of pancreatic juice upon the albuminous ingredients (casein) of milk. Into a four-ounce bottle put two tablespoonfuls of cold water; add one grain of Fairchild’s extract of pancreas, and as much baking soda as can be taken up on the point of a penknife. Shake well, and add four tablespoonfuls of cold, fresh milk. Shake again.
Now set the bottle into a basin of hot water (as hot as one can bear the hand in), and let it stand for about forty-five minutes. While the milk is digesting, take a small quantity of milk in a goblet, and stir in ten drops or more of vinegar. A thick curd of casein will be seen.
Upon applying the same test to the digested milk, no curd will be made. This is because the pancreatic ferment (trypsin) has digested the casein into “peptone,” which does not curdle. This digested milk is therefore called “peptonized milk.”

Experiment 77. To show the action of bile. Obtain from the butcher some ox bile. Note its bitter taste, peculiar odor, and greenish color. It is alkaline or neutral to litmus paper. Pour it from one vessel to another, and note that strings of mucin (from the lining membrane of the gall bladder) connect one vessel with the other. It is best to precipitate the mucin by acetic acid before making experiments; and to dilute the clear liquid with a little distilled water.

Experiment 78. Test for bile pigments. Place a few drops of bile on a white porcelain slab. With a glass rod place a drop or two of strong nitric acid containing nitrous acid near the drop of bile; bring the acid and bile into contact. Notice the succession of colors, beginning with green and passing into blue, red, and yellow.

Experiment 79. To show the action of bile on fats. Mix three teaspoonfuls of bile with one-half a teaspoonful of almond oil, to which some oleic acid is added. Shake well, and keep the tube in a water-bath at about 100° F. A very good emulsion is obtained.

Experiment 80. To show that bile favors filtration and the absorption of fats. Place two small funnels of exactly the same size in a filter stand, and under each a beaker. Into each funnel put a filter paper; moisten the one with water (A) and the other with bile (B). Pour into each an equal volume of almond oil; cover with a slip of glass to prevent evaporation. Set aside for twelve hours, and note that the oil passes through B, but scarcely any through A. The oil filters much more readily through the one moistened with bile, than through the one moistened with water.

Experiments with the Fats.

Experiment 81. Use olive oil or lard. Show by experiment that they are soluble in ether, chloroform and hot water, but insoluble in water alone.

Experiment 82. Dissolve a few drops of oil or fat in a teaspoonful of ether. Let a drop of the solution fall on a piece of tissue or rice paper. Note the greasy stain, which does not disappear with the heat.

Experiment 83. Pour a little cod-liver oil into a test tube; add a few drops of a dilute solution of sodium carbonate. The whole mass becomes white, making an emulsion.

Experiment 84. Shake up olive oil with a solution of albumen in a test tube. Note that an emulsion is formed.

Chapter VII.
The Blood and Its Circulation.

177. The Circulation. All the tissues of the body are traversed by exceedingly minute tubes called capillaries, which receive the blood from the arteries, and convey it to the veins. These capillaries form a great system of networks, the meshes of which are filled with the elements of the various tissues. That is, the capillaries are closed vessels, and the tissues lie outside of them, as asbestos packing may be used to envelop hot-water pipes. The space between the walls of the capillaries and the cells of the tissues is filled with lymph. As the blood flows along the capillaries, certain parts of the plasma of the blood filter through their walls into the lymph, and certain parts of the lymph filter through the cell walls of the tissues and mingle with the blood current. The lymph thus acts as a medium of exchange, in which a transfer of material takes place between the blood in the capillaries and the lymph around them. A similar exchange of material is constantly going on between the lymph and the tissues themselves.

This, then, we must remember,—that in every tissue, so long as the blood flows, and life lasts, this exchange takes place between the blood within the capillaries and the tissues without.

The stream of blood to the tissues carries to them the material, including the all-important oxygen, with which they build themselves up and do their work. The stream from the tissues carries into the blood the products of certain chemical changes which have taken place in these tissues. These products may represent simple waste matter to be cast out or material which may be of use to some other tissue.

In brief, the tissues by the help of the lymph live on the blood. Just as our bodies, as a whole, live on the things around us, the food and the air, so do the bodily tissues live on the blood which bathes them in an unceasing current, and which is their immediate air and food.

178. Physical Properties of Blood. The blood has been called the life of the body from the fact that upon it depends our bodily existence. The blood is so essentially the nutrient element that it is called sometimes very aptly “liquid flesh.” It is a red, warm, heavy, alkaline fluid, slightly salt in taste, and has a somewhat fetid odor. Its color varies from bright red in the arteries and when exposed to the air, to various tints from dark purple to red in the veins. The color of the blood is due to the coloring constituent of the red corpuscles, hæmoglobin, which is brighter or darker as it contains more or less oxygen.

Fig. 65.—Blood Corpuscles of Various Animals. (Magnified to the same scale.)

The temperature of the blood varies slightly in different parts of the circulation. Its average heat near the surface is in health about the same, viz. 98½° F. Blood is alkaline, but outside of the body it soon becomes neutral, then acid. The chloride of sodium, or common salt, which the blood contains, gives it a salty taste. In a hemorrhage from the lungs, the sufferer is quick to notice in the mouth the warm and saltish taste. The total amount of the blood in the body was formerly greatly overestimated. It is about 1/13 of the total weight of the body, and in a person weighing 156 pounds would amount to about 12 pounds.

179. Blood Corpuscles. If we put a drop of blood upon a glass slide, and place upon it a cover of thin glass, we can flatten it out until the color almost disappears. If we examine this thin film with a microscope, we see that the blood is not altogether fluid. We find that the liquid part, or plasma, is of a light straw color, and has floating in it a multitude of very minute bodies, called corpuscles. These are of two kinds, the red and the colorless. The former are much more numerous, and have been compared somewhat fancifully to countless myriads of tiny fishes in a swiftly flowing stream.

180. Red Corpuscles. The red corpuscles are circular disks about 1/3200 of an inch in diameter, and double concave in shape. They tend to adhere in long rolls like piles of coins. They are soft, flexible, and elastic, readily squeezing through openings and passages narrower than their own diameter, then at once resuming their own shape.

The red corpuscles are so very small, that rather more than ten millions of them will lie on a surface one inch square. Their number is so enormous that, if all the red corpuscles in a healthy person could be arranged in a continuous line, it is estimated that they would reach four times around the earth! The principal constituent of these corpuscles, next to water, and that which gives them color is hæmoglobin, a compound containing iron. As all the tissues are constantly absorbing oxygen, and giving off carbon dioxid, a very important office of the red corpuscles is to carry oxygen to all parts of the body.

181. Colorless Corpuscles. The colorless corpuscles are larger than the red, their average diameter being about 1/2500 of an inch. While the red corpuscles are regular in shape, and float about, and tumble freely over one another, the colorless are of irregular shape, and stick close to the glass slide on which they are placed. Again, while the red corpuscles are changed only by some influence from without, as pressure and the like, the colorless corpuscles spontaneously undergo active and very curious changes of form, resembling those of the amœba, a very minute organism found in stagnant water ([Fig. 2]).

The number of both red and colorless corpuscles varies a great deal from time to time. For instance, the number of the latter increases after meals, and quickly diminishes. There is reason to think both kinds of corpuscles are continually being destroyed, their place being supplied by new ones. While the action of the colorless corpuscles is important to the lymph and the chyle, and in the coagulation of the blood, their real function has not been ascertained.

Fig. 66.—Blood Corpuscles of Man.

Experiment 85. To show the blood corpuscles. A moderately powerful microscope is necessary to examine blood corpuscles. Let a small drop of blood (easily obtained by pricking the finger with a needle) be placed upon a clean slip of glass, and covered with thin glass, such as is ordinarily used for microscopic purposes.

The blood is thus spread out into a film and may be readily examined. At first the red corpuscles will be seen as pale, disk-like bodies floating in the clear fluid. Soon they will be observed to stick to each other by their flattened faces, so as to form rows. The colorless corpuscles are to be seen among the red ones, but are much less numerous.

182. The Coagulation of the Blood. Blood when shed from the living body is as fluid as water. But it soon becomes viscid, and flows less readily from one vessel to another. Soon the whole mass becomes a nearly solid jelly called a clot. The vessel containing it even can be turned upside down, without a drop of blood being spilled. If carefully shaken out, the mass will form a complete mould of the vessel.

At first the clot includes the whole mass of blood, takes the shape of the vessel in which it is contained, and is of a uniform color. But in a short time a pale yellowish fluid begins to ooze out, and to collect on the surface. The clot gradually shrinks, until at the end of a few hours it is much firmer, and floats in the yellowish fluid. The white corpuscles become entangled in the upper portion of clot, giving it a pale yellow look on the top, known as the buffy coat. As the clot is attached to the sides of the vessel, the shrinkage is more pronounced toward the center, and thus the surface of the clot is hollowed or cupped, as it is called. This remarkable process is known as coagulation, or the clotting of blood; and the liquid which separates from the clot is called serum. The serum is almost entirely free from corpuscles, these being entangled in the fibrin.

Fig. 67.—Diagram of Clot with Buffy Coat.

This clotting of the blood is due to the formation in the blood, after it is withdrawn from the living body, of a substance called fibrin.[[31]] It is made up of a network of fine white threads, running in every direction through the plasma, and is a proteid substance. The coagulation of the blood may be retarded, and even prevented, by a temperature below 40° F., or a temperature above 120° F. The addition of common salt also prevents coagulation. The clotting of the blood may be hastened by free access to air, by contact with roughened surfaces, or by keeping it at perfect rest.

This power of coagulation is of the most vital importance. But for this, a very small cut might cause bleeding sufficient to empty the blood-vessels, and death would speedily follow. In slight cuts, Nature plugs up the wound with clots of blood, and thus prevents excessive bleeding. The unfavorable effects of the want of clotting are illustrated in some persons in whom bleeding from even the slightest wounds continues till life is in danger. Such persons are called “bleeders,” and surgeons hesitate to perform on them any operation, however trivial, even the extraction of a tooth being often followed by an alarming loss of blood.

Experiment 86. A few drops of fresh blood may be easily obtained to illustrate important points in the physiology of blood, by tying a string tight around the finger, and piercing it with a clean needle. The blood runs freely, is red and opaque. Put two or three drops of fresh blood on a sheet of white paper, and observe that it looks yellowish.

Experiment 87. Put two or three drops of fresh blood on a white individual butter plate inverted in a saucer of water. Cover it with an inverted goblet. Take off the cover in five minutes, and the drop has set into a jelly-like mass. Take it off in half an hour, and a little clot will be seen in the watery serum.

Experiment 88. To show the blood-clot. Carry to the slaughter house a clean, six or eight ounce, wide-mouthed bottle. Fill it with fresh blood. Carry it home with great care, and let it stand over night. The next day the clot will be seen floating in the nearly colorless serum.

Experiment 89. Obtain a pint of fresh blood; put it into a bowl, and whip it briskly for five minutes, with a bunch of dry twigs. Fine white threads of fibrin collect on the twigs, the blood remaining fluid. This is “whipped” or defibrinated blood, which has lost the power of coagulating spontaneously.

183. General Plan of Circulation. All the tissues of the body depend upon the blood for their nourishment. It is evident then that this vital fluid must be continually renewed, else it would speedily lose all of its life-giving material. Some provision, then, is necessary not only to have the blood renewed in quantity and quality, but also to enable it to carry away impurities.

So we must have an apparatus of circulation. We need first a central pump from which branch off large pipes, which divide into smaller and smaller branches until they reach the remotest tissues. Through these pipes the blood must be pumped and distributed to the whole body. Then we must have a set of return pipes by which the blood, after it has carried nourishment to the tissues, and received waste matters from them, shall be brought back to the central pumping station, to be used again. We must have also some apparatus to purify the blood from the waste matter it has collected.

Fig. 68.—Anterior View of the Heart.

This central pump is the heart. The pipes leading from it and gradually growing smaller and smaller are the arteries. The very minute vessels into which they are at last subdivided are capillaries. The pipes which convey the blood back to the heart are the veins. Thus, the arteries end in the tissues in fine, hair-like vessels, the capillaries; and the veins begin in the tissues in exceedingly small tubes,—the capillaries. Of course, there can be no break in the continuity between the arteries and the vein. The apparatus of circulation is thus formed by the heart, the arteries, the capillaries, and the veins.

184. The Heart. The heart is a pear-shaped, muscular organ roughly estimated as about the size of the persons closed fist. It lies in the chest behind the breastbone, and is, lodged between the lobes of the lungs, which partly cover it. In shape the heart resembles a cone, the base of which is directed upwards, a little backwards, and to the right side, while the apex is pointed downwards, forwards, and to the left side. During life, the apex of the heart beats against the chest wall in the space between the fifth and sixth ribs, and about an inch and a half to the left of the middle line of the body. The beating of the heart can be readily felt, heard, and often seen moving the chest wall as it strikes against it.

Fig. 69.—Diagram illustrating the Structure of a Serous Membrane.

The heart does not hang free in the chest, but is suspended and kept in position to some extent by the great vessels connected with it. It is enclosed in a bell-shaped covering called the pericardium. This is really double, with two layers, one over another. The inner or serous layer covers the external surface of the heart, and is reflected back upon itself in order to form, like all membranes of this kind, a sac without an opening.[[32]] The heart is thus covered by the pericardial sac, but is not contained inside its cavity. The space between the two membranes is filled with serous fluid. This fluid permits the heart and the pericardium to glide upon one another with the least possible amount of friction.[[33]]

The heart is a hollow organ, but the cavity is divided into two parts by a muscular partition forming a left and a right side, between which there is no communication. These two cavities are each divided by a horizontal partition into an upper and a lower chamber. These partitions, however, include a set of valves which open like folding doors between the two rooms. If these doors are closed there are two separate rooms, but if open there is practically only one room. The heart thus has four chambers, two on each side. The two upper chambers are called auricles from their supposed resemblance to the ear. The two lower chambers are called ventricles, and their walls form the chief portion of the muscular substance of the organ. There are, therefore, the right and left auricles, with their thin, soft walls, and the right and left ventricles, with their thick and strong walls.

185. The Valves of the Heart. The heart is a valvular pump, which works on mechanical principles, the motive power being supplied by the contraction of its muscular fibers. Regarding the heart as a pump, its valves assume great importance. They consist of thin, but strong, triangular folds of tough membrane which hang down from the edges of the passages into the ventricles. They may be compared to swinging curtains which, by opening only one way, allow the blood to flow from the auricles to the ventricles, but by instantly folding back prevent its return.

Fig. 70.—Lateral Section of the Right Chest. (Showing the relative position of the heart and its great vessels, the œsophagus and trachea.)

The valve on the right side is called the tricuspid, because it consists of three little folds which fall over the opening and close it, being kept from falling too far by a number of slender threads called chordæ tendinæ. The valve on the left side, called the mitral, from its fancied resemblance to a bishop’s mitre, consists of two folds which close together as do those of the tricuspid valve.

The slender cords which regulate the valves are only just long enough to allow the folds to close together, and no force of the blood pushing against the valves can send them farther back, as the cords will not stretch The harder the blood in the ventricles pushes back against the valves, the tighter the cords become and the closer the folds are brought together, until the way is completely closed.

From the right ventricle a large vessel called the pulmonary artery passes to the lungs, and from the left ventricle a large vessel called the aorta arches out to the general circulation of the body. The openings from the ventricles into these vessels are guarded by the semilunar valves. Each valve has three folds, each half-moon-shaped, hence the name semilunar. These valves, when shut, prevent any backward flow of the blood on the right side between the pulmonary artery and the right ventricle, and on the left side between the aorta and the left ventricle.

Fig. 71.—Right Cavities of the Heart.

186. General Plan of the Blood-vessels Connected with the Heart. There are numerous blood-vessels connected with the heart, the relative position and the use of which must be understood. The two largest veins in the body, the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava, open into the right auricle. These two veins bring venous blood from all parts of the body, and pour it into the right auricle, whence it passes into the right ventricle.

From the right ventricle arises one large vessel, the pulmonary artery, which soon divides into two branches of nearly equal size, one for the right lung, the other for the left. Each branch, having reached its lung, divides and subdivides again and again, until it ends in hair-like capillaries, which form a very fine network in every part of the lung. Thus the blood is pumped from the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery and distributed throughout the two lungs (Figs. [86] and [88]).

We will now turn to the left side of the heart, and notice the general arrangement of its great vessels. Four veins, called the pulmonary veins, open into the left auricle, two from each lung. These veins start from very minute vessels the continuation of the capillaries of the pulmonary artery. They form larger and larger vessels until they become two large veins in each lung, and pour their contents into the left auricle. Thus the pulmonary artery carries venous blood from the right ventricle to the lungs, as the pulmonary veins carry arterial blood from the lungs to the left auricle.

From the left ventricle springs the largest arterial trunk in the body, over one-half of an inch in diameter, called the aorta. From the aorta other arteries branch off to carry the blood to all parts of the body, only to be again brought back by the veins to the right side, through the cavities of the ventricles. We shall learn in [Chapter VIII.] that the main object of pumping the blood into the lungs is to have it purified from certain waste matters which it has taken up in its course through the body, before it is again sent on its journey from the left ventricle.

187. The Arteries. The blood-vessels are flexible tubes through which the blood is borne through the body. There are three kinds,—the arteries, the veins, and the capillaries, and these differ from one another in various ways.

The arteries are the highly elastic and extensible tubes which carry the pure, fresh blood outwards from the heart to all parts of the body. They may all be regarded as branches of the aorta. After the aorta leaves the left ventricle it rises towards the neck, but soon turns downwards, making a curve known as the arch of the aorta.

From the arch are given off the arteries which supply the head and arms with blood. These are the two carotid arteries, which run up on each side of the neck to the head, and the two subclavian arteries, which pass beneath the collar bone to the arms. This great arterial trunk now passes down in front of the spine to the pelvis, where it divides into two main branches, which supply the pelvis and the lower limbs.

The descending aorta, while passing downwards, gives off arteries to the different tissues and organs. Of these branches the chief are the cœliac artery, which subdivides into three great branches,—one each to supply the stomach, the liver, and the spleen; then the renal arteries, one to each kidney; and next two others, the mesenteric arteries, to the intestines. The aorta at last divides into two main branches, the common iliac arteries, which, by their subdivisions, furnish the arterial vessels for the pelvis and the lower limbs.

Fig. 72.—Left Cavities of the Heart.

The flow of blood in the arteries is caused by the muscular force of the heart, aided by the elastic tissues and muscular fibers of the arterial walls, and to a certain extent by the muscles themselves. Most of the great arterial trunks lie deep in the fleshy parts of the body; but their branches are so numerous and become so minute that, with a few exceptions, they penetrate all the tissues of the body,—so much so, that the point of the finest needle cannot be thrust into the flesh anywhere without wounding one or more little arteries and thus drawing blood.

188. The Veins. The veins are the blood-vessels which carry the impure blood from the various tissues of the body to the heart. They begin in the minute capillaries at the extremities of the four limbs, and everywhere throughout the body, and passing onwards toward the heart, receive constantly fresh accessions on the way from myriad other veins bringing blood from other wayside capillaries, till the central veins gradually unite into larger and larger vessels until at length they form the two great vessels which open into the right auricle of the heart.

These two great venous trunks are the inferior vena cava, bringing the blood from the trunk and the lower limbs, and the superior vena cava, bringing the blood from the head and the upper limbs. These two large trunks meet as they enter the right auricle. The four pulmonary veins, as we have learned, carry the arterial blood from the lungs to the left auricle.

Fig. 73.

A large vein generally accompanies its corresponding artery, but most veins lie near the surface of the body, just beneath the skin. They may be easily seen under the skin of the hand and forearm, especially in aged persons. If the arm of a young person is allowed to hang down a few moments, and then tightly bandaged above the elbow to retard the return of the blood, the veins become large and prominent.

The walls of the larger veins, unlike arteries, contain but little of either elastic or muscular tissue; hence they are thin, and when empty collapse. The inner surfaces of many of the veins are supplied with pouch-like folds, or pockets, which act as valves to impede the backward flow of the blood, while they do not obstruct blood flowing forward toward the heart. These valves can be shown by letting the forearm hang down, and sliding the finger upwards over the veins ([Fig. 73]).

The veins have no force-pump, like the arteries, to propel their contents towards their destination. The onward flow of the blood in them is due to various causes, the chief being the pressure behind of the blood pumped into the capillaries. Then as the pocket-like valves prevent the backward flow of the blood, the pressure of the various muscles of the body urges along the blood, and thus promotes the onward flow.

The forces which drive the blood through the arteries are sufficient to carry the blood on through the capillaries. It is calculated that the onward flow in the capillaries is about 1/50 to 1/33 of an inch in a second, while in the arteries the blood current flows about 16 inches in a second, and in the great veins about 4 inches every second.

Fig. 74.—The Structure of Capillaries.
Capillaries of various sizes, showing cells with nuclei

189. The Capillaries. The capillaries are the minute, hair-like tubes, with very thin walls, which form the connection between the ending of the finest arteries and the beginning of the smallest veins. They are distributed through every tissue of the body, except the epidermis and its products, the epithelium, the cartilages, and the substance of the teeth. In fact, the capillaries form a network of the tiniest blood-vessels, so minute as to be quite invisible, at least one-fourth smaller than the finest line visible to the naked eye.

The capillaries serve as a medium to transmit the blood from the arteries to the veins; and it is through them that the blood brings nourishment to the surrounding tissues. In brief, we may regard the whole body as consisting of countless groups of little islands surrounded by ever-flowing streams of blood. The walls of the capillaries are of the most delicate structure, consisting of a single layer of cells loosely connected. Thus there is allowed the most free interchange between the blood and the tissues, through the medium of the lymph.

The number of the capillaries is inconceivable. Those in the lungs alone, placed in a continuous line, would reach thousands of miles. The thin walls of the capillaries are admirably adapted for the important interchanges that take place between the blood and the tissues.

190. The Circulation of the Blood. It is now well to study the circulation as a whole, tracing the course of the blood from a certain point until it returns to the same point. We may conveniently begin with the portion of blood contained at any moment in the right auricle. The superior and inferior venæ cavæ are busily filling the auricle with dark, impure blood. When it is full, it contracts. The passage leading to the right ventricle lies open, and through it the blood pours till the ventricle is full. Instantly this begins, in its turn, to contract. The tricuspid valve at once closes, and blocks the way backward. The blood is now forced through the open semilunar valves into the pulmonary artery.

The pulmonary artery, bringing venous blood, by its alternate expansion and recoil, draws the blood along until it reaches the pulmonary capillaries. These tiny tubes surround the air cells of the lungs, and here an exchange takes place. The impure, venous blood here gives up its débris in the shape of carbon dioxid and water, and in return takes up a large amount of oxygen. Thus the blood brought to the lungs by the pulmonary arteries leaves the lungs entirely different in character and appearance. This part of the circulation is often called the lesser or pulmonic circulation.

The four pulmonary veins bring back bright, scarlet blood, and pour it into the left auricle of the heart, whence it passes through the mitral valve into the left ventricle. As soon as the left ventricle is full, it contracts. The mitral valve instantly closes and blocks the passage backward into the auricle; the blood, having no other way open, is forced through the semilunar valves into the aorta. Now red in color from its fresh oxygen, and laden with nutritive materials, it is distributed by the arteries to the various tissues of the body. Here it gives up its oxygen, and certain nutritive materials to build up the tissues, and receives certain products of waste, and, changed to a purple color, passes from the capillaries into the veins.

Fig. 75.—Diagram illustrating the Circulation.

All the veins of the body, except those from the lungs and the heart itself, unite into two large veins, as already described, which pour their contents into the right auricle of the heart, and thus the grand round of circulation is continually maintained. This is called the systemic circulation. The whole circuit of the blood is thus divided into two portions, very distinct from each other.

191. The Portal Circulation. A certain part of the systemic or greater circulation is often called the portal circulation, which consists of the flow of the blood from the abdominal viscera through the portal vein and liver to the hepatic vein. The blood brought to the capillaries of the stomach, intestines, spleen, and pancreas is gathered into veins which unite into a single trunk called the portal vein. The blood, thus laden with certain products of digestion, is carried to the liver by the portal vein, mingling with that supplied to the capillaries of the same organ by the hepatic artery. From these capillaries the blood is carried by small veins which unite into a large trunk, the hepatic vein, which opens into the inferior vena cava. The portal circulation is thus not an independent system, but forms a kind of loop on the systemic circulation.

The lymph-current is in a sense a slow and stagnant side stream of the blood circulation; for substances are constantly passing from the blood-vessels into the lymph spaces, and returning, although after a comparatively long interval, into the blood by the great lymphatic trunks.

Experiment 90. To illustrate the action of the heart, and how it pumps the blood in only one direction. Take a Davidson or Household rubber syringe. Sink the suction end into water, and press the bulb. As you let the bulb expand, it fills with water; as you press it again, a valve prevents the water from flowing back, and it is driven out in a jet along the other pipe. The suction pipe represents the veins; the bulb, the heart; and the tube end, out of which the water flows, the arteries.

Note. The heart is not nourished by the blood which passes through it. The muscular substance of the heart itself is supplied with nourishment by two little arteries called the coronary arteries, which start from the aorta just above two of the semilunar valves. The blood is returned to the right auricle (not to either of the venæ cavæ) by the coronary vein.
The longest route a portion of blood may take from the moment it leaves the left ventricle to the moment it returns to it, is through the portal circulation. The shortest possible route is through the substance of the heart itself. The mean time which the blood requires to make a complete circuit is about 23 seconds.

192. The Rhythmic Action of the Heart. To maintain a steady flow of blood throughout the body the action of the heart must be regular and methodical. The heart does not contract as a whole. The two auricles contract at the same time, and this is followed at once by the contraction of the two ventricles. While the ventricles are contracting, the auricles begin to relax, and after the ventricles contract they also relax. Now comes a pause, or rest, after which the auricles and ventricles contract again in the same order as before, and their contractions are followed by the same pause as before. These contractions and relaxations of the various parts of the heart follow one another so regularly that the result is called the rhythmic action of the heart.

The average number of beats of the heart, under normal conditions, is from 65 to 75 per minute. Now the time occupied from the instant the auricles begin to contract until after the contraction of the ventricles and the pause, is less than a second. Of this time one-fifth is occupied by the contraction of the auricles, two-fifths by the contraction of the ventricles, and the time during which the whole heart is at rest is two-fifths of the period.

193. Impulse and Sounds of the Heart. The rhythmic action of the heart is attended with various occurrences worthy of note. If the hand be laid flat over the chest wall on the left, between the fifth and sixth ribs, the heart will be felt beating. This movement is known as the beat or impulse of the heart, and can be both seen and felt on the left side. The heart-beat is unusually strong during active bodily exertion, and under mental excitement.

The impulse of the heart is due to the striking of the lower, tense part of the ventricles—the apex of the heart—against the chest wall at the moment of their vigorous contraction. It is important for the physician to know the exact place where the heart-beat should be felt, for the heart may be displaced by disease, and its impulse would indicate its new position.

Sounds also accompany the heart’s action. If the ear be applied over the region of the heart, two distinct sounds will be heard following one another with perfect regularity. Their character may be tolerably imitated by pronouncing the syllables lubb, dŭp. One sound is heard immediately after the other, then there is a pause, then come the two sounds again. The first is a dull, muffled sound, known as the “first sound,” followed at once by a short and sharper sound, known as the “second sound” of the heart.

The precise cause of the first sound is still doubtful, but it is made at the moment the ventricles contract. The second sound is, without doubt, caused by the sudden closure of the semilunar valves of the pulmonary artery and the aorta, at the moment when the contraction of the ventricles is completed.

Fig. 76.—Muscular Fibers of the Ventricles.

The sounds of the heart are modified or masked by blowing “murmurs” when the cardiac orifices or valves are roughened, dilated, or otherwise affected as the result of disease. Hence these new sounds may often afford indications of the greatest importance to physicians in the diagnosis of heart-disease.

194. The Nervous Control of the Heart. The regular, rhythmic movement of the heart is maintained by the action of certain nerves. In various places in the substance of the heart are masses of nerve matter, called ganglia. From these ganglia there proceed, at regular intervals, discharges of nerve energy, some of which excite movement, while others seem to restrain it. The heart would quickly become exhausted if the exciting ganglia had it all their own way, while it would stand still if the restraining ganglia had full sway. The influence of one, however, modifies the other, and the result is a moderate and regular activity of the heart.

The heart is also subject to other nerve influences, but from outside of itself. Two nerves are connected with the heart, the pneumogastric and the sympathetic (secs. 271 and 265). The former appears to be connected with the restraining ganglia; the latter with the exciting ganglia. Thus, if a person were the subject of some emotion which caused fainting, the explanation would be that the impression had been conveyed to the brain, and from the brain to the heart by the pneumogastric nerves. The result would be that the heart for an instant ceases to beat. Death would be the result if the nerve influence were so great as to restrain the movements of the heart for any appreciable time.

Again, if the person were the subject of some emotion by which the heart were beating faster than usual, it would mean that there was sent from the brain to the heart by the sympathetic nerves the impression which stimulated it to increased activity.

195. The Nervous Control of the Blood-vessels. The tone and caliber of the blood-vessels are controlled by certain vaso-motor nerves, which are distributed among the muscular fibers of the walls. These nerves are governed from a center in the medulla oblongata, a part of the brain (sec. 270). If the nerves are stimulated more than usual, the muscular walls contract, and the quantity of the blood flowing through them and the supply to the part are diminished. Again, if the stimulus is less than usual, the vessels dilate, and the supply to the part is increased.

Now the vaso-motor center may be excited to increased activity by influences reaching it from various parts of the body, or even from the brain itself. As a result, the nerves are stimulated, and the vessels contract. Again, the normal influence of the vaso-motor center may be suspended for a time by what is known as the inhibitory or restraining effect. The result is that the tone of the blood-vessels becomes diminished, and their channels widen.

The effect of this power of the nervous system is to give it a certain control over the circulation in particular parts. Thus, though the force of the heart and the general average blood-pressure remain the same, the state of the circulation may be very different in different parts of the body. The importance of this local control over the circulation is of the utmost significance. Thus an organ at work needs to be more richly supplied with blood than when at rest. For example, when the salivary glands need to secrete saliva, and the stomach to pour out gastric juice, the arteries that supply these organs are dilated, and so the parts are flushed with an extra supply of blood, and thus are aroused to greater activity.

Again, the ordinary supply of blood to a part may be lessened, so that the organ is reduced to a state of inactivity, as occurs in the case of the brain during sleep. We have in the act of blushing a visible example of sudden enlargement of the smaller arteries of the face and neck, called forth by some mental emotion which acts on the vaso-motor center and diminishes its activity. The reverse condition occurs in the act of turning pale. Then the result of the mental emotion is to cause the vaso-motor nerves to exercise a more powerful control over the capillaries, thereby closing them, and thus shutting off the flow of blood.

Experiment 91. Hold up the ear of a white rabbit against the light while the animal is kept quiet and not alarmed. The red central artery can be seen coursing along the translucent organ, giving off branches which by subdivision become too small to be separately visible, and the whole ear has a pink color and is warm from the abundant blood flowing through it. Attentive observation will show also that the caliber of the main artery is not constant; at somewhat irregular periods of a minute or more it dilates and contracts a little.

Fig. 77.—Some of the Principal Organs of the Chest and Abdomen. (Blood vessels on the left, muscles on the right.)

In brief, all over the body, the nervous system, by its vaso-motor centers, is always supervising and regulating the distribution of blood in the body, sending now more and now less to this or that part.

Fig. 78.—Capillary Blood-Vessels in the Web of a Frog’s Foot, as seen with the Microscope.

196. The Pulse. When the finger is placed on any part of the body where an artery is located near the surface, as, for example, on the radial artery near the wrist, there is felt an intermittent pressure, throbbing with every beat of the heart. This movement, frequently visible to the eye, is the result of the alternate expansion of the artery by the wave of blood, and the recoil of the arterial walls by their elasticity. In other words, it is the wave produced by throwing a mass of blood into the arteries already full. The blood-wave strikes upon the elastic walls of the arteries, causing an increased distention, followed at once by contraction. This regular dilatation and rigidity of the elastic artery answering to the beats of the heart, is known as the pulse.

The pulse may be easily found at the wrist, the temple, and the inner side of the ankle. The throb of the two carotid arteries may be plainly felt by pressing the thumb and finger backwards on each side of the larynx. The progress of the pulse-wave must not be confused with the actual current of the blood itself. For instance, the pulse-wave travels at the rate of about 30 feet a second, and takes about 1/10 of a second to reach the wrist, while the blood itself is from 3 to 5 seconds in reaching the same place.

The pulse-wave may be compared to the wave produced by a stiff breeze on the surface of a slowly moving stream, or the jerking throb sent along a rope when shaken. The rate of the pulse is modified by age, fatigue, posture, exercise, stimulants, disease, and many other circumstances. At birth the rate is about 140 times a minute, in early infancy, 120 or upwards, in the healthy adult between 65 and 75, the most common number being 72. In the same individual, the pulse is quicker when standing than when lying down, is quickened by excitement, is faster in the morning, and is slowest at midnight. In old age the pulse is faster than in middle life; in children it is quicker than in adults.

Fig. 79.—Circulation in the Capillaries, as seen with the Microscope.

As the pulse varies much in its rate and character in disease, it is to the skilled touch of the physician an invaluable help in the diagnosis of the physical condition of his patient.

Experiment 92. To find the pulse. Grasp the wrist of a friend, pressing with three fingers over the radius. Press three fingers over the radius in your own wrist, to feel the pulse.
Count by a watch the rate of your pulse per minute, and do the same with a friend’s pulse. Compare its characters with your own pulse.
Observe how the character and frequency of the pulse are altered by posture, muscular exercise, a prolonged, sustained, deep inspiration, prolonged expiration, and other conditions.

197. Effect of Alcoholic Liquors upon the Organs of Circulation. Alcoholic drinks exercise a destructive influence upon the heart, the circulation, and the blood itself. These vicious liquids can reach the heart only indirectly, either from the stomach by the portal vein to the liver, and thence to the heart, or else by way of the lacteals, and so to the blood through the thoracic duct. But by either course the route is direct enough, and speedy enough to accomplish a vast amount of ruinous work.

The influence of alcohol upon the heart and circulation is produced mainly through the nervous system. The inhibitory nerves, as we have seen, hold the heart in check, exercise a restraining control over it, very much as the reins control an active horse. In health this inhibitory influence is protective and sustaining. But now comes the narcotic invasion of alcoholic drinks, which paralyze the inhibitory nerves, with the others, and at once the uncontrolled heart, like the unchecked steed, plunges on to violent and often destructive results.

Fig. 80.—Two Principal Arteries of the Front of the Leg (Anterior Tibial and Dorsalis Pedis).

This action, because it is quicker, has been considered also a stronger action, and the alcohol has therefore been supposed to produce a stimulating effect. But later researches lead to the conclusion that the effect of alcoholic liquors is not properly that of a stimulant, but of a narcotic paralyzant, and that while it indeed quickens, it also really weakens the heart’s action. This view would seem sustained by the fact that the more the intoxicants are pushed, the deeper are the narcotic and paralyzing effects. After having obstructed the nutritive and reparative functions of the vital fluid for many years, their effects at last may become fatal.

This relaxing effect involves not only the heart, but also the capillary system, as is shown in the complexion of the face and the color of the hands. In moderate drinkers the face is only flushed, but in drunkards it is purplish. The flush attending the early stages of drinking is, of course, not the flush of health, but an indication of disease.[[34]]

198. Effect upon the Heart. This forced overworking of the heart which drives it at a reckless rate, cuts short its periods of rest and inevitably produces serious heart-exhaustion. If repeated and continued, it involves grave changes of the structure of the heart. The heart muscle, endeavoring to compensate for the over-exertion, may become much thickened, making the ventricles smaller, and so fail to do its duty in properly pumping forward the blood which rushes in from the auricle. Or the heart wall may by exhaustion become thinner, making the ventricles much too large, and unable to send on the current. In still other cases, the heart degenerates with minute particles of fat deposited in its structures, and thus loses its power to propel the nutritive fluid. All three of these conditions involve organic disease of the valves, and all three often produce fatal results.

199. Effect of Alcohol on the Blood-vessels. Alcoholic liquors injure not only the heart, but often destroy the blood-vessels, chiefly the larger arteries, as the arch of the aorta or the basilar artery of the brain. In the walls of these vessels may be gradually deposited a morbid product, the result of disordered nutrition, sometimes chalky, sometimes bony, with usually a dangerous dilatation of the tube.

In other cases the vessels are weakened by an unnatural fatty deposit. Though these disordered conditions differ somewhat, the morbid results in all are the same. The weakened and stiffened arterial walls lose the elastic spring of the pulsing current. The blood fails to sweep on with its accustomed vigor. At last, owing perhaps to the pressure, against the obstruction of a clot of blood, or perhaps to some unusual strain of work or passion, the enfeebled vessel bursts, and death speedily ensues from a form of apoplexy.

Fig. 81.—Showing the Carotid Artery and Jugular Vein on the Right Side, with Some of their Main Branches. (Some branches of the cervical plexus, and the hypoglossal nerve are also shown.)

Note. “An alcoholic heart loses its contractile and resisting power, both through morbid changes in its nerve ganglia and in its muscle fibers. In typhoid fever, muscle changes are evidently the cause of the heart-enfeeblement; while in diphtheria, disturbances in innervation cause the heart insufficiency. ‘If the habitual use of alcohol causes the loss of contractile and resisting power by impairment of both the nerve ganglia and muscle fibers of the heart, how can it act as a heart tonic?’”—Dr. Alfred L. Loomis, Professor of Medicine in the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York.

200. Other Results from the Use of Intoxicants. Other disastrous consequences follow the use of intoxicants, and these upon the blood. When any alcohol is present in the circulation, its greed for water induces the absorption of moisture from the red globules of the blood, the oxygen-carriers. In consequence they contract and harden, thus becoming unable to absorb, as theretofore, the oxygen in the lungs. Then, in turn, the oxidation of the waste matter in the tissues is prevented; thus the corpuscles cannot convey carbon dioxid from the capillaries, and this fact means that some portion of refuse material, not being thus changed and eliminated, must remain in the blood, rendering it impure and unfit for its proper use in nutrition. Thus, step by step, the use of alcoholics impairs the functions of the blood corpuscles, perverts nutrition, and slowly poisons the blood.

Fig. 82.—The Right Axillary and Brachial Arteries, with Some of their Main Branches.

Note. “Destroy or paralyze the inhibitory nerve center, and instantly its controlling effect on the heart mechanism is lost, and the accelerating agent, being no longer under its normal restraint, runs riot. The heart’s action is increased, the pulse is quickened, an excess of blood is forced into the vessels, and from their becoming engorged and dilated the face gets flushed, all the usual concomitants of a general engorgement of the circulation being the result.”—Dr. George Harley, F.R.S., an eminent English medical author.
“The habitual use of alcohol produces a deleterious influence upon the whole economy. The digestive powers are weakened, the appetite is impaired, and the muscular system is enfeebled. The blood is impoverished, and nutrition is imperfect and disordered, as shown by the flabbiness of the skin and muscles, emaciation, or an abnormal accumulation of fat.”—Dr. Austin Flint, Senior, formerly Professor of the Practice of Medicine in Bellevue Medical College, and author of many standard medical works.
“The immoderate use of the strong kind of tobacco, which soldiers affect, is often very injurious to them, especially to very young soldiers. It renders them nervous and shaky, gives rise to palpitation, and is a factor in the production of the irritable or so-called “trotting-heart” and tends to impair the appetite and digestion.”—London Lancet.
“I never smoke because I have seen the most efficient proofs of the injurious effects of tobacco on the nervous system.”—Dr. Brown-Sequard, the eminent French physiologist.
“Tobacco, and especially cigarettes, being a depressant upon the heart, should be positively forbidden.”—Dr. J. M. Keating, on “Physical Development,” in Cyclopœdia of the Diseases of Children.

201. Effect of Tobacco upon the Heart. While tobacco poisons more or less almost every organ of the body, it is upon the heart that it works its most serious wrong. Upon this most important organ its destructive effect is to depress and paralyze. Especially does this apply to the young, whose bodies are not yet knit into the vigor that can brave invasion.

The nicotine of tobacco acts through the nerves that control the heart’s action. Under its baneful influence the motions of the heart are irregular, now feeble and fluttering, now thumping with apparently much force: but both these forms of disturbed action indicate an abnormal condition. Frequently there is severe pain in the heart, often dizziness with gasping breath, extreme pallor, and fainting.

The condition of the pulse is a guide to this state of the heart. In this the physician reads plainly the existence of the “tobacco heart,” an affection as clearly known among medical men as croup or measles. There are few conditions more distressing than the constant and impending suffering attending a tumultuous and fluttering heart. It is stated that one in every four of tobacco-users is subject, in some degree, to this disturbance. Test examinations of a large number of lads who had used cigarettes showed that only a very small percentage escaped cardiac trouble. Of older tobacco-users there are very few but have some warning of the hazard they invoke. Generally they suffer more or less from the tobacco heart, and if the nervous system or the heart be naturally feeble, they suffer all the more speedily and intensely.