Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry.

  • Jamieson Boyd Hurry
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Hare has well described the beneficial action of some attacks of haemoptysis : “ Manifestly in phthisical haemoptysis, there is in operation one of the most highly Vicious Circles in pathology—a Circle which is largely responsible for the profuseness and prolongation of the haemorrhage. The intra-pulmonary irritation of the effused blood causes cough : each act of coughing, like any other sudden exertion, causes rise of blood-pressure : each rise of blood-pressure is apt to cause fresh haemorrhage : and so on over again, the Circle con¬ tinuing to revolve in many cases until the loss of blood has been sufficient to reduce the blood-pressure materially and thus terminate the haemorrhage. This natural cure of haemoptysis was, at one period in the history of medicine, imitated by physicians who resorted to venesection in this emergency—a somewhat expensive, but by no means irrational imitation. The treatment by amyl nitrite is another imitation, less complete, but much more economical, than venesection. The Vicious Circle is broken through at the same point and by similar means, namely, by reduction of localized blood-pressure through reduction of general blood-pressure. But the blood is saved instead of being lost : consequently, the procedure may be repeated as often as necessary. The point at which the Vicious Circle is broken through is of the greatest importance.” 1 Syncope is another means by which Nature often arrests severe haemorrhage : “ Syncope, instead of destroying, proves the very means of preserving, life under certain special circumstances. The fatal termination of grave haemorrhages, traumatic and idiopathic, is very frequently prevented by failure of the heart’s action giving the necessary time for the stagnating blood, within the bleeding vessels, to coagulate and close their opened orifices.”2 1 The Food Factor in Disease, Vol. II., p. 97. 2 Walsh, Diseases of the Heart, p. 192.