Medical dissertations on hemoptysis or the spitting of blood, and on suppuration : which obtained the Boylston premiums for the years 1818 & 1820 / by John Ware, M.D.

  • Ware, John, 1795-1864.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical dissertations on hemoptysis or the spitting of blood, and on suppuration : which obtained the Boylston premiums for the years 1818 & 1820 / by John Ware, M.D. 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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    enable mc to speak with decision or confidence of these cases. This view of the proximate cause of hemorrhage applies to the disease in general; but no particular remarks will be necessary to adapt it to the present subject. The phenomena of the disease are as dis- tinctly and clearly marked in hemoptysis as in any hemorrhage, and like inflammation, the disease has the same general character wherever it is situated, though the structure and constitution of each par- ticular organ may produce some slight varieties of symptom. Having treated of the proximate, we proceed next to the remote causes of hemoptysis, which are in many respects the same as those of hemorrhage in general. It has been a common opinion that this disease was a sign of a plethoric state of the system. The efFusion of blood was considered as a proof that there was too much of that fluid in the vessels, and that nature took this method to rid herself of the incumbrance. There can be little doubt, that the discharge is the natural means of relief for some difficulty; but it does not follow of course that this difficulty consists in the presence of too much blood. The congestion and derangement is local, and the discharge relieves these; and they may certainly be produced without the existence of a general ple- thora. Hemorrhage is doubtless sometimes occasion- ed by plethora, but not commonly ; and hemoptysis seldom. Individuals subject to hemorrhage have it generally in some particular part; which circumstance indicates a predisposition in that part to the disease,