RT Journal
T1 EXperimental alterations of brain bulk
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1919
FD July 19
VO 73
IS 3
SP 194
OP 195
DO 10.1001/jama.1919.02610290036017
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1919.02610290036017
AB The physical conditions that determine the character of the circulation in the brain have long been regarded to be considerably different from those that obtain in other parts of the body. In most vascular areas, vasomotor changes in the blood vessels are followed by corresponding alterations in the volume of the parts affected. A limb swells or shrinks, respectively, as its blood vessels become dilated or constricted. The brain, on the other hand, is enclosed in a rigid cranium which cannot alter its size in such elastic fashion. Since the blood vessels of this organ are currently believed to project into "a rigid case filled with incompressible material," it is obvious that they cannot, on this hypothesis, contract or dilate without some increase or decrease in the volume of the contents of the cranial cavity. Consequently, a recent writer1 reflects the trend of present-day opinion when he states that the