On congestive pneumonia, consequent upon surgical operations, diseases and injuries / by John E. Erichsen.

  • Erichsen, John Eric, 1818-1896.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On congestive pneumonia, consequent upon surgical operations, diseases and injuries / by John E. Erichsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    pathic sthenic inflammation of the lungs, such as exposure to cold, wet, &c., there are a set of causes that peculiarly dispose to the occurrence of this disease, after surgical operations and injuries. These are divisible into two classes, both of which, however, must concur for the production of the variety of the disease now under consideration. 1st. In the first class are comprised those causes that act mechanically, by giving rise to a congestive condition of the posterior part of the lungs, as the recumbent position long continued. 2nd. In the second class, those that act by dimin- ishing the functional activity of the nervous system, as profuse suppuration, long confinement in hospi- tals, and irritative fevers, more particularly when assuming a typhoid type, and when occurring in individuals advanced in life. Age may also perhaps exercise some little influ- ence on the production of congestive Pneumonia, which would probably be more marked than it is, were it possible to separate the few cases of sthenic from those of the congestive form of the disease. On taking, however, the aggregate of the two varie- ties of Pneumonia, it will be found that the average age of the patients in whom inflammation of the lungs was found, was 44'2 years. Of the doubtful cases 39'4 — Of the cases in which no inflammation or congestion of those organs oc- curred 359 — So that the average difference in age between those