Vascular troubles in later life : inaugural address delivered before the Midland Medical Society, at Birmingham, on October 28, 1909 / by Sir Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1909
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Vascular troubles in later life : inaugural address delivered before the Midland Medical Society, at Birmingham, on October 28, 1909 / 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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    me amusing stories all the time. He used to look back upon that time as the “ honeymoon,” or, as he termed it, the “ Flitterwochen ” of the new institute. He was then begin- ning to work on the process of perfusion, and to investigate the action of the arterioles in regulating the flow of blood through them. He set me to work on this, and I then observed not only that the arterioles had a power of contraction quite apart from the heart or nervous system (2), and that this contraction was not limited to a few vessels here and there as in the rabbit’s ear, but that it occurred as a general process through- out the body (3). The contraction was sometimes so complete as to obliterate the lumen of the vessel. Moreover, the arterioles would sometimes contract in a completely peristaltic manner, just like a bit of intestine (4).* Other researches were also carried on, and especially one on the secretion of urine, by Ludwig, along with his pupil IJstimovitch (5), and I well remember the epoch-making experiment, almost exactly forty years ago, which led Ludwig to alter his theory of the secre- tion of urine. He and Ustimovitch had narcotised a dog and divided the spinal cord so that the blood pressure was very low indeed. They then injected urea into the veins, and found that the secretion of urine was very considerably increased although the blood pressure remained low. It was this experiment that led Ludwig to modify his original theory (6), and to hold that while the secretion of urine depended in general on the difference between the pressure in the renal arteries and that in the ureters, yet the rate of secretion depends to a certain extent on the amount of urinary matters contained in the blood (7). Owing to Ludwig’s habit of publishing all his work under the name of his scholars, so that it was only recognised as his by being contained in his Arbeiten, this important addition which he made to his theory has been often overlooked, and it is, I think, not generally known that he modifled his theory in this very important particular. For the greater convenience of reference afterwards to the * Since this paper was published, I have found that Lord Lister made similar observations on the frog in 1857, and observed in it, after removal of the brain and spinal cord, both complete contraction of an artery so as to obliterate its lumen, and peristaltic contraction. PhU. Trans., Part II. for 1858, and Collected Papers, Oxford, 1909, vol. i. p. 39.