The sphygmometer : its value in practical medicine / by William Russell.

  • William Russell
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The sphygmometer : its value in practical medicine / by William Russell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/176 (page 1)
    THE SPHYGMOM ETER CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The main object the writer has in view in presenting this book to his professional brethren is to illustrate the value of sphygmometer observations in the daily work of the physician and the family practitioner. As a preliminary to that object it is necessary to deal shortly with the long-established practice of feeling the radial pulse. The pulse-wave in the radial artery was accepted as indicating the rapidity, the regularity, and the strength of ventricular contraction. Words were in use, such as compressibility, pressure, tension, to define the amount of force required to stop the passage of the pulse-wave. This to persons of critical mind involved the consideration of the condition of the artery wall, for to them it was clear that when it was thickened, compressibility was altered and more pressure was required to arrest the passage of the pulse-wave. The word tension came into use, and led to complete confusion, as the word was used sometimes to define the pressure of the blood on the artery wall, at other times the condition of the wall itself, with¬ out defining what was meant or indicating what difference, if any, there was between it and the other words in use. In 1901, before the sphygmometer was used in practical medicine, the present writer published in the Lancet and