A treatise on pulmonary consumption : comprehending an inquiry into the causes, nature, prevention, and treatment of tuberculosis and scrofulous diseases in general / by James Clark.

  • Clark, James, Sir, 1788-1870.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on pulmonary consumption : comprehending an inquiry into the causes, nature, prevention, and treatment of tuberculosis and scrofulous diseases in general / by James Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    often prevails. We meet with too opposite states of the men- tal as well as physical constitution: the one, attended by a florid complexion, thin, fair skin, and great sensibility to im- pressions, with a corresponding acuteness of mind; the other, characterized by a dark complexion and coarse skin, with a languid, torpid condition of the bodily functions, and a simi- lar dulness of the mental faculties. When Tuberculous Cachexia is acquired later in life, the characters by which it is recognized are less clearly marked and less easily distinguished, than when it occurs as a here- ditary affection, or is engrafted on the turberculous constitu- tion. We want in a great degree the external features and form which characterize the hereditary disease. But even when ca- chexia has been acquired after maturity, the peculiar pallid hue, approaching to sallow, and the sunk and faded state of the features, are in general sufficiently well-marked to indicate the patient's condition. In persons of dark complexion there is an unvarying sallow, or rather leaden hue of the skin, and a dull pearly appearance of the sclerotica; and in the fair and florid, a pasty aspect of the countenance, alternating with the irregular red and white mottled appearance of the cheeks, passing often from the paleness of death to a dark purplish hue, in a way more easily recognized than described. In more advanced life, the pale, sallow cast of countenance, vary- ing occasionally to a tinge of yellow, predominates, and marks the slowly acquired but deeply rooted constitutional disease.