Escape Of Fluid Research Articles

Intravenous Injections in Cholera

IN the address given by Sir Leonard Rogers to the Indian Science Congress at Bombay (NATURE, May 29) reference is made to the treatment of cholera by injections of saline solutions, with the object of replacing the fluid lost from the blood, which loss may amount to 67 per cent, of the plasma volume. The distinguished worker found that isotonic sodium chloride solution (0.85 per cent.) was practically useless, but that hypertonic solutions (1.2 per cent.) were of much greater value. Since the walls of the blood-vessels are freely permeable to salts, there is no permanent difference of osmotic pressure between their contents and the tissue spaces outside them. Hence there is no permanent force to prevent the escape of fluid from the blood-vessels. So long as the salt-content of the blood, as raised by the introduction of hypertonic solutions, exceeded that of the tissue fluids in his cases, there would be absorption of water and the blood-volume would be maintained; but before long the salt concentration of the tissues would rise to that of the blood, and there would no longer be the difference of osmotic pressure necessary to hold the fluid in the circulation against the filtration due to the arterial pressure. This would explain the repeated injections found necessary by Sir Leonard Rogers. In some experiments that I have made, 2 per cent, sodium chloride was found to leave the circulation and cause dema, although not so rapidly as isotonic solutions did.

A NEW INSTRUMENT FOR THE CURE OF HYDROCELE.

The cure of hydrocele by injection with carbolic acid has obvious advantages over the cutting operations. Its serious defects have been (1) uncertainty of a cure, (2) unintentional injection of the acid into the scrotal tissues. Recurrence resuits from failure to destroy the serous surface, and this in turn from incomplete removal of the albuminous hydrocele fluid, an adherent layer of which protects the serous surface from the caustic effect of the acid. These defects are remedied by the following method with the instrument herewith pictured, whose distinctive feature is the window in the canula. <h3>METHOD OF USE.</h3> The distended scrotum is transfixed from above downward; after withdrawal of trocar and escape of fluid, the lower end of the canula is closed by the cap and the sac is distended with warm salt solution injected through the upper end. Removal of the cap allows the solution to escape; and this

THE NERVES OF THE CAPILLARIES, WITH REMARKS ON NERVE-ENDINGS IN MUSCLE

1. The endings of the motor nerves in striped muscle remain on the outside of the sarcolemma. Aside from the surfaces of contact of muscle and nerve fibre, the end fibres are covered down to their tips with the sheath of Schwann and are provided with nuclei. The precise condition of things at the places of contact of muscle and nerve is an unsolved problem of histology. 2. The ivy-like or festooned arrangement of motor nerves in the frog's muscle has been misinterpreted. Properly interpreted it demonstrates that the nerve fibres that are to influence the muscle fibre are not naked and that they need not be end fibres. It shows that mere contact between muscle fibre and nerve fibre is all that is necessary. 3. The sheath of Henle in the frog and in the smaller muscle fibres of the snake is open, thus permitting escape of the cerebrospinal fluid. 4. In other animals Henle's sheath extends over the end fibres of the motor nerve and the cells lining it envelop the end fibrils. I find that the so-called "Sohlensubstanz" of Kühne is derived from the cells of Henle's sheath. 5. The terminal nerves in smooth muscle form a network entwining the bundles of muscle fibres. I consider it improbable that each plain muscle fibre has a special terminal nerve fibril. 6. In muscular tissue fine non-medullated nerves, probably belonging to the centrifugal, vasomotor system, proceed from the fasciculi of motor nerves. These nerves can be traced directly to a network of nerves surrounding the capillaries. From this network fine, nucleated, nerve fibres pass to the walls of the capillaries, with which they are very closely united. 7. The nerves supplying the capillaries connect also with sensory nerves and with nerves surrounding the larger blood-vessels, both arteries and veins. 8. The branches of the chorda tympani in the submaxillary gland do not pass to the gland cells, but they terminate on the capillaries. 9. In muscular and glandular tissues-and perhaps throughout the body-there is a vast peripheral nervous plexus belonging to the capillary blood-vessels. These nerves of the capillaries, which may perhaps be regarded as nutritive nerves, regulate the production and transudation of lymph, and are concerned in the mechanism of glandular secretion. They may be called into activity both by peripheral influences and by impulses received from the central nervous system and the sympathetic ganglia. They may influence, through their connections with the vasomotor nerves on the arteries and veins, the blood supply to a part.

Spontaneous escape of cerebral fluid from the nose

Spontaneous escape of cerebral fluid from the nose

A CASE OF CONGENITAL MALFORMATION OF THE HEART.

Mrs. B., was confined May 5, 1898, at 3 A.M. Ineffectual pains had persisted at intervals since 2 A.M., May 2, with partial escape of amniotic fluid at that time. It was not, however, till the evening of the 4th that the uterine contractions became regular and vigorous. The case was a brow presentation. The head was considerably deformed by pressure and a couple of minutes elapsed before respiration was established. The child's cries were weak and hoarse. It was remarked that the action of the heart was unusually vigorous. After an hour the child was left in apparently good condition. At 5 A.M. the writer was summoned with the report that after a feeble attempt at nursing the child had died in the mother's arms while she was sleeping. An autopsy made a few hours later showed the lungs only partially distended. The heart was normal in appearance, filled