Changes of the blood in disease / translated from the French of M. Gibert by John H. Dix.

  • Gibert, C.-M. (Camille Melchior), 1797-1866.
Date:
1841
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Changes of the blood in disease / translated from the French of M. Gibert by John H. Dix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Sec. II.—White Cachexy, {Scrofula, Dropsy, Albuminuria, Diabetes) In the memoir which we have quoted, M. Jolly com- pares to chlorosis and anaemia the watery cachexy of veterinary physicians, which appears endemically in marshy and damp re- gions, where intermittent fever is common, as at Sologue. The damp, marshy atmosphere produces in man similar effects. It is well known, that in countries where intermittent fever is endemic, a large part of the population is in an anaemic state, and has a ten- dency to a true watery cachexy. Similar causes, especially the privation of the sun's rays, together with want of exercise, cause in many animals domesticated in our house or in menageries, a state of anaemic debility which renders the white fluids of the body predominant, and leads to the develop- ment of tuberculous cachexy. M. Baudelocque, in his Researches on Scrofula, has considered. as the proximate cause of scrofulous affections, an essential change in the sanguineous system in consequence of deleterious qualities of the atmosphere. This cause, he says, exists wherever scrofula is found, and where it does not exist, scrofulous diseases are unknown. If sufficient importance has not been attributed to this cause, it is because we have rested satisfied with other circumstances calcu- lated to develope this evil, or because we have entirely neglected to ascertain the condition of atmosphere in which a great part of the day, and the whole of the night is passed. (See the Revue Medicale, 1834, t. iv. p. 127.) Chemistry has not hitherto discovered any sensible alteration of the blood in scrofulous persons. M. Dubois, of Amiens, thinks that he has discovered by microscopical observa- tions an alteration of the globules, a lessening of the coagulability and variations in the colour of the blood of scrofulous persons. M. Donne, on the other hand, finds no appreciable differences between the blood of scrofulous and other subjects. Fred. Hoffman, {Med. rat. syst. t. iv. p. 4, p. 430, Ed. Francf. 1738,) treating of dropsy, attributes it solely to an embarrassment of the venous circulation. Scarcely, says he, can any one in my opinion find any other cause of dropsy, than the hindrance or diffi- culty of the circulation of the blood in the veins stopped, or retarded by various causes. He relies upon the celebrated experiments of Lower, {de Corde, cap. ii. p. 123. 1669,) who produced dropsy in animals by putting a ligature on the large venous trunks. The necroscopic observations of M. Bouillaud, (see vol. ii. p. 188, of the Archives generates de Med. 1823,) revived this ancient opinion which had been lost sight of since the physiologists of Bichat's school made the absorbent vessels an appendage of the lymphatic system. Fully admitting the reality of this cause, it is not to be considered as the only one* and must frequently be regarded as only secondary. Thus many authors, from Erasistratus, the celebrated anatomist of the school of Alexandria, down to M. Andral, have found in a lesion of the liver (itself an obstruction to the abdominal venous circulation) the cause of ascites. In our own day a peculiar change 3—a 2 gibert