On the Pathology of the dropsy produced by obstruction of the superior and inferior venœ and the portal vein.— Preliminary communication

Abstract

In August, 1903, I published a paper in the ‘Journal of Pathology’(1) in which I demonstrated a method experimentally producing uncompensated hear disease in an animal, which was compatible with life. This method consisted in diminishing the size of the pericardial sac by stitches, so that the diastolic filling of the heart was impeded. The main symptoms of this condition were dropsy and diminution in the amount of urine excreted. As the immediate result of this interference with the action of the heart, there occurred a rise of pressure throughout the whole systemic venous system extending as far back as the capillaries, and a fall of the mean arterial blood-pressure. Further, I found that the pressure in all the veins fell to the normal limit again within the space of about one hour, and that subsequently when dropsy was being produced, the vanous pressure in all parts of the body was normal, and the arterial pressure had almost recovered itself.