Therapeutics of the circulation / by Sir Lauder Brunton.

  • Lauder Brunton
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Therapeutics of the circulation / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/568 page 11
    affected in a similar manner, and each pulsation of the heart constitutes a kind of gymnastics of the arteries, and tends to preserve their cohesion, elasticity, and contractility. In Ludwig’s, first experiments with artificial circulation he employed blood under constant pressure, but found that as the experiment went on the pressure required became greater and greater, and the tissues tended to become oedematous. Hamel, under Kronecker’s direc¬ tion, found that more blood can be driven through the vessels in a given time by filling them rhythmically than by passing a stream through them under constant pressure. They also retain their healthy properties, and oedema does not occur.5 Action of Fasciae.—-In addition to these mechanisms, however, we have the pressure exerted upon the veins by the fasciae of the limbs, and Braune has shown that when the veins are stretched, their capacity is increased, and they suck blood into them. The veins of the upper limbs are most stretched when the fists are clenched, the hands bent somewhat down, and the arms extended and pushed rather backwards—the very attitude, indeed, that is assumed by a man who has been sitting for a length of time at a writing-table and feels himself cramped in consequence. The veins become relaxed when the leg is bent and turned slightly inwards, whilst the veins become stretched when the foot is turned outwards and the leg extended and pushed somewhat back¬ ward. The first of these positions is nearly that
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