On the pathology of night-sweating in phthisis : and the mode of action of strychnia and other remedies in it / by T. Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology of night-sweating in phthisis : and the mode of action of strychnia and other remedies in it / by T. Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    sweat centres. It was first observed by Goltz tliat irritation of the sciatic nerve would produce sweating in a limb, and it was shown by Kendall and Lucbsinger that this sweat was indepen- dent of any alteration in the vascular supply, for it occurred in animals poisoned with curare, where all the vessels going to the limb had been tied ; and it even occurred in an amputated leg for a quarter of an liour after its severance from the body. The nerve centres by which the sweat nerves are usually excited were localised by Luchsinger in the spinal cord, but Nawrocki, who repeated his experiments, came to the conclusion that the sweat centre was situated not in the spinal cord, but in the medulla oblongata, because he found that division of the spinal cord high up arrested the secretion of sweat. The reason of this dis- crepancy between the conclusions of Luchsinger and Nawrocki probably is that the sweat centre, like the respiratoiy and vaso- motor centres, is not confined either to the medulla or to the chord, but extends through both. It is probable that, like the respiratory and vaso-motor centres, a great portion of the sweat centre is situated in the medulla, and in Nawrocki’s experiments, when the iniluence of this part was destroyed by section of the cord, the perspiration ceased, just as respiration and vascular tone are also destroyed under ordinary circumstances. It is probable, however, that in Luchsinger’s experiments the spinal portion of the vaso-motor centres was sufficiently powerful to excite perspiration, even after the separation from the medulla. These centres were found by Luchsinger to be excited, and ])erspiration produced by increased temperature of the blood, by increased carbonic acid in the blood, and also by nicotine which had been introduced into the circulation. Increased tempera- ture, as we well know, causes sweating, usually accompanied with dilatation of the vessels of the skin, as when we are ex- ])Osed to a hot sun or get warm from exertion. Tobacco, on the other hand causes sweating with diminished supply of blood to the skin, the countenance becoming exceedingly pale at the same time that a cold sweat breaks out, as most young smokers find out by sad experience. The effect of increased carbonic acid in the blood is visible in the cold sweats which bedew the brows of dying persons. I have watched the pro- cess, and have observed that it was just as the finger-nails, the lobes of the ears, and the lips began to get livid that the sweat drops began to appear on the forehead. It was a consideration of this fact which led me to suspect that the sweats of phthisis might be due to accumulation of carbonic acid in the blood stimulating the sweat centres. Nor would it do this only, for any imperfect aeration of the blood would lead to imperfect
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