| Abstrakt: |
The present investigation was begun at the suggestion of Dr. Edward Archibald, in order to determine the physiologic response of the brain to an injury which might conceivably cause coincident concussion and compression. The symptoms of concussion, lasting for some hours, might be masked by and have to be distinguished from, those of an oncoming compression. This idea was suggested by clinical observation of certain patients suffering from severe cranial injury, in whom it was found that death supervened with a blood pressure, a pulse rate and a respiratory rhythm which remained approximately normal until near the end. The hypothesis which, in his conception, might explain such unusual behavior on the part of the vital centers, consisted in the assumption that the well-known opposite effects of concussion and of compression were neutralizing each other; that the raised blood pressure, slowed pulse rate and deepened respiration of compression were brought approximately |
