The Intravenous Injection of Fluids 



AELIE V. BOCK 



BOSTON 



Introduction 



The rapid adoption of intravenous therapy has resulted from the devel- 

 opment of the technic of venous puncture. The simplicity of intravenous 

 injection for the administration of drugs and fluids has secured for this 

 method a wide field of usefulness. In the following pages the use of 

 immune sera and of drugs will not be considered, hut attention will be 

 paid rather to the use of injections or infusions of various solutions into 

 the blood stream for the treatment of certain clinical conditions. 



The Fluids of the Body 



Before entering in detail upon the subject of infusions, the role 

 of fluids in the organism will be briefly discussed. It is estimated 

 that the fluid content of the body is equal to from 60 per cent to TO 

 per cent of the body weight. This fluid consists of the blood, the 

 lymph, and the tissue fluid, all of which may be regarded as mobile fluids, 

 and the fluid within the cells which, in contrast to the rest, is com- 

 paratively fixed. The importance of water in the maintenance of life 

 has been emphasized by Starling(a), who points out that all of the 

 energies manifested by living cells are derived from substances in solu- 

 tion, and that all metabolic changes in the body relate to changes in and 

 between substances in solution. The organism as a whole strives to main- 

 tain a fairly constant quantity of total fluid, as well as to guard carefully 

 the chemical constitution of the fluid in the various systems. This control, 

 although exceedingly complex, since it involves physical and chemical 

 phenomena of an infinite order, and the cooperation of highly organized 

 absorbing and excreting organs, is nevertheless remarkably efficient. 



Starling has also discussed the importance of the body fluids in 

 general, from the point of view of the variety of their adjustments to 

 local conditions, by which the cells of the body are enabled to carry 

 out the functions for which they have been differentiated. He has 



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