A manual of the practice of medicine / by George Hilaro Barlow.
- George Hilaro Barlow
- Date:
- 1861
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A manual of the practice of medicine / by George Hilaro Barlow. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![ELEMENTAKY CHAJs^GES.—BLOOD. though it may be a difficulty to say, whether, such be really the case or, wliethcr, the mere superabundance of red corpuscles bv making the presence of the blood, more apparent on the surfkce, and m the different textures, may suggest the belief that such IS the case This state of system, wMch appears to be an laiopathic affection m some persons, is, in most, induced bv sedentary habits and full living. Such persons have turr-id mjected cheeks and red mucous surfaces : when attacked with acute disease they require more depletory measures than others, and bear tliem better. This condition is best remedied by moderate diet, active ex- ercise, and saline aperients. The red corpuscles may, on the other hand, be defective in quantity : this occurs in the state generally known by the term anaemia (want of blood, a privative and aiua), a word for which it has been ]3roposed to substitute spanaimia (povertj^ of blood. a-iravos and aL/xa) as more strictly expressing the real condi- tion of the fluid. In this state, the red particles only are affected, the fibrine and solid contents of the serum retaining their normal proportions ; thus, in the earlier period of spon- taneous anajmia, and in its milder forms, we find the quantity of red corpuscles to be about 100 per 1000, and in the more advanced or severer cases, as low as 65 or even 30. The phy- sical properties of the blood are in accordance with what might be expected from the deficiency of the corpuscles. After it has been allowed to flow freely, and left to coagulate, we find a small clot floating in an abundant colomdess serum ; the clot is remarkably firm, and it is by no means uncommon to find it covered by a distinct buffy coat, produced, as we shall hereafter have occasion to explain, by the excess of fibrine relatively to the corpuscles; the effect being the same, whether this excess arises from the increase of the foiTuer, or the dimmution of the latter. General aufemia may, like general plethora, occur as a pri- niary affection, though it is more commonly the effect of visceral disease. Females are more liable to it than males, and, as a primary affection, it is most frequent at, and for a few years after, puberty. It is, in some instances, due to inherent weak- ness of constitution, and is induced by innutritions diet, confine- ment in close, ill-ventilated rooms, want of exercise in tbe pure air of the country, and want of solar light ; most, or all, of which conditions, concur in producing it, in the jjale-cheekcd and white-lipped young women, employed in many London workrooms : the agency of mercury and lead upon the system also promote it : it is the direct result of, large, sanguineous, or other discharges, and is, as has been noticed, the effect of disease of internal organs, those especially wliich ai-e concerued](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21509104_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
