Clinical observations on the blood of the insane / by S. Rutherford MacPhail.

  • MacPhail, Samuel Rutherford.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical observations on the blood of the insane / by S. Rutherford MacPhail. 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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    CraiCAL OBSERYATIOIfS THE BLOOD OF THE nSANE* By S. RUTHEEFORD MACPHAIL, M.D. Edin., Tlie older writers on Insanity including Pinel, and Esquirol, believed that functional disturbances of the higher nervous centres were the chief factors in producing mental disease. Whether this is the case or not, and whether functional disease of the brain may exist without appreciable change of structure, there can be no question that the quantity and quality of the blood circulating through the higher nervous centres affect their functions in an important manner. First as to quantity. According to Bucknill and Tukef the effect of blood on the brain, when in excess, is that of lethargy, while a diminution of its quantity is productive of syncope and imconsciousness. Both these conditions, described as congestion and anaemia, may be due to temporary irregulari- ties in the supply of blood to the brain, and may pass away without leaving any ill consequences behind, although their frequent occurrence acting on a highly susceptible organism may produce minute changes, manifesting themselves by various morbid mental phenomena. Andral, quoted by Bucknill and Tuke, lays down the axiom that in every organ the diminution of the normal quantity of blood which it should contain produces functional disturbances, as well as the presence of excessive quantity of blood. It is difficult to determine whether these alterations in the quantity of blood circulating through the brain are local or general in character, but it seems reasonable to premise that both conditions are possible. It is not, however, sufficient to refer mental symptoms to hypersemia in one case and to anaemia in another, for they themselves are frequently mere effects. In this connection the importance of the vaso-motor system must not be overlooked. MaudsleyJ * The Essay -which gained the Medal and Prize of the Medico-Psychological Association in 1884. t Psychological Medicine, page 586. J Pathology of Mind, page 193.