First principles of medicine / By Archibald Billing.

  • Archibald Billing
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First principles of medicine / By Archibald Billing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/142 (page 21)
    difference of opinion as to the state of the arteries in inflamed parts. It is very common to say, that in an inflamed part there is an increase of arterial action; but a consideration of the phenomena, and of the nature of arterial action will shew, that in INFLAMED PARTS the CAPILLARY ARTERIES are WEAKER in their action, that there is DIMINISHED ARTERIAL ACTION, for the action of arteries is contraction; now the arteries in In- flamed parts are evidently larger than before, less con- tracted, that is, acting less. An inflamed part is redder and swelled; where the vessels are visible, as in the eye, we can see the redness is caused by the minute vessels becoming larger, so as to admit red globules of the blood, which before admit- ted only the more fluid and transparent part, or the mi- nute vessels carrying red globules becoming larger; this enlargement of vessels is not from increased action, but on the contrary from their action being diminished, their giving way, and being dilated by the injecting force of the heart. ‘The way to diminish the inflamma- tion is by increasing the action of the arteries, as by cold or astringents, which make the arteries contract, that is, increases their action; so that so far from the arteries in an inflamed part being ina state of increased action, one of the means of diminishing inflammation is by in- creasing arterial action in the part inflamed. It is com- mon to remark the throbbing of the carotid arteries as increased action, but the more they throb it shews that they the more yield to the injecting force of the heart ; when the eye, or any other part, is injured by heat, or a stream of cold air, a blow, or cantharides plaister ap- plied to the skin, &c. the part becomes redder from the