A treatise on the diseases of the chest and on mediate auscultation / by R.T.H. Laennec ; translated from the latest French edition, with notes and a sketch of the author's life, by John Forbes.

  • Laennec, R. T. H. (René Théophile Hyacinthe), 1781-1826.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of the chest and on mediate auscultation / by R.T.H. Laennec ; translated from the latest French edition, with notes and a sketch of the author's life, by John Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    small. In instances of this sort it cannot be doubted that the air cells are enlarged, and that their parietes have acquired a preternatural thickness ; although it is extremely difficult to prove this, even with the aid of the microscope. Hypertrophy of the lungs is sometimes formed in a very short space of time: in the case of a man who had pleurisy and consequent contraction of the chest (to one-half its natu- ral size) from rupture of a vast tuberculous excavation into the pleura, and who had the good fortune to survive this complicated malady, I found the hypertrophy existing in the highest degree, only six months after the invasion of the disease *. Emphysema of the lungs, as we shall see hereafter, is also accompanied, in most cases, with hypertrophy of the pulmo- nary substance. The same characters of firmness and elasticity in a perfectly crepitous lung, which I have before mentioned as belonging to hypertrophy of this viscus, are sometimes also observable immediately after the resolution of pneumonia. But in this case it is to be presumed that such qualities are only tempo- rary, and depend upon an interstitial infiltration of serum. CHAPTER n. OF ATROPHY OF THE LUNGS. The lungs belong to that class of organs which are unaf- fected, at least perceptibly, by general emaciation of the body. They diminish in size only from the effects of external pressure, or in consequence of the growth of accidental pro- ductions within their substance, which may be considered as exerting a pressure from within outwards. In the case of effusions into the pleura, particularly the purulent, the lungs are compressed against the mediastinum, and are sometimes reduced to a layer not half so thick as the hand. After the removal of effusions of less extent, they continue to adhere to * This man was killed, shortly after his cure, by a blow on the head.—Author.