A treatise on gout, apoplexy, paralysis, and disorders of the nervous system / by A. Rennie.

  • Rennie, A. (Alexander)
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on gout, apoplexy, paralysis, and disorders of the nervous system / by A. Rennie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    unusual after a considerable reaction in the upper and cen- tral parts of the body has supervened. It is precisely in these circumstances, for the most part, that all the symptoms of determination of blood to the head show themselves. Of these, we notice especially, sudden swimmings in the head and giddiness, confusion of mind, drowsiness after dinner, depression of spirits, throbbing in the temples and throat, or sense of choking, great tightness across the chest, deep sighing, nervous agitation, noises in the ears, sleeplessness, anxiety, restlessness, unpleasant dreams, sudden shocks and frights in sleep, night-mare, &c. &c. The tendency of the blood to take the direction of the head in excess, is always in proportion to the impaired state of the nervous system, and the weak irritable state of the circulation ; so that whatever causes simultaneously impair the nervous energy, and repel the circulation from the ex- ternal vessels to the internal organs in excess, and at the same time obstruct and disorder the functions of the alimen- tary canal, will infallibly induce that determination of blood to the alimentary canal and head, which so often terminates in gout. On these three principles we conceive all the disposing causes of gout to act. 1. Causes weakening the cerebral and nervous powers. 2. Causes disturbing the equable action and distribution of the blood. 3. Causes disordering and obstructing the functions of the stomach, the liver, and the alimentary canal. There are a variety of ways in which determination to the head takes place in enervated habits; and this variety depends on the peculiarity of the constitution in other re- spects, and on the causes which at the time affect the constitution. We shall, even at the risk of some repetition, illustrate more fully the consequences of collapse from exposure to cold, with repelled circulation, a congestive state of the hepatic and portal circulation, obstructed bowels, and dis-