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

Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    same variety of the sound in different situations has occurred to me in another case —file sound at the sternum, and bellows sound every where else. P. 523. Dr. Elliotson was the first to announce that arelative narrowness of one of the cardiac orifices, as well as an absolute narrowness, gives rise to the morbid valvular sounds : the size of the opening remaining the same, but the cavity behind it be- coming dilated, and its walls perhaps thickened, the natural proportion between the two is lost, and the effects of real and absolute contraction are produced. Op. Cit. p. 20, 22..—In the same work Dr. E. notices the fact, since observed by others, that extreme contraction of an orifice is sometimes unattended by any morbid sound ; and combats the opinion maintained by some, that the bellows sound is referable to the smooth cartilaginous degeneration of an orifice, and the rasp or saw sound to the rough osseous alteration : he considers the degree of obstruction, not its nature, to be the principal source of the variety of sound, p. 15. P. 562. A very remarkable, and, I believe, unique case of aneurism of an auricle is recorded by Dr. Elliotson, in his work, p. 29. In this case the sinus of the left auricle formed an aneurism of large size, with very dense and thick layers of fibrine for its walls, and these had reduced its cavity to a very small capacity.' P. 584. Dr. Elliotson has recorded a case in which the fatty degeneration of the heart was much greater than in any of the examples cited by Laennec. In Dr. E.'s case a mere layer of red muscular structure covered the internal and external parts of the heart, and the columns carneae : within, every spot was fatty matter. Op. Cit. p. 32. P. 590. In Dr. Elliotson's work, so often quoted, will be found some interesting observations on the nature and consequences of a permanent patency of the orifices of the heart, from valvular disease. See p. 21. Indeed the whole account of the diseases of the valves given in Lecture III. is characterized by important and ori- ginal observation. P. 616. Dr. Elliotson had observed and described the globular excrescence of the vulves, some years before the publication of Laennec's work, in the Annals of Med. and Surg, for 1816. See his work on the heart, p. 32. Transl. LONDON: II] OTB ON AND I'AL.MEIl, FIUNTERS, SAVOY STREET, 81 WAND.