Author: George Bacon Wood

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2017-12-07

Total Pages: 1002

ISBN-13: 9780332520469

Excerpt from A Treatise on Therapeutics, and Pharmacology, or Materia Media, Vol. 2 of 2 The great discovery by Bernard of the contractile influence exercised by the sympathetic nervous centres, offers the means of a satisfactory explanation of the action of cold in producing contraction at once of the exterior and interior surfaces of the body. It is highly probable that the shock of cold, to whatever part applied, exercises a special excitant influence on the sympathetic centres, causing them to increase con traction of the capillaries, universal when the application of cold is general, but more or less limited when the localization of the cold determ ines the excitation only of certain ganglia, having special relation with the part refrigerated. If the cold is sufficiently intense, the actions of the part are depressed until they cease altogether. Life, however, is not necessarily lost, even though the part may have been frozen; for, if care is taken to restore the natural temperature gradually, it resumes its functions, and its pre vious condition. If heat is too suddenly applied, the reaction is violent, inflammation takes place, and gangrene is apt to result. But, should the cold be continued sufficiently long, death will take place, in the part at least, so that, upon the reapplication of warmth, circulation within it is not resumed, and it is separated by sloughing. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.