344 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
demonstrated by the experiments of Claude Bernard. The 
temperature does not increase, when, after the section of the 
cervical branch of the sympathetic, a ligature is applied to 
the carotid and the vertebral arteries. The graduation of the 
thermometer follows the degree of dilatation and contraction 
of the vessels ( Schiff )—arteries ramifying in organs affected, 
which have no pulsation in their normal state, but will 
throb in an objective manner more or less distinct when 
affected with hvperaemia. This arterial phenomenon, indi¬ 
cative of active congestion, becomes very much marked in 
the plantar arteries of the horse in congestion of the feet. 
This has long since been regarded as a proof of active con¬ 
gestion ; but if we analyse it, we can only recognise it as a 
passive phenomenon. In fact, the atrophy of the vessels 
permits the dilatation of their caliber; the blood flows with¬ 
out any check by the friction of their walls, which yield to 
the pressure. This pulsation will be greater in proportion as 
the atomy more or less pervades the large branches of the 
arteries, and the contractions of the heart are more or less 
energetic. 
The anatomical characters of congestion are—that the blood 
still continues to circulate ; that in death the redness disap¬ 
pears, and the membranes in which it existed are anaemiated. 
Pathology is therefore often unable to pronounce as to the 
existence of congestion by the inspection of the dead body. 
When, however, the congestion has had a certain duration, 
the organs are infiltrated and tumefied. They also offer a dark 
red colouration, which depends less on the plenitude of the 
vessels than on a dark pigment. Congestion of the intestines 
is an exception to this* The capillaries and the radicles of the 
veins present also an arborescent injection, which is some¬ 
times accompanied by ecchymosis. 
