An experimental inquiry of the general nature of inflammation / by Charles Hastings.

  • Hastings, Charles, Sir, 1794-1866.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental inquiry of the general nature of inflammation / by Charles Hastings. 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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    right auricle, it is necessary to assign the precise force with which the blood is impelled into the great artery, and also the exact momentum any given column of blood should receive at the heart to enable it to circulate, with the wonted celerity, in a minute capillary tube, unassisted by any con- traction in the blood vessel. But, unfortunately, even an imperfect knowledge of either of these necessary steps in the investigation is not to be obtained ; for, among those who have endeavoured to ascertain the sum of the heart's action, there is such glaring contradiction, that no reliance can be placed on their calculations. Dr. Whytt's opinions on this subject were founded on Dr. Hales' expe- riments ; and he believed that the real remaining force of a globule of blood, when arrived *at a red capillary vessel, was not equal to its own weight. At any rate, the motion of the blood, under such circumstances, must be very slow. But so far from finding the motion of the glo- bules very slow in the minute vessels, which must necessarily happen if the heart were the sole agent in the circulation, actual experiments demonstrate that these globules glide along with considerable rapidity ; with so great rapidity, indeed, that, when magnified by the microscope, the eye can scarcely follow them. Verschuir observed this in his experiments*; and Dr. Thomson found the glo- bules moving so briskly, that it was with difficulty * Verschuir de Arteiarum et Venarum Vi Irritabili, p. 9.