Volume 1

A manual of surgery : in treatises / by various authors ; edited by Frederick Treves.

Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of surgery : in treatises / by various authors ; edited by Frederick Treves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the process has gone on to effusion of the liquor sanguinis aivl migration of white blood corpuscles into the surrounding tissues, these may be absorbed again by the blood-vessels and lymphatics, and the part be restored to its normal condition. Resolution, as it is termed, occurs. Should, however, the so-called “ coagulable lymph ” have formed, occupying a definite area, recovery, if it take place, must l>e by a new method, and certain changes occur, varying with the size of the clot, its surroundings, its situation, and its treatment. Hitherto, for the sake of simplicity, we have considered a case where the irritation has not been so seveve as to produce a rupture of any vessel; but practically, owing to the great vascularity of the tissues, rupture of some vessels, however small, almost always takes place, and hence we have iuemorrhage. The process of repair in the tissues after the formation of the colourless clot will be more readily apprehended if we first consider the process of repair in a wounded vessel, and then that in the injured tissues. I. Process of repair in a wounded artery. —If the surface of a wound, in which no large artery has been divided, be examined, at first a general bleeding from the whole surface will be seen. Then after a time the capillary flow ceases, and the hemor- rhage becomes limited to certain spots, where it occurs in jets of bright red blood, that issue from some small arteries. If attention be directed to any one of these jets, it will be seen to become smaller in size, and to come with less velocity, and, passing into a trickle, finally to cease altogether. This is termed the natural arrest of haemorrhage. How does it take place '? In the case of the capillaries and arteries the vessel walls collapse, and the vitality of their cut ends being depressed, coagulation speedily occurs. If an artery of ordinary size be cut across, the process is somewhat