Clinical observations on functional nervous disorders / [C. Handfield Jones].

  • Jones, C. Handfield (Charles Handfield), 1819-1890
Date:
1864
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical observations on functional nervous disorders / [C. Handfield Jones]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 30 GENERAL PATHOLOGY. allow free blood-flow to take place. A good example of this kind of congestion was presented to me the other day in a man suffering from a small abdominal aneurism. An ice-bag had been applied over the tumour, and all the area of integument where it lay was of a dusky venous red, while the surrounding skin was quite pale. On laying my warm finger on the chilled skin, the venous hue quickly disappeared from that part. The fore¬ going remarks illustrate the converse occurrence to that first examined: they show how depression of the hearths action, the result of a stimulus, coincides with constric¬ tion of the arteries. The observations of Drs. Bence Jones and Dickinson* are very interesting as to the effect of a very hot vapour-bath taken just before the cold douche. They found that the increased action of the pulse produced by the exposure of the body to hot steam prevented that depression which would otherwise have arisen from the cold water. The action of heat is certainly relaxing to the muscles of the skin and the arteries; so that it is quite intelligible how in the above experiment it should have obviated the over-stimulating effects of the cold,—rendering both the coronary arteries of the heart, as well as those of the body generally, less prone to constriction. (X.) The relation which the febrile state bears to disorder of the nervous system is a topic of high interest. It did not escape the notice of Hippocrates, as shown by his aphorism, nrperos A vet, o-jraa^ovs. The essential phenomena of fever seem to be increased temperature, more or less prostration, and derangement of the nervous functions ; disorder of the secretions, and impairment of nutrition generally. The intention of the following * Vicl. “Proc. of Med.-Chir. Soc.,” vol. L, p. 77; 1857.