The intra-cranial circulation and its relation to the physiology of the brain / by James Cappie.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The intra-cranial circulation and its relation to the physiology of the brain / by James Cappie. 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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    In regard to the brain itself, its functional capacity depends on a comprehensive series of conditions being fulfilled; and the outcome of its activity may be greatly modified by slight changes in any one of these. Among the more important may be specified the amount and quality of its material; the number and depth of its convolutions; and the development of particular portions related to certain specific functions. It will not be my intention, however, to enlarge on any of these points. In the following pages I shall rather give prominence to the circulation as one of the essential factors in conditioning the brain's activity. The blood is to the grey matter of the brain what atmospheric air is to fuel in ordinary combustion. It is at once a stimulus and a necessity. However favourable may be the quality and disposition of the molecules, or the arrangement of cell and fibre, the consciousness will fail to respond to any impression, and every cerebral function will be impaired or sus- pended, if the circulation be lowered below a certain amount. If its balance through the vessels of the brain be altered, the outcome of activity will also be modified. A consideration of the laws that affect the distribution of blood, and the influence of local surroundings in modi- fying the working of these, must therefore be of the first importance in any attempt to take a comprehensive view of the brain's physiology. But, except by Dr Carpenter, this has very seldom been attempted. Volumes have