A normal pulse in the veins / by Octavius A. White.
- Octavius Augustus White
- Date:
- [1878]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A normal pulse in the veins / by Octavius A. White. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![S« Compliments of the Author. _A. 1ST O :R, PULSE IN THE VEINS. BY octavius A., white, nvn. ZD., OF NEW YORK. [From the May Number of the Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal.] The phenomenon of a palpable venous pulse in certain cases of obstruction about the heart and lungs, and also in cases of anaemia, has long since been noted and recorded. Walshe and Freiderich assert, while commonly attributing manifest blood movements within the veins to a process of retardation of the blood current in the pulmonary artery, that they have ob- served pulsation in veins under other circumstances, and even in cases in which the tricuspid valves appeared to be sound and healthy. Similar statements have been affirmed by such well- known authorities as Geigel, Seigel, Senac, and Kreiseg. Whether the clear characters of a normal pulse can be detected and demonstrated remains, however, a question for future in- vestigators to determine. This interesting inquiry has long excited research, but every attempt hitherto made to discern and render apparent this un- demonstrative stream has proved of no avail, and physiologists seemed hopelessly driven to hypotheses to explain its obscure manner and cause. If the vis a tergo derived from the great central organ, whose force is estimated by pounds, propelling a circulation whose velocity can be computed only by seconds, was deemed by any insufficient to propel the blood from the left ventricle quite beyond the ultimate ramifications of the capillary system and back again, coup sur coup, the necessity of a theory became apparent by which to explain the mode and manner in which the vital stream was urged along its ceaseless circuit during life. The velocity of the blood current in veins must be undoubt-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22447635_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
