The forms of pneumonia / O. Sturges.

  • Sturges, Octavius, 1833-1894.
Date:
[cbetween 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The forms of pneumonia / O. Sturges. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    ried, and there was little cough and no expectoration, deli- rium liad set in, and an ill-marked mulberry rash was visible. The chest-sounds were less marked than at first. The pa- tient was now supposed to be suffering from fever, and in that view the tx'eatment recommended by Dr. Dundas was followed—that by large doses of quina at frequent intervals. In this way more than eighty grains of quina were swal- lowed in twenty-foul- hours, by which time the skin was quite cool and the pulse had fallen to 72. At the very instant that these particulars were being noted down, the colour faded from the woman's face and she immediately expired, having been under observation for about four days. In this case it was found that nearly the whole of the right lung was in a state of gray hepatisation. The pleura was natural, both ventricles of the heart were uncontracted, and the blood was fluid. Now I am not arguing that this patient must have had fever because she was treated for it; still, it must be allowed the history of the case corresponded in many points with that of fever (typhus was prevalent in the hospital at the time), even to the aj^pearance of a mottled eruption; at the same time, there was nothing in the post-mortem examination to negative that view. On the other hand, if the case be re- garded as one of simple pnemnonia, latent dm'ing the greater part of its course, it is, so far as our hospital records go, a unique case; for in no other does simple pneumonia occm* without the accompaniment of pleurisy. In other words, in every case where lung-consolidation, both from its pathology and history, may not reasonably be looked upon as secondary, there is pleurisy going along with it. From this digression I proceed to the second class—that in which hepatisation occm-s as a consequence of failui'e in the function of some secreting organ, or owing to any cause which gives rise to a poison in the blood. The illustrations under this heading differ from the latent ones of which I have just spoken, inasmuch as, for the most part, the im- plication of the lungs is sufficiently apparent during life, and recognised as consecutive on some definite disease else- where. The cause of hepatisation in these cases of blood- poisoning, or in some of them, is expressed by saying that the