STUDIES OF TISSUE MAINTENANCE

The spread through the living animal of various highly diffusible dyes has been utilized as an indicator of the ability of the circulation to serve the tissues under various conditions. The method is direct and searching. Blood service to the viscera, as demonstrated by it, is normally far more profuse than to the skin and muscles, for evident physiological reasons. After hemorrhages which greatly reduce the blood bulk service to the viscera is in general still well maintained even though the animal be in extremis. However great the compensatory contraction of the splanchnic vessels may be,—and physiologists have long supposed it to be very great,—it certainly does not suffice to hinder blood service anywhere in the digestive tract. On the other hand the service to certain unessential abdominal organs (spleen, omentum, urinary bladder) is cut off in large part or wholly; and in comparison with the essential viscera, the skin and most of the skeletal muscles of the bled animal are largely deprived of circulation. This neglect takes a curious form, some regions being still fairly served by the blood while others next them are no longer ministered to. In the skin the areas served, or not served, are highly irregular but are to some extent determined in situation by local pressure factors. Within the muscles the neglect is orderly in arrangement and is largely referable to compensatory vaso-constriction. Certain of the muscles, those used in respiration and in swallowing, furnish significant exceptions to the general rule, being excellently served despite the serious general state. The red bone marrow of the depleted organism continues to be well served by the blood even though situated in limbs that are, for the rest, almost devoid of a circulation. The pregnant uterus also is excellently maintained despite the serious general state. The changes are such as would tend to conserve the forces of the depleted organism and to contribute to its recovery.