Clinical researches on the therapeutic action of chloride of ammonium in the treatment of hepatic disease : with illustrative cases ... / by William Stewart.

  • Stewart William.
Date:
1879
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical researches on the therapeutic action of chloride of ammonium in the treatment of hepatic disease : with illustrative cases ... / by William Stewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    others, and to establish the success of the treatment under varying circumstances of station and cUmate.^ It is assumed that the reader is famihar with the etiology, symptomatology, and morbid anatomy of the diseases under consideration, and hence in the ob- servations which follow I shall confine my remarks to one or two prehminary points requiring attention, referring the reader to systematic writers on the sub- ject for further details. Hyperoemia of the hver may be due to increased flow of blood to the organ (determination), or ob- structed flow (congestion). There is determination normally to the hver at each digestion. In persons who eat and drink immoderately this physiological determination becomes excessive and continues longer, and hke other frequently repeated hypercemiae may induce permanent dilatation of the vessels. Under normal circumstances the hepatic capillaries find a support in the parenchyma—these dilate when the parenchyma becomes relaxed, thus rendering an ab- normally shght resistance to the blood entering the hver. The hypero&mia of the hver occurring after injuries of that viscus or in the vicinity of inflamma- tions and neoplasise appears to develop in this way (Niemeyer). The cases induced by the use of spirituous Hquors also probably belong to this class, as the alcohol is conducted directly to the hver by the portal vein. It there acts as an irritant, inducing changes of the parenchyma of the irritated. organ, ' See Dr. Murchison's Lectures on Diseases of the Liver, 2nd edition, 1877, pagea 136, 187, and 624.