An experimental inquiry into the pathology and treatment of asphyxia ... To which the Royal Humane Society awarded the Fothergillian Gold Medal / [John Eric Erichsen].

  • Erichsen, John Eric, 1818-1896.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental inquiry into the pathology and treatment of asphyxia ... To which the Royal Humane Society awarded the Fothergillian Gold Medal / [John Eric Erichsen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/64 (page 5)
    cause in bringing the circulation to a stand, and not that it is without any influence to this respect. But although Haller’s doctrine is not of itself sufficient to account for the arrest of the circulation, yet I am inclined to think that the cessation of the respiratory movements has, independently of any other cause, some influence, although perhaps not a very powerful one, in occasioning this phenomenon. I am the more inclined to this opinion, as I have frequently observed that when a pulmonary vein is punctured whilst artificial respiration is being kept up, the flow of blood from the puncture is evidently increased during the distention of the lung; and indeed, when the circulation has become much enfeebled, it ceases entirely during the collapse of that organ. The -experiments b}^ which Dr. Alison endeavours to prove that the stagnation of the blood in the lungs is due solely to the cessation of the changes between it and the atmospheric air in the pulmonic capillaries, and not to the arrest of the mechanical movements of the chest, do not appear to me to be altogether conclusive. This eminent physiologist confined a rabbit in nitrogen gas until its respiratory movements became laboured and insensibility was approaching. The animal was then withdrawn as rapidly as possible, and, the brain having been suddenly crushed by the blow of a hammer, the chest was laid open. As the quantity of blood found in the right side of the heart preponderated considerably over that in the left, and as the respiratory movements had not been interrupted until the animal was deprived of life, this experiment was looked upon as conclusive evidence of the fact, that the accumulation of the blood in the right side of the heart was owing, not to the arrest of these movements, but to a cessation of the chemical changes between the blood and the air. This conclusion appears to me not to be altogether warranted by the facts of the case ; for it must be remembered that, in this experi¬ ment, the circulation continues after the cessation of the respiratory movements. When an animal that has been breathing atmospheric air up to the moment of its death is killed by a violent blow upon the head, the sensorial functions are immediately annihilated and the respiratory movements are arrested; but the heart continues still to beat, and black blood to circulate, as in ordinary cases of asphyxia, for some time after the extinction of animal life ; the cessation of the action of that organ only ensuing in consequence of the diminution in the quantity and the alteration in the quality of the blood with which it is supplied; and after death the ordinary appearances of asphyxia present themselves, though the chemical changes have continued as long as the respiratory movements. The following is, according to Bichat, the order of the cessation of the vital actions in severe injuries of the brain, as when that organ is crushed :—1. Interruption of the cerebral action ; 2. Annihilation of the action of all the muscles of animal life ; 3. Consequent cessation of the respiratory movements; 4. Suspension of the chemical changes, and consequently of the