THE EFFECT OF SOME HYDROTHERAPEUTIC PROCEDURES ON THE BLOOD-FLOW IN THE ARM

Abstract

<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> It is generally agreed that therapeutic baths exercise a profound effect on the circulation of the blood. The exact changes, however, are not fully understood and this lack of knowledge is due to a number of causes. In the first place it is not easy to transfer the results of animal experiments to man because the skin vessels in the latter are more active and the temperature regulation more exact. In the second place alterations in the distribution of blood in the body, seemingly the most marked circulatory effect of baths, are not readily studied in man. The blood-pressure gives no definite information as to this distribution because the dilatation of one set of vessels may be neutralized by the constriction of another set, and the changes in pulse tracings are extremely difficult to interpret.¹On the other hand, the plethysmograph which records the volume changes in