Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-08-31
What is Blood 3

| Thousands of our readers, doubtless have seer
person bled. They have probably observed
afterwards, that it divides into thin watery
fluid, and thick clot, process which is callet
EJACULATION They have been told that, though
the abstraction OF few ounces is not very iDJu
rious, nay is by many considered useful IN ca
ses of fevers, the loss of any considerable por
tion is followed by death, But here their ob
servation perhaps their curiosity, have ceased
Yet there are many who may have otter
wondered what this blood can be, which is SC
necessary to existence. What are its constitu.
ents2 In what way is it so indispensable to life
How much is there in human body9 Is there
much waste, and if so how is the waste repair
ed2 Is the blood all alike2 Is the blood of
horse, dog, or other mere animal, similar to that
of man; We shall answer these questions in
order, beginning with the last.
The blood of human being is essentially diff
ferent from that of any other animal and the
blood of one animal differs from that of another.
The blood of horse is poison in the veins of a
| dog. The blood OF sheep, transferred into
cat, kills the cat. The blood of any animal, ex-
cept one of its own species, forced into the veins
of man, brings paralysis and death. Science
has analyzed wherein the blood of one animal
varies from that of another, and has shown that
what experiment has revealed can also be de-
monstrated by physiology.
Even in the same animal there are two kinds
of blood, one called arterial, which rushes from
the heart, and the other venous, which pours
into the heart The first is bright scarlet, the
last purple. The first passes into smaller and
smaller vessels, till it reaches some under the
skin thousand times finer than the finest nee
dies point, the last flows from small into larger
channels, till it empties itself, in huge stream,
into the heart. The arterial blood is pure; the
venous full of wasted tissues. The office of the
lungs is to cleanse the venous blood, which is
then thrown back into the heart, and afterwards
propelled throughout the body. Thus it will be
seen, a continual waste and repair goes on in
the human body, of which waste and repair
the blood is the instrument. 1t has been esti-
mated that, in the course of year, the arteries
carry to the various tissues not less than three
thousand pounds weight ofnutritive matter, while
the veins bring back to the heart and lungs, to
be respired from the latter, as many thousand
pounds weight of wasted tissues. Both arterial
and venous blood contain oxygen and carbonic
gas, the popular notion to the contrary notwth-
standing but arterial blood contains much the
larger proportion of oxygen. In their consttu-
ents, the gases excepted, there is but little differ
In man of average weight, the quantity of
blood is about ten pounds How much of this
can be extracted, without causing loss of life, it
is difficult always to tell. In the medical books
there is q statement of a hysterical woman, who
was bled one thousand and twenty times in
nineteen years. A young man, according to
Haller, was bled seven pounds and half daily
for ten days, and yet survived, story almost
incredible. The chief constituent of blood is
water. which forms one-eight of the whole
Albumen enters into its composition in the pro-
portion of seventy parts to thousand. Sugar,
salts, fat and cell matter compose the remainder,
the last in proportion of one hundred and thirty
parts to a thousand.
These cell or dists, as others call them, are the
most curious part of the blood. 1t would be idle
to enter into an explanation of their compost.
ton, as scientific men themselves are not agreed
upon the subject. Nor is it possible, in the pres
ent stage of human knowledge, to tell how blood
sustaius life, except as an instrument and vehicle
to carry on the repair, and remove the waste,
which are indispensable to existence.