Selected monographs.

Date:: 1888

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

47/440 (page 31)

the rapidity of the current and the removal of the transudation by the veins, and only in rare cases, when these means do not suffice, does the current of lymph become more copious (35). These are facts the truth of which has been firmly established by experiment, and they are in harmony with all pathological experiences. In addition to this, everyday practice at the bedside clearly teaches us that the formation of transudations, oedema, depends directly upon the pressure in the capillary system, and particularly that the quantity of the transuded fluid rises and falls with the pressure. Euneberg's views, put forward some years ago, differ from the above account, and contradict the universal assumption with regard to the cause of the passage of albumen through animal membranes by referring the phenomenon to a diminu- tion of pressure below the normal height. But this theory, as Heidenhain has shown, has its origin in the fact that Rune- berg has misinterpreted his own experiments. Properly estimated, and due care being taken to keep separate the absolute and relative amounts of albumen, they are in com- plete harmony with the law just described, and are as con- firmatory thereof as the recent investigations of D. Newman (36), Gottwalt (37), von Bamberger (38), and numerous- clinical experiences, to say nothing of the researches of an older date. If all the clinical facts are not sufficiently clear and simple to be regarded as demonstrative, they are never- theless in complete harmony with our statement; on the other hand, it is difficult to reconcile them with Runebei'g'& views, and we can do so only by adopting forced premises, not altogether in harmony with one another. That this is so is best evinced by his attempts to explain by his theory all forms of albuminuria, as will be shown in subsequent pages of this treatise. I may here just refer to the simple and well-known example of ascites, the cause of which is increased pressure in the vena portaa, whereas according to Runeberg, it must necessarily occur when the pressure in the vena portao sinks below the normal. This point is passed over by Euneberg, he mentions only the fact that when an effusion has once taken place into the abdominal cavity, the albumen of this transudation increases with the quantity of fluid, the certain result being that the difference between the