On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
game thing . There was a time when a chemist would have pronounced this trimorphism impossible . II . The validity of your objection , that the body , consisting of four-fifths water , will not burn , must be admitted , but whether it is conclusive , I doubt , upon the following grounds , concerning the condition of this water of the tissues . 1 . There are visible differences between the moisture of raw flesh and common " wetness . " It is erroneous to consider the body contains water aa a sponge does ; this is precisely what it does not do , for the water cannot be similarly squeezed out . Neither can raw flesh be said to be " wet ; " it does not part with its moisture readily , not until its structure is destroyed , just like those crystals which part with their water of crystallization and lose their form at the same time . Under the microscope the water of the tissues is not perceptible as water , then how does this water of life exist in the body ? We should be presuming , I think , if we were to conclude it was in the form with which we are so familiar .
2 . There are conjectural differences between the fluid within the blood-vessels and the moist tissue ( parenchyma ) without , founded on the changes which occur in assimilation and the heat attending them . The chemical fact that liquids contain more combined heat than solids , is important in physiology , and brings with it even a more important fact , viz . that a substance passing from a liquid into a solid state gives out heat . You will see the bearing of these facts in reference to the heat produced by the nutrition of the body , the whole nutrient matter being in the liquid form in the blood-vessels , and having to become solid in the various structures . _ _
3 . There are instances of sensible alterations in the foTm of water attended with evolution of heat . The changes of form , and with them of heat , of which water is susceptible , are some of them familiar enough , e . g . in slaking lime , when the heat will rise greatly above the boiling point , and this is due to the water changing from water as we see it to that form which it takes in union with the lime . Another example is in the setting of plaster of Paris . And so in the mixing of water with sulphuric acid , the temperature will reach 300 ; the union of alcohol with water is also accompanied with sensible heat , and these two examples are well illustrative of our point , because the whole of the substances concerned retain the fluid state , and thus point to a fluid condition of water different from uncombined water .
4 . There are examples in nature , of water combined in a peculiar way and associated wifch heat . In the whole economy of the globe you know the vital importance of this combined water , its use in heating , cooling , and nourishing ; that all living things cannot exist without it , and that some inorganic things are equally dependent on it . Seeds , which may be said to consist of the living matter in its most concentrated form , owe their potentiality to this water ; many retain oil for a similar purpose . Now , reflecting that heat is equally necessary to life with water , is there no link between these two universal agents ; do they not work conjointly ? for we find that water cannot exist without its heat , and actually contains a larger quantity of combined heat than any other substance in nature , oil being the next . Hence an important use of these fluids is to be a sort of reservoir of « heat , to maintain the temperature , and with it the life of the organism . the
Now it req uires no great stretch of speculation to say that any change in constitution of the water of the body would be attended with a disturbance of its heat , arid might be attended with a great evolution of heat . So I think we may see how the water of the body is not much of an obstacle to spontaneous combustion , on the contrary , that it is even a possible nidus for such a phenomenon . III . As to the burning of things saturated with water . 1 . There are examples of the burning of water , in the laboratory . To these T do not attach much importance in reference to our subject , but remind you of some of them rather to set off what Nature can do . Water is dicectly inflammable . Potassium and several other tilings set water on fire , in actual flame ; and so in the experiment of wrapping a crystal of nitrate of copper with a drop of water in tinfoil , flame instantly bursts out , the hydrogen gas of the water being the substance which flames ; there is , too , a well-known experiment of boiling wuter at one end of a short tube , and , so to speak , burning it at the other .
. , 2 . There arc examples in nature of inflammable substances ( gases ) produced , and even ignited , from wet organic matter . My belief has for a long time been , that water will one day beeomo both our light ' and fuel ; we have already seen how it contains abundance of heat—the problem is , how to present carbon ' to the elements of water in : i way to induce the union of it with the hydrogen , so as to produce a gas like the common gas of the streets . * Nature solves it constantly at the bottom of every pool , and the fairy flame of " Will o' the Wisp" is an example , not only of the spontaneous production of inflammable gas , but of spontaneous lighting . So , though we Buy wet vegetable matter will not burn , yet the more water the sooner it become * combustible ; neither will wot animal matter make a very Rood iiro in our hands , yet nature makes it burn brightly . 1 don't attach bo much importance to these facts in reference to this division of the subject , because it is not the wet thing which burns combustible in
but its product , which is free from water ; still the product being a hush degree , possesses a certain value in the general bearing of the argument . A more direct example is the " heating" and spontaneous inflammation of gnu * and olhor K reen crops when piled in lai ^ o masses , and the wetter the hotter , tho water being an important agent in the combustion . Organic matter is somehow connected with these eflectH ; then how if any similar condition could bo established in tho living organism and in an unimal highest in the Hcalo V TV As to the quasi combustion going on in the healthy body . Wo are apt to forget that at every moment us wo live wo tiro giving out two hurlilv combustible substances from our lungs ; it is true , wo do not exhale ! diarco . il or plumbag o , or coke or diamond , and hydrogen K a 8 ; but we do got r . d of these noxious elements , nicely wrapped up and diluted , as it were , with oxygen , and exactlin the same form ns charcoal fumes and steam
y ,.. _ , __ ,. ,.. _ Now carbon , as we have seen of water , comes to porvmlo the living body m « omo form with which wo aro unacquainted , so that , for nil we know , the element * o carburettod hydrogen ( coal rum ) might come in contact m Homo very siiM . lo and " nascent" stale eminently disposing for union . Where tho clement * oxist , it would * I i-oiiwmhor " a pontiltmt Frenchman" once showing mo plans , with an explanation , of an apparatus for producing street gas by bringing powdomi coal and Httmm togotlmr in a cloned chamber boated to high temperature ; tho precwo method I iorgol , but rny improsBion wfts , that it , wna ft valuable and sound dwoovery , although it might lio imponnUSlo to work it . h « ro for nevoral reasons , and ao it went bnak to I wris .
be presumptuous to say that any compound of them was impossible . Some support may also , I think , be afforded to the argument from the effect which minutely divided substances exercise upon gases and vapours-spongy platinum , for example , which instantly burns ethereal and spirituous vapours at a red heat , and ignites hydrogen into a flame ; now the state of transpiration of gas and vapour , through membrane , * as in the lungs , will bear , without much forcing / a fiiir analogy to that which is set up by the platinum ; and if it were necessary to prove the adaptation of the lungs to the production of chemical union , we need only notice the difference between the air taken in and that which comes out . You have referred to the cases of luminous breath in spirit drinkers , and animal luminosity , both of wnicn phenomena are yet to be explained by science . Supposing , then , that an abnormal condition of the carbon and hydrogen should arise in the blood , that fluid might become inflammable , and the structure of the lungs , the organ which is the greatest source of the natmal heat of the body , would be a favouring condition for the first spark ; just as it starts and sustains the kind of combustion which arises at birth and is inseparable from life .
V . As to some results of disease . # 1 . Concerning phosphorus : —The living body is such a laboratory of miracles , that one hardly dare say he understands its healthy and normal actions , still less that the rationale of diseased action is truly made out . It does seem rather preposterous to rely upon the generation of phosphuretted hydrogen m the tissues , not only for the reasons you have stated , but because the secretion of the phosphates occurs in the interior substance of the body , not in those parts in contact with the air , and adapted for transpiration , as the lungs are ; yet you will allow that bony matter , containing the phosphates , is deposited in all parts by a diseased action , so that phosphorus is there in some form . In lepra , however , and some other diseases of the skin , phosphoric acid , in combination , is abundantly generated over the whole surface of the body ? The copious deposit of the phosphates in the urinary organs i * also worth mentioning , because it frequently occars m those of intemperate habits . ¦
„ ,,,,, I don't know whether the deposit of the phosphates in the coats of the bloodvessels is more connected with drunkenness than old age and general decay ; but it is also a curious fact . Here , too , perhaps might be named , those curious instances of diseased growths , such as the production of perfect teeth and hair in parts where they ought not to be ; but these cases , like their allied ones , the entozoa and parasitics , I would refer to chiefly as examples of the unaccountable . 2 . Concerning carbon and hydrogen : —The notion of permeation of the tissues by alcohol in drunkards is not worth much ; and as you say , if it did , the flesh would not be burnt with it ; but here , again . it may be asked , does not alcohol enter
the blood-vessels bodily , and act as some poisons were proved to do by Majendie . In such case we should have the addition of a very inflammable hydro-carburet to the blood ; and if such a state of things were kept up for years , as it often is , there is no telling , what with the diversion of the natural process of assimilation and the constant exhalation from the lungs of something very much akin to alcohol , what might not occur , not to mention the fact that the breath has been seen luminous in such cases . In the disease called diabetes , sugar , which for the sake of argument we might call a form of alcohol , is abundantly secreted from the blood . Now sugar , as all know , is highly inflammable , and the disease is very common
in drnnkards . f Before passing to the next section , I would suggest , may not the presence ot so much more than the natural quantity of oxydizable matter in the system lead to the decarbonizing in the lungs being carried into the destruction of the tissue by fire ?_ and if the blood were the combustible material , the body would burn like a ball of cotton . 3 . Concerning water . * ., ¦ , -, i Dropsy of the tissues and of the cavities is a common disease ot drunkards ; and I have often remarked extensive vesications under the bandages applied to the limbs
and body of persons of that habit . Is this the way nature gets rid of the unnatural heat produced by over-stimulus of the heart and lungs ? Of course , all these gallons of water contain their specific heat . Asiatic cholera is a disease which causes all the water of the body to be poured out at tho intestinal surface ; you know that the patient becomes icy cold , the breath is cold , and the blood can ' t flow because it s so thick , " like treacle "—death soon occurs . But the best remedy for cholera is to supply plenty of water . I found this out by accident in 1832 . A poor dying victim , a * thought her , craved desperately for water . She might have had anything else she asked for , as her case seemed hopeless . Well , she drank two pailfuls in six hours , and soon got warm , and was nearly well . After this I cried , upurrov per v 8 a >/> , and threw physic to the dogs . Thus , abstraction of the water of tho body produces death by cold ; addition of water supplies heat .
VI . ' Retil spontaneous combustion . You are aware that many substances , oapeeially those of an organic nature , tend to heat and ignite spontaneously . Besides tho grass and green crops already mentioned , reasy cotton , wool , and flax , oils and spirits , coal dust , and powdered charcoal . Now , in all these cases wo have a largo quantity of carbon and hydrogen , or oxydizahlo matter , with water or oil ; tho analogue of tho condition I have been trying to point out as posniblo in tho human body . I have often heard you praise the speeulutor in science at tho expense of the hodman . If 1 have failed to gain your favour , 1 shall certainly escajM ) tho other alternative ; for what 1 linvo written brings , wins ! no bricks to the building . . Lot me atone by a moral . Tho universal affection of our race for the supernatural , the love of a miracle , the determination to -hunt up mysteries and try lo ^ solve them , is not a bud tendency . When not counterpoised by the " positive" tern - perunient , by a wholesome rosolvo to apply tho two and two make four principle
* I ' ll connexion with this , lot mo remind you of the nehoolboy ' H trick of fixing tho mouth closely upon tho ' dotli of u boy ' s jacket , on the shoulder , <> . ., and Mien breathing forcibly through it : tho spot will speedily become ho hot as to ( jjivo tho sensation of burning , and muko a red mark on tho skin . So vapour of a moderate temperature , passing through ft subHtanoo in a minutely divided state , such us cloth , wovo silk , or metallic network , may bo mado to yiold a dogroo of beat far above * tho general tomporuturo of that vapour . 'What would bo tho - result of compelling tin * lungs to trunspiro an extraordinary quantity of vapour , perhaps < ivtm of an othurous nature P f Tho condition called " Mown" in cattle , which occurs after the animal has oaten too fully of ltooii food , is oaimed by tho production of eurburotted hydrogen in tho stomach ; farmers uro woll iiwnro of tlio inflammable nature of tho contents . You refer to them ) casos in yoiu" notico of l < iebig ' H opinions ; for my part , thoy arc not of ho much valiio as thoy are interesting , boonuso tho gas is not in tho lintnua ; and tho p henomenon l . s only an example of tbo digostivo powers boing overcome , an it wore , by other and « t rongor chomuml affinities j so far , indeed , it has a bearing on tho subjoot .
Untitled Article
304 THE LE A PER . ' [ Sattodat ^
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1853, page 304, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1979/page/16/
-