The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-10
WAIT, CHILDREN, TILL I
 CATCH UP

ONAGSA@ SA
 Editors Note; In tOday's very interesting article pr. Brady telIi us things we never knew before about the circulation Of the blood Maybe you'll learn something toe when you read the article.
 We were suFurised to find Out there ls no such thing as . capillary vessel-aHd that the diaphragm is . "bO0ster pump" for the circulation --and aIso-well, read what the gOod Doc says.
 One reader drops this in the Tough Question basket: Please tell me whether the following statement Is correct:
 The blood is returned from the capillaries, which are really in- tercellular spaces without walls, to the heart through the veins by the action of the diaphragm which creates Q negative pressure
 (suction) in the thorax and large veins. This action is assisted by
 muscular contraction pressing the blood along the veins, most of which have valves that prevent hackfow.
 It is my contention that the muscular force exerted by the heart, supplemented by the elas- ticity of the arteries, Is entirely dissipated by the time the blood reaches the capillary spaces,
 But in the American Textbook of Physiology, Prof. William Howell of Johns Hopkins univer- sity, editor, I read: Tt is the force generated by the hearts contraction and made uniform by the elastic arteries which drives the blood into and through the veins and back to the heart It. self"
 These statements seem to con- filct and I hope you can clarify the question of the pressure in the capillary spaces or vessels or whatever they are, and in the veins.
 By the time I finish reading tho letter I am entirely surrounded by authoritative works on physiology, including, of course, . late edition of Howell's textbook-hls own book, not the bill of goods he "edited." Move up closer, children, lean over the pile of books before you and listen carefully, for I'm nearly ex- hausted-haven't laid eyes on the bowling green for five consecutive and dreary days, These letters are usually interesting and instructive, but when they get me juggling pon- derous medical works around the playroom here, I swan, they get me down.
 The real Howell, in his textbook, observes that 1t is not possible to connect e manometer directly with the capillary vessels, and recourse has been had to less direct meth- ods" of estimating the pressure in the capillary bed or spaces, Of course you can't connec a mano- meter, that is, insert Q tube or hol- low needle in Q vessel If there is no vessel there-and I still say there aint no such thing as 6 capillary vessel. When the blood passes through the finest artery or arteriole at the distal end of the arterial vessel 1t merely seeps through the spaces between he cells of the tis- sues, gives up its oxygen and nutri- ments, such as blood sugar, to the tissue cells, takes on 6 load of car- bon dioxide and other combustion by-products and oozes along into the finest microscopical venule on its way back through the veins to the right auticle and on into the right ventricle of the heart to be pumped to the lungs where 1t dumps the carbon dioxide and picks up a fresh load of oxygen to carry back to left auricle, into left ventricle. and thence is pumped ino the aorta or great artery and out into the enjre arterial system again.
 The physiologists agree that there Is about tweny millimeters of water pressure in the capillary spaces or