Strangulated Intestine

1843 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal  
nervous people complain, may be explained by that paucity of arterial blood which all the organs must experience from an enlargement of the splenic artery; in consequence of which a large portion of blood passes through the spleen without reaching the general circulation. In all sedentary people, it appears lo me that the blood must have a tendency to pass through the spleen, as from the vicinity of that organ lo the heart, it must receive the blood with more force than the extremities and more
more » ... distant parts ; but in active people this effect would not follow, as the general circulation is hastened by exercise. Observation shows that sedentary people are most liable to become spleeny ; or, according to the foregoing theory, to have the circulation of the blood carried on through the spleen. It must he obvious to every one that the circulation of an undue quantity of the blood through die spleen, would cause an emaciation of the body and habitual paleness of the skin, which are also characteristics of fainting and nervous people. The spleen of many such people, after death, has been found to be enlarged, and its arteries and veins to be of a corresponding size. In conformity with the theory of fainting here offered, those people who have been most subject to fainting during life, and to habitual paleness of the skin, should present, after death, an enlargement of the splenic vessels, or an unusual development of that organ.
doi:10.1056/nejm184307260282504 fatcat:klvzhlvuejbiro4lqgsbtw4xxq