Page:The Harveian oration on Harvey in ancient and modern medicine (electronic resource) (IA b20420080).pdf/32

20 portal, or femoral, and recognise at the same time that they are dynamical, not chemical. It will be my endeavour to show that renal dropsy is dynamical as well as chemical, that it is associated with arterial pressure as the others are with venous, as immediately, though not ab initio.

A distinguished predecessor in this office spoke of renal dropsy as a result of osmosis, not of obstructed circulation, and of Graham's researches with regard to diffusion through membranes as chiefly concerned in its expla- nation, but I think I shall be able to show that, whatever may be said of the laws of Graham, those of Harvey are not to be left out of consideration. It may even appear that the force of the heart and pressure of the blood have more to do with this morbid process than osmosis or dialysis.

It is probable that we have yet much to learn as to the passage of fluids through living membranes, and it would be presumptuous to assert that we know all about renal dropsy; but it presents such clear clinical relations