On the pathology of night-sweating in phthisis : and the mode of action of strychnia and other remedies in it / by T. Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology of night-sweating in phthisis : and the mode of action of strychnia and other remedies in it / by T. Lauder Brunton. 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.

    4/15 (page 120)
    sweat was not dependent merely upon a full supply of blood to the sweat glands. In the perspiration which follows active physical exercise, we no doubt find that the skin is suffused with blood, and the sweat glands are therefore richly supplied with it. But in fever we not unfrequently find that the skin is even more suffused with blood, as is shown by its redness, so that the glands may have an abundant supply, and yet, notwithstanding this, the skin, instead of being covered with sweat, is perfectly dry. This shows, then, that a free supply of blood alone is in- sufiScient to induce perspiration. On the other hand, we find that perspiration may occur freely when the supply of blood is exceedingly scanty. In persons stricken with sudden fear, or in those at the point of death, we find that the skin is pallid or livid, the surface cold, indicating that the supply of blood to it is very scanty, and yet at this very moment it may be bedewed with heavy drops of perspiration. This fact shows that pers[)ira- tion may occur with a scanty supply of blood. The fiicts are exactly analogous to what we find in the secretion of saliva by the submaxillary gland. In this gland, irritation of the chorda tympani nerve causes dilatation of the vessels of the gland, a copious supply of blood to it and a free secretion of saliva. Irritation of the sympathetic nerve also causes secre- tion of saliva, but instead of the vessels being widely dilated and the circulation in the gland rapid and free, the vessels are con- tracted and the circulation is very slow. We find, also, that there is a similarity between the secretion of saliva and the secretion of sweat, not only in the nervous conditions under which they may occur, but in the way in which they are affected by various drugs. The effect of atropine, for example, upon the submaxillary gland, is to paralyse the ends of the secreting nerves in the glandular structure, and the consequence of this is, that when the chorda tympani is irritated after the adminis- tration of a dose of atropia, the vessels of the gland dilate as usual, blood flows freely through it, but, the secreting nerves having been paralysed, tlie secreting cells take up nothing from the blood, and not a drop of saliva flows from the duct. When, on the contrary, calabar bean is administered, the effect is strikingly different, for its action is not to paralyse, but to stimulate the secreting nerves. In consequence of this, the secreting cells begin actively to take fluid from the blood and to ])Our it out through the duct of the gland in the form of saliva. But this process does not last long, for the bean has a second action. Its stimulating power is not confined to the secreting nerves of the gland, but extends also to the vaso-motor nerves wliich regulate the calibre of the blood-vessels which supply it.