Remarks on the force used in transfusion and on the selection of fluids for injecting into the veins / by W. W. Wagstaffe.

  • William Warwick Wagstaffe
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the force used in transfusion and on the selection of fluids for injecting into the veins / by W. W. Wagstaffe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    to the transfusion in this case, though more than a pint and a half was injected. Seeing the results obtained in these two cases, I should feel inclined in another case to add ammonia to the material injected, in the hope, somewhat faint though it be, that the stimulant would rouse the depressed nervous system. If transfusion is to be of any practical value, it must be ready of application, and both the apparatus and the fluid must by readily obtainable. There is no reason, it seems to me, why each of these re- quirements should not be fulfilled. A jug standing in a bason of hot water to keep the fluid warm, a piece of tubing hanging out of the jug as a syphon, or fitted on a smaller tube, or a crow-quill, which is to be tied in the vein, constitutes all the machinery necessary ; the length of the tube and the height at which the jug is placed give the means for all the pressure required. For the fluid, if blood can be obtained so much the better, and let it be defibrinated and mixed with warm milk ; if not, let warm milk be used alone, or with some stimulant. Such apparatus and fluid ought to be readily applied, but this will depend on the sagacity of the operator and the worth of his assistants. Special apparatus will save time, but the probability is that it will not be at hand when wanted, and therefore impromptu measures may have to be used. If an apparatus be used, risks of injury to the patient ought to be avoided, and therefore an undeterminable force ought, I think, to be excluded if possible. By a simple ap- paratus like that which I have suggested, force, if necessary, can be used, but it is accurately determinable, every foot of height representing about half a pound of pressure.
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