CHEMICAL CEPTORS 113 



there has been evolved an additional method of arrest- 

 ing hemorrhage by a rapid increase in the coagulation 

 of the blood when the blood-pressure is low ; for ex- 

 ample, just before death from hemorrhage the blood 

 current is feeble, and the clots are not easily carried 

 away. 



Low blood-pressure produces anemia of the brain, 

 which in turn occasions fainting ; thus fainting occurs 

 in connection with great loss of blood. Indeed it is 

 probable that fainting and hemorrhage have had a 

 simultaneous biologic origin. It is a common tendency 

 of both men and women of women rather than men 

 - to faint at the sight of blood. Women have always 

 been exposed to the disastrous hemorrhage of child- 

 birth, and therefore, more than men, have needed the 

 salutary reaction of a low blood-pressure to arrest the 

 bleeding. Acting on this assumption, I have clinically 

 utilized the fainting point as a remedy against internal 

 hemorrhage. Patients with internal hemorrhage are 

 propped upright in bed, or the blood is segregated in 

 the limbs in such a manner that the patient is con- 

 stantly on the verge of fainting. This procedure, 

 persisted in for some time, has in three instances ade- 

 quately arrested internal hemorrhage. As soon as the 

 hemorrhage has ceased, the patient is allowed to lie 

 down, and adequate circulation through the brain is 

 restored. Fainting never occurs in the course of acute 

 infections, such as peritonitis, osteo-myelitis or typhoid 

 fever. It may occur as a result of strong emotion, but 

 its most common incentive is the telltale sight of 

 blood. Its phylogenetic origin, therefore, was ap- 

 parently associated with bleeding. 



