A manual of the practice of medicine / by George Hilaro Barlow.

  • Barlow, George Hilaro, 1806-1866.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of the practice of medicine / by George Hilaro Barlow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    740/778
    development may bo expected to show themselves; (see ' Guy's Hospital Reports,' 1st series, vol. vi., pp. 1 and 467,) and they will consist mainly either in disorganization of the lungs, or—en- largement of the right heart, engorgement of the liver, ascites, and general dropsy. In the female the progress of the activity of the respiratory function is still more remarkable. In the girl it goes on in- creasing, as in the boy, to the age of puberty ; but when men- struatio°n is established, instead of a further and more_ rapid increase, as in the male at the same age, the increase m the daily evolution of carbonic acid is arrested; but should the catamenia be checked, there will be an increase in the evolution of carbonic acid until they are restored. It is remarkable, also, that iu the female, although the rate of mortality is low between fourteen and eighteen, it nevertheless exceeds that of the male by 1-28 to T. ' „ , We perceive, then, the important connection between the uterine functions and the organs of respiration, and also that if there exist any of those circumstances which have just been enumerated as preventing the development of the latter, an irregularity in the former must tend greatly to aggravate the ill effects which may be anticipated. And that such is the case is confirmed by experience ; for instances have occurred m which, from early rheumatism and carditis, there had been narrowing of the mitral valve, but in which menstruation became established, and the pulmonic obstruction relieved, and the patient went on StoE able ealth till the age when that function nnght be expected to cease, and then the dyspnoea, engorgement ot heart and liver, and subsequent dropsy, quickly ensued independently, however, of structural lesion, there appears in tSmale to be sometimes a want of power m the system to establish the catamenial functions; in other cases, again, it is arrested when so established. . Ce we have two varieties, of amenorrhcea,^e X termed in the former case d'ti^iofof suppressio mensium; but there is Desioxs juu™ w-tween pnnal or even greater practical importance, and that is between srsistf zssrssz .Wis*, t— a^MA*S»*w--