Researches on the nature, pathology, and treatment of emphysema of the lungs, and its relations with other diseases of the chest / by A.T.H. Waters.

  • Waters, A. T. Houghton (Alderman Thomas Houghton), 1826-1912.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on the nature, pathology, and treatment of emphysema of the lungs, and its relations with other diseases of the chest / by A.T.H. Waters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    change which takes place in the heart, for valvular disease is frequently found. The deposits and thick- ening, which occur about the valves, are no doubt secondary to the changes which take place in the muscular walls, and must be attributed to the general mal-nutrition produced by the pulmonary disease. When we consider the anatomical arrangements of the pulmonary tissue, and especially of the pulmo- nary blood-vessels, in emphysema, we can at once give a rational and satisfactory explanation of the causes which lead to hypertrophy and dilatation of the right cavities of the heart. The impediment which exists to the circulation through the lungs, in consequence of the physical condition of the lung- tissue, and the imperfect aeration of the blood, together with the diminution in the number of the pulmonary blood-vessels, must necessarily give rise to an overloaded state of the right cardiac cavities, and to increased action on their part. No such explanation as that just given will, how- ever, apply to the hypertrophy, so commonly found, of the left ventricle; for there is a diminution in the quantity of blood which finds its way into that cavity, and consequently, on this account, rather less call for muscular action than in a state of health. We might therefore infer that we have in these circumstances an element of atrophy, rather than of hypertrophy. But morbid anatomy teaches us that the latter usually exists. Whence, then, does it arise? It appears to me that we must look, for an expla- nation of the fact, to the effects produced on the heart