The Herter lectures (New York, 1908) on the fluids of the body.

  • Starling, Ernest Henry, 1866-1927.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Herter lectures (New York, 1908) on the fluids of the body. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    170/204 (page 156)
    LECTUEE YlII THE CAUSATION OF DROPSY From the practical point of view, the most interesting and important pathological alteration in the distribution of the fluids of the body is to be found in the condition known as dro23sy. The term dropsy may be used to denote either an increased amount of fluid in the connective tissue spaces, espe- cially of the skin, when it is sometimes designated as anasarca or oedema, or an accumulation of fluid in the serous spaces of the body, as in the conditions of hydrothorax and ascites. In some cases the production of oedema may be brought about by local changes, and therefore involve merely a different distribution of the body fluid. Often however, the increase of fluid in the connective tissue spaces, including the serous spaces, is more or less general, and may be associated with a simultaneous increase of the other chief fluid of the body, namely, the blood. Our previous studies enable us to enumerate a number of factors which might possibly be in- volved in the flooding of the tissue spaces which is charac- teristic of dropsy. I have drawn up a list of these factors in the form of a Table, and it will be my office in this lecture to attempt to assign to each of them its relative importance. Factors involved in the Causation of Dropsy. I. Factors causing increased transudation:— A. Increased intra-capillary pressure : a. Venous obstruction. I. Vasodilatation, c. Plethora.