On the use of artificial respiration and transfusion as a means of preserving life / by T. Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, T. Lauder (Thomas Lauder), 1844-1916.
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the use of artificial respiration and transfusion as a means of preserving life / by T. Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    lated myosin is soluble in a solution of common salt; but, though a muscle dipped in such a solution may lose its hardness and again be- come soft and pliable, it does not regain its vitality. By combining the two methods, however, the difficulty has been overcome; and, by first dipping the rigid muscle in a solution of salt, and then allowing blood to stream through it, Preyer has had the satisfaction of seeing frogs jump and swim by the aid of muscles which had been almost as hard and stiff as a piece of wood only a short while before. Nor are nerves and muscles the only parts which can be kept alive by artificial circulation. Glands also preserve their vitality; and Ludwig and his pupils,* by maintaining artificial circulation in them, have suc- ceeded in making livers secrete bile, and lungs excrete carbonic acid, for hours after they have been excised from the body. More examples might be given; but the above are sufficient to show the power of artificial circulation to keep any part of the body alive after the death of the rest. The converse of this is also true; and, if blood be prevented from circulating through any part of the body, that part will die, although the rest may remain healthy. So generally known is this, that no one ever thinks of tying a bandage so tightly as to stop the circulation, and leaving it thus, as he well knows that death, or, as we usually term it, mortification, of the ligatured part would be the result. It is easy for any one, indeed, to observe for himself the destructive effects of want of blood and the vivifying power of renewed circulation, by repeating the experiment devised by the Danish physiologist Steno or Stenson more than two hundred years ago. A gentle steady pressure with the thumb on the abdominal aorta of a rabbit, so as to stop the circulation for a couple of minutes, is all that is necessary to produce complete paralysis of the hind legs of the animal; and a few minutes more of renewed circulation suffice to restore them to their normal state. It might almost seem that the tripod of life had been reduced to one leg—viz., a circulating appa- ratus or heart; but this is not the case, for it must be remembered that the blood which circulates must be oxygenated or arterial; and if, as in the case of artificial circulation, there be no lungs to effect its oxygenation, their place must be supplied by agitation with air, though this is at best but a poor substitute. Indeed, it is rather because the blood carries oxygen than nutriment to the tissues, that arrest of circu- lation causes them to die so speedily ; for Kronecker foundf that, after * Ludwig's Arbeiten, 1868, p. 113, and 1870, 38. + Ludwig's Arbeiten, 1872, p. 182.