Selected monographs.

  • Kussmaul, Adolf, 1822-1902.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    58/455 (page 42)
    With the cessation of the convulsive attack the veins again be- come less swollen; and yet^ even in death, the brain still remains protruding. As soon as the blood begins again to flow, the brain becomes of a deep rose colour, a number of small arterial and venous vessels appear, the veins swell beyond their- normal size, while the brain, exceeding its ordinary bulk, protrudes, into the hole made by trephining. When the glass plate is inserted air-tight, the symptoms ex- hibited in the brain are no longer the same. It is not possible to induce further movements in the brain, even though the compres- sion be continued until death, and the nostrils be closed; or the compression be removed, and the brain thereby be intensely con- gested. The brain remains, in all cases, immovably fixed to the glass plate. The phenomena exhibited by the vessels remain the same as those which manifest themselves when the brain has been laid bare. On compression being applied, the latter forthwith becomes palhd, the smaller vessels cease to be visible to the eye, the veins which open into the great longitudinal sinus contract with greater or less rapidity to a fourth or even to a third of their normal diameters. Whether the longitudinal sinus itseK undergoes any contraction, remains a matter of uncertainty. If during this period, the nostrils be closed, a distinct swelling and In enlargement of the veins ensue. Even when the brain has become very pale, and the veins have undergone considerable con- traction, yet does not the pale colour of the brain sustain any ''^men convulsions came on, the veins again swelled without the brain changing either its colour or position, and tins continued even till the cessation of the convulsions by death, and, mdeed, tor some minutes subsequent to the last act of respnation. When the circulation was restored, the brain immediately assumed a pink colour, a great number of the finest vessels became visible, and the veins appeared considerably swoUen. These experiments, therefore, bear signal testimony to the sound- ness of the doctrines which reflect so much credit upon Burrows and Doi^^ers, who established them. The doctrme, so luglily t In'practice in the application bloodletting m ca^. of diseases of the brain, tUt the qnanUtyof hlood m the hram and its membranes can be sensibly dininished, cannot be so clearly de-