Pyretic treatment of rheumatism and allied and disorders / by Percy Wilde.

  • Wilde, Percy (Percy Roberts), 1856 or 1857-1929.
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Pyretic treatment of rheumatism and allied and disorders / by Percy Wilde. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    into carbonic acid gas and water. The accumula¬ tion of lactic acid in the muscle is followed by stiffness because the lactic acid enters into physical cohesion with the cell walls of the tissues and makes them become thicker. You can easily demonstrate this property of lactic acid by soaking a piece of meat—i.e., muscle—in a 5 per cent, solution of lactic acid, wash it under the tap, and let it dry. It will be found that the muscle has become absolutely rigid, and this will remain until the lactic acid is removed by the methods I will describe. It will then be found that the cells of the tissues have undergone no change whatever, and the natural flexibility returns. In the living body the lactic acid is constantly being oxidised, and this act is not accompanied by any symptoms. When you exercise a fatigued muscle and carry the exercise to excess, pain quickly follows stiff¬ ness, and this may last for some days. By this over-exertion you have not only added to the amount of retained lactic acid, but have also exhausted the oxidising power of the tissues, which is one of the results of strain of all kinds. We have then a condition where rapid oxidation is impossible ; it can only go on very slowly and imperfectly. But as lactic acid absorbs oxygen in insufficient quantity to change it into carbonic