The diseases of the chest : including the principal affections of the pleurae, lungs, pericardium, heart, and aorta / by Vincent D. Harris.

  • Harris, Vincent Dormer.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the chest : including the principal affections of the pleurae, lungs, pericardium, heart, and aorta / by Vincent D. Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    289/456 (page 273)
    SYMPTOMS OF PHTHISIS wliich ought to give warning of the disease, such as cough or slight expectoration, are overloolved because the' general health is apparently unaffected, till patient is at last warned of the seriousness of his com- plaint by increasing weakness and loss of flesh, and possibly by sleep-sweats. Again,phthisis may develop in a patient subject for years to winter cough, and he is warned of his new danger when the cough and dyspnoea do not abate in the summer as usual. A considerable number of consumptives date the commencement of their illness from breaking a blood-vessel, others from a severe cold caught in a fog, a snowstorm or the like, upon a definite day. The symptoms as well as the course of the disease very much depend upon the presence or absence of complications either in the larynx, intestines, or elsewhere. Considering the immense variety in the lesions of phthisis, the different circumstances under which it occurs, its long duration in many cases, and the many complications to which it may give rise, it is extremely difficult to arrange the symptoms of the disease in anything like order. The diagnosis of consumption in the lung indeed depends to a considerable extent upon the physical examination of the chest, and sym- ptoms are chiefly valuable in a majority of cases when considered in conjunction with physical signs. We will, however, consider some of the chief or most common of them in order. Cough.—Cough is almost an invariable symptom of consumption. It is usually one of the first symptoms, if not the very first. It varies in amount, from the merest hack to a constant wearying trouble, sometimes worse in the morn- ing or at night, and increased on exertion. It may be for some time a winter cough, being absent in the summer, and, indeed, the i^resence of a cough unabated all the year through, is justly considered by the laity to be a serious 18