On breathlessness, especially in relation to cardiac disease / by Sir Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On breathlessness, especially in relation to cardiac disease / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    hindered, and dyspnoea occurs. Still worse is it when the mitral orifice is narrowed, because then, in place of the obstruc- Fig. 9. Diagram of a heart with incompetent aortic and mitral valves. The auricle and veins, as well as the ventricle and aorta, are under pressure constantly. tion being intermittent, it becomes constant, and the vessels, which will stand an intermittent strain, yield to one which is continuous. In the early experiments made by my dear old master. Professor Ludwig, on artificial circulation through isolated parts of the body, he used blood under constant pressure.' He found, however, that the pressure, which had at first been sufficient to send the blood readily through the vessels of an excised organ, became insufficient to do so as the experiments went on, and it became necessary to raise it constantly. At the same time the tissues continued to undergo cedematous infiltration, and with some organs, such as the kidney, it was impossible to maintain functional activity. After a while, however, he discovered that if the pressure was rhythmically increased and lessened by raising and lowering the vessel containing the blood, at such a rate and through such a height as to imitate the natural rise and fall in the arterial pressure, which the beats of the heart caused, circulation went on for a long time without any increase in pressure being requisite, and without the appearance of cedema.^ The different effects on the respiration of distension of the right and left ventricles are well shown by some'experiments of Kauders, who found, under von Basch’s direction, that, when an indiarubber bag was introduced into the left ventricle and ‘ Ludwig’s Arbeiten for 1868, p. 14. ’ He did this about 1870, when I was working in his laboratory.