Fat and blood : an essay on the treatment of certain forms of neurasthenia and hysteria / [S. Weir Mitchell].

  • Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir), 1829-1914.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Fat and blood : an essay on the treatment of certain forms of neurasthenia and hysteria / [S. Weir Mitchell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    change continually. The steady or rapid lessen- ing of the deposits of hydro-carbons stored away in the areolse of the tissues is of importance, as indicating their excessive use or a failure of supply; and when either condition is to be sus- pected it becomes our duty to learn the reasons for this striking symptom. Loss of flesh has also a collateral value of great import, because it is almost an invariable rule that rapid thin- ning is accompanied soon or late with more or less anaemia, and it is uncommon to see a person steadily gaining fat after any pathological reduc- tion of weight without a corresponding gain in amount and quality of blood. We too rarely reflect that the blood thins with the decrease of the tissues and enriches as they increase. Before entering into this question further, I shall ask attention to some points connected with the normal fat of the human body; and, taking for granted, here and elsewhere, that my readers are well enough aware of the physiological value and uses of the adipose tissues, I shall continue to look at the matter chiefly from a clinical point of view. When in any individual the weight varies rap- idly or slowly, it is nearly always due, for the