A case of simple hypertrophy of the heart : illustrating former and modern practice, with remarks / by Sir Risdon Bennett.

  • Bennett, James Risdon, 1809-1891.
Date:
[1890?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of simple hypertrophy of the heart : illustrating former and modern practice, with remarks / by Sir Risdon Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    such treatment ? Was the cardiac hypertrophy retarded or increased ? Viewing the case, as we must, as one of simple cardiac hypertrophy in an otherwise healthy constitution, without obvious cause of obstruction to the circulation, it illustrates a remark of Dr. Stokes that local d isease, itself in- curable, may coexist with a good state of general health for an indefinitely long period/' but washis obvious conclusion ob- served, viz. that when the disease cannot be cured the system at large should not be tampered with ? Such treatment would now scarcely be justified on the ground that by depletion, blisters, and setons we may arrest excessive mus- cular development, except at the risk of inducing worse evils, anaemia, atrophy, and general debibty. But was the tempo- rary relief afforded to the patient such as to lead us to think that life was prolonged, although the subsequent state of anaemia and debility, the apparent ultimate causes of death, were the result of the treatment ? I leave my reader to answer this question as well as the equally important one what other less objectionable palliative treatment have we. As an illustration of the extent to which depletory mea- sures were employed in former, though comparatively recent times, this case will, I think, be considered interesting and may be made instructive. It should not be viewed merely as a curiositas medicines. For there are, in my opinion, sufficient reasons for reconsidering the grounds on which we have been led to abandon so entirely the use of the lancet in medical practice. Experience as well as the advancement of pathological science may justify the conclusion at which we have arrived, that inflammatory action is not to be controlled by vene- section, but it does not follow that life may not be directly saved, or the course of the disease materially modified, by the relief afforded by such means, at certain stages, or in certain conditions of the system, or characters of the consti- tution. There are forms both of acute pneumonia and pleurisy occurring in patients of robust constitution, which in certain conditions and stages of the diseases are relieved by the abstraction of blood, more immediately than by any other remedy, so as to ward off immediate danger to life, and admit of the inflammation running its course in more