An inaugural dissertation on universal dropsy : submitted to the examination of the Revd. John Ewing, S.T.D. provost ; the trustees and medical professors of the University of Pennsylvania ; for the degree of Doctor of Medicine : on the twelfth day of May, A.D. 1791 / by Elijah Perkins. A.B. of Connecticut, Member of the American Medical Society, at Philadelphia.

  • Perkins, Elijah, 1767-1806.
Date:
MDCCXCI [1791]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on universal dropsy : submitted to the examination of the Revd. John Ewing, S.T.D. provost ; the trustees and medical professors of the University of Pennsylvania ; for the degree of Doctor of Medicine : on the twelfth day of May, A.D. 1791 / by Elijah Perkins. A.B. of Connecticut, Member of the American Medical Society, at Philadelphia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    20/52
    the night. I have known it to appear in the abdomen in the form of afcites, and conti- nue for feveral months, then yielding to fuir- able remedies, no other part of the body fhowing a difpofi'tion to an hydropic fwell- ing. When it begins in the feet, as the de- bility increafes, the fwelling proceeds up- ward till it arrives at the cheft ; feldom en- tering that cavity, unlefs the primary affec- tion, which gave rife to the general debili- ty, was feated in that part. The prepuce and fcrotum are fometimes amazingly dif- tended, in confequence of the water defend- ing along the proceffes of the peritonaeum into the fcrotum, and along the cellular membrane into the prepuce , the latter is many times fo fwelled as to obftruct the paf- fage of the urine. In women the labia are much enlarged, the vagina confiderably elongated; when this is the cafe, they complain of a difficulty in pairing the urine, and a bearing down of the uterus. A very frequent and difficult refpiration attend this difeafe, arifing either from a collection of water in the chefl, or from the waters of the abdomen prefling a- gainfl the diaphragm; thereby diminifhiiig the cavity of the thorax, and obftrucling the