Clinical report on chronic pleurisy : based on an analysis of forty-seven cases / by Austin Flint.

  • Flint, Austin, 1812-1886.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical report on chronic pleurisy : based on an analysis of forty-seven cases / by Austin Flint. 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.)

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    patients were either seen in consultation, or applied simply for a physical exploration of the chest. Under these circumstances a general sketch of the previous history only was noted, and in several instances the farther progress and issue were not procured. The cases, moreover, came under my notice at different stages of the history, and the notes of some were made after recovery from the disease. The data which I have collected are, thus, man- ifestly inadequate for the positive and negative results of a complete numeri- cal analysis. To this character the present Report can have no claim. My only expectation is to furnish a small contribution toward the cultivation of a field of clinical study, of great practical interest, which, from the difficulty of aggregating facts, or other causes, has hitherto beeu neglected. The number of cases of which I have preserved notes, is forty-seven. These cases have occurred, some in hospital and others in private practice, for the most part during the last eighteen years. A few are of an older date. For convenience of consideration and reference, they admit of being distributed into several groups. One of these groups will embrace the cases which came under observation while the disease was progressing either favor- ably or unfavorably. Another group will include cases in which the diag- nosis and history were retrospective, that is to say the facts were obtained at a period more or less distant from the occurrence of the disease, being restricted in a great measure to its consequences or sequelae. Another will embrace cases of circumscribed, as distinguished from general pleurisy. An- other will embrace cases of pleurisy from perforation, constituting the affection known by the incorrect title of pneurao-hydro-thorax. I shall speak of these several groups, excepting the first, under distinct heads, but with reference to some points of inquiry it will be proper to examine the cases collectively, disregarding the foregoing divisions. Before considering these several groups, therefore, distinctly, I shall take up the points just alluded to, devot- ing separate consideration to the symptomatology, the physical signs and diagnosis, and I shall, in conclusion, offer a few remarks on the management of the disease. Age. Excluding the cases in which the disease occurred subsequently to perforation of the lung, and a single case in which the pleurisy was circum- scribed and probably due to external injury, the maximum of age is forty- five. One patient, only, was as old as this. One patient was forty-one; one was thirty-eight, and two patients were thirty-five. In all the remaining cases the age was below thirty. The youngest patient was five years of age. Two were of this age. The next youngest was six years; and the next twelve. The average age in thirty-six cases in which the age was ascertained