Volume 1

Medical portrait gallery : biographical memoirs of the most celebrated physicians, surgeons, etc., etc., who have contributed to the advancement of medical science / by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew.

Date:
[1838-1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical portrait gallery : biographical memoirs of the most celebrated physicians, surgeons, etc., etc., who have contributed to the advancement of medical science / by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    diastole which accompany the true circulation of blood. These experiments were completed before tlie year 1825, (the last was made in October, 1824,) and were published annually in the class-room afterwards. Besides throwing light on various other points of physiology, they go far to prove the superiority of arterial blood for the purposes of restoring the powers of the heart, when failing from flooding, &c.; in other words, the superiority of this blood for the purposes of transfusion. 8. A set of Experiments designed to refute the erroneous opinion of Barry and others, that the Blood enters the Heart through the great veins during inspiration only.—One of the most striking of these experiments was made in a diving-bell, at the bottom of the Thames ; the atmosphere of the bell being, at the time, nearly of double density. “ With a minute watch in my hand, I found that for nearly two minutes together, I could suspend respiration without material distress or disorder of body or mind, the pulse beating all the time in the radial artery with the utmost regularity. Now, as several pints of blood must have passed the heart in the course of the two minutes, allowing only three half ounces for each stroke of the left ventricle, it was clear that several pints must have entered from the veins; and as neither the circulation nor other functions were disturbed during the experiment, it was evident that the blood must have been flowing from the veins into the heart in the usual manner during the whole period, and yet throughout this whole period, the inspiration was completely sus- pended, whence it follows that the blood flows from the great veins into the heart in the usual manner, without the aid of inspiration.” This experiment was made at the time of the irruption of water into the tunnel, when the first catastrophe occurred, in the year 1827. n. Experiments to prove that in Poisoning bi/ nux vomica, and probably other poisons oj similar operation, the poisonous dose which destroys life, is not contained in the circulating blood of the animal.—In three experiments it was found, 1. That if a dog be poisoned with the minimum dose of strychnine sufficient for the purpose, its life cannot be saved by drawing off its blood when the poison is getting into full action, and replenishing it with blood from another and healthy dog. The vessels in some experi- ments were three times washed out, as it were, by drawing away the poisoned blood from the same animal when under the influence of the poison, and as frequently replenishing it, yet without preserving life. 2. That if a dog be drained of its blood, and replenished from another dog under the influence of the poison, the dog which receives is not poisoned Ijy the blood thrown in, nor does it in general manifest any obvious signs of the presence of the poison ; in one experiment, however, characteristic spasms were observed in the dog receiving blood from another dog under the full influence of the strychnine, though even in this case the animal speedily recovered. An interesting observation was made in conducting these ex])eriments, namely, that a dog cannot be poisoned by very large doses of opium in its different forms. From the whole of these experiments it was found, that when an animal is poisoned by strychnine, some of the poison is contained in the circulating blood, but the quantity there contained is not sufficient to destroy life. The poison was inserted by an arrow passed into the muscles of the neck. These experiments were completed before the year 1828. In the Lancet for 1827-8, reports of Dr. Blundell’s lectures on Mid- wifery made their appearance. These were afterwards collected together, arranged, subdivided, and commented upon by Dr. Castle, and in 1834 pub- lished under the title of “The Principles and Practice of Obstetricy.” This work has acquired a very just celebrity. Dr. B. lectured on Midwifery in the neighbourhood, and afterwards in connexion with, the Medical School of Guy’s Hospital, from the year 1816 to 1834; and his withdrawal at this period was a matter of very deep regret to a large body of medical students. The circumstances which induced him to retire from the chair of Midwifery, gave rise to the publication of some pamphlets which reflect no credit on
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