The Medical adviser and complete guide to health and long life : containing the most plain and easy directions for the treatment of every disorder incidental to the human frame in all its ages / by Alexr. Burnett, M.D.

Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Medical adviser and complete guide to health and long life : containing the most plain and easy directions for the treatment of every disorder incidental to the human frame in all its ages / by Alexr. Burnett, M.D. 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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    I was only able to avail myself of through the liberality of the Pro- prietors of The Medical Adviskk, as they had just previously possessed themselves of his superior talents.— The height of Seurat is five feet seven inches and a half, and his limbs are in good longitudinal proportion, and in that only. When he enters the room, you observe the effort with which he walks, apparently having little or no power of propelling the extremities forward; his action par- takes something of the appearance termed in horses the string halt, and may be best described by comparing it to the uncertain efforts of a very young child in walking. When he stands fronting you, the eye is ar- rested by the extreme concavity of the sternum, and the curious bowing- out of the ribs, protruding in an in- creased bend towards the inferior costae. This flattening of the ster- num has very much contributed to that appearance of respiring from the lowest part of the abdomen, as the depression allowing of little expansion in the thorax, and hardly any action of the respiratory muscles, the whole of the abdominal muscles are neces- sarily drawn upwards or inwards, which we may demonstrate partly on ourselves, by taking what is called an inward breath. With regard to the lungs, I am of opinion, from the use of the tethra- scope, that there is a cavity in the right lobe, the result of tubercular absorption, as pectoriloquy was plain- ly distinguishable, while the left lobe appeared perfectly sound. A physi- cian of growing eminence, and an intimate acquaintance of Laennec, the discoverer of this decidedly useful in- strument, who was present with me, concurred fully in this opinion. The heart presents nothing wonderful in its action; no impulsion, no tendency to enlargement, and not materially out of its natural position. The pul- sation is distinctly visible, though not much more than may be seen in per- sons wasted by long disease; the liver is plainly discernible below the mar- gin of the ribs, and is both enlarged and indurated, most likely the con- sequence of former disease, probably inflammation, as there are marks remaining of a plentiful application of leeches. The abdomen presents a contracted and wasted form, the very reverse of the aldertnanic. This is, however, matter of little surprise, as the small quantity he eats and drinks precludes all possibility of distension ; the pelvis, owing to this and the de- ficiency of muscular attacliment, has an appearance of great capacity, and the insertion of the head of the femi'r (thigh bone) is plainly discernible; the whole of the superior spine of the ilium is easily traced, and the figure of the ischium (haunch bone) is dis- cerned with facility, having little more than a cuticular covering : the glutei muscles have dwindled almost to nothing, and the os coccyx can be traced, by the eye, to its extreme point. Yet amidst all this waste, or rather want of muscular matter, we find the organs of generation in a full and vigorous state ; why these should not have shared in the general atrophy, is a matter of curious inquiry. When turned round, to obtain a posterior view, the scapula immediately at- tracts attention, as observable in a position varying from the natural, being considerably elevated by the trapezius muscle, which is strengthened from continual use, and is more strongly defined than the other mus- cles ; every minutiae of the scapula (blade bones) are discernible; its glenoid cavity, with the insertion of the humerus and the acromion arti- culation with the clavicle, &c. When the scapula? are made to approach each other, the fingers can almost pass down between the posterior edge and the back: there is in the spine a considerable lateral curve, and a pro- tuberance in one of the cervical ver- tebrae. Continuing to view the body downwards, we observe the extraor- dinary deficiency of the thighs, there