Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-17

nection means that they are able to
remove the diffusible constituents
of the blood while it is outside the
body The wonderful apparatus which
they have devised is so similar in it's
action to the kidney that they usually
refer to it AS the artificial kidney
The process of the elimination of un-
desirable constituents in the blood is
called by the investigators ''yivi-dif-
fusion
The physicians are now constructing
a machine capable of doing the work
necessitated by volume of blood cir
culating in body weighing UP to 200
pounds, and, inasmuch as they have
determined to their own satisfaction
that the procedure is not inimical to
life, there is no reason why it should
not be applied to human beings when
the occasion arises.
OF course, the impression is not in
tended to be conveyed that the blood
is all out of the body at one time, or
that something is not supplied to the
body to take the place of that which
is temporarily absent In order to
make this point clear it is necessary
to give a description OF the apparatus
and the manner in which it is en-
ployed. This will be done in the sim
plest way; and it will be seen that, de-
spite the complicated apparatus used,
the theory upon which it's employ
ment is based is as plain physiolog-
ical proposition as could we'll be
thought Of
Although prior to the time of Har-
vey-not so very long ago, as time is
measured-no one was aware that the
blood circulated throughout the body,
every schoolboy knows nowadays that
the heart pumps out blood through the
arterial system to the most distant
parts of the body; that it next passes
through minute vessels called capilla
ries. and finally returns to The heart
again through the venous system. In
other words, it leaves the heart
through the arteries and returns
through the veins. These Johns Hop
kins physicians conceived the idea Of
tapping one of the large arteries, al
lowing the blood TIC flow out, and re-
turning it to a large vein when they
had finished with it.
There were many difficulties to be
overcome, but they finally made a
system of tubes of material porous
enough TO allow the substances they
wished eliminated to escape through
the sides as it passed through them
One end of the system of tubes was
connected with an artery, which had
been opened by means of single tube
called a cannula. The other end of the
system was joined to the receiving
vein by another cannula. Now then
we have blood coming out of an ar
terry in a cannula, through the cannula
into the system of tubes (whose vari-
Gus branchings and their Significance
will be explained later, through the
system of tubes to the second cannula,
and thence into the vein, and so back
to the heart
So far we have merely described the
method by which blood can be taken
out of the body and restored to it
without any great difficulty. This in
itself is simple procedure. We have
not, however, shown what takes the
place in the body of that volume of
blood which is temporarily outside of
it. The nearest approach to the blood
serum of an animal is a mixture OF
salt and water in certain proportions.
referred to in laboratory experimental
ton as normal saline solution" Be-
fore circulation in the apparatus is
established. the system OF tubes lis