Selected monographs.

Date:: 1888

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

64/440 (page 48)

no cause foi' the suspicion tliat, as occurs in the methods previously discussed, the pressure in the aorta alone, or the pressure in certain portions, is increased at the expense of the pressure in other parts, or that this increase is preceded by a lowering of pressure witli diminished supply of blood, but in this method from the very commencement, immediately the warming begins, the superficial and deep arteries and those of the viscera become dilated,—a fact in harmony with our expectations, and of which we may fully convince our- selves by examining any organ we choose and especially the kidneys.^ The first condition for our experiment is there- fore present in a manner which leaves nothing to be desired. There is no difficulty with regard to the fulfilment of the second condition, which is, that the quantity of the urine should be diminished. The condition is perfectly fulfilled provided that neither a bath nor a room saturated with mois- ture has been the means adopted for raising the temperature, for the increase of water given off by the skin and lungs causes the urine to become diminished in quantity. This fact is too well known to require me to allude to it any further. All that we have to do, therefore, is simply to examine the urine for albumen, before and after heating the animal. I have performed these experiments upon a great number of rabbits. As a heating apparatus we use a kind of oven or a drying- closet, made of copper-plate, and such as we find in chemical laboratories, with double walls all round for holding water, except at the side, where there is a door. The water is poured in through an orifice in the upper part. Another opening goes through both walls and reaches into the interior of the oven ; this is designed to admit the thermometer which measures the temperature of the oven. This latter is of sufficient size to allow a large rabbit (and only such should be chosen for the experiment) to sit quite at ease in it. It stands upon a broad tripod, beneath which the heat is applied. Before placing the animal in the oven, its bladder should be emptied by com- ' It need hardly be said that the heating must be a gradual process, in order that the phenomena may appear in the way above described, and that on the other hand sudden exposure to intense heat acts upon the body ns a violent irritant, and could only disturb the results of our experiments.