Epileptic and other convulsive affections of the nervous system, their pathology and treatment.

  • Radcliffe, Charles Bland, 1822-1889.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epileptic and other convulsive affections of the nervous system, their pathology and treatment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    that the office of arterial blood is to minister to the nutri- tion of muscle and other tissues, and to the storing up of contractile and other forms of power, and that the office of the venous blood is to supply a stimulus by which the power derived from the red blood is called into action—a view according to which the function of the black blood is no less important to the interests of the economy than that of the red blood. The chief argument in favour of the idea that venous blood is endowed with these stimulating properties is based upon the well-known fact that the muscles con- tract violently when the whole mass of blood becomes venous, as in asphyxia. Another argument, also found among the phenomena of asphyxia, is derived from the fact that the pulse is fuller and stronger, and that the mer- cury rises to a higher point in the hsemadynamometer, when black blood is being pumped into the arterial system. Other arguments are found in some original experiments in which Dr. Brown-Sequard finds that certain involun- tary muscles may be thrown into or out of a state of con- traction by injecting alternately black and red blood into the vessels. In one of these experiments, for example, the uterus of a pregnant rabbit was separated from its con- nexions with the cerebro-spinal centres and blood injected into the aorta. On injecting black blood the uterus con- tracted, and two or three foetuses were expelled; on inject- ing red blood these contractions immediately passed off. But, it may be asked, is it not possible that these con- tractions may be due to the want of arterial blood rather than to the presence of venous blood ? And is not such an explanation the less difficult of the two ? It is certainly true that an animal is as violently con- vulsed when it is bled to death as when it dies by strangling. In other words, it is certainly true, that the convulsion which depends upon the vessels of an animal being suddenly
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