A treatise on the diseases of the heart and great vessels : and on the affections which may be mistaken for them : comprising the author's view of the physiology of the heart's action and sounds, as demonstrated by his experiments on the motions and sounds in 1830, and on the sounds in 1834-5 / by J. Hope.

  • Hope, James, 1801-1841.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of the heart and great vessels : and on the affections which may be mistaken for them : comprising the author's view of the physiology of the heart's action and sounds, as demonstrated by his experiments on the motions and sounds in 1830, and on the sounds in 1834-5 / by J. Hope. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    four scruples of supertartrate, or two of nitrate of potass in a quart of water and flavoured at pleasure, should be allowed in unlimited quantity, in order by diluting the blood to render it less stimu- lant to the heart. Nauseating doses of tartrate of antimony, as one-sixth to one-eighth of a grain, every two hours, may be employed with advantage. The diet should consist wholly of the weakest slops, as barley water, gruel, weak tea, arrowroot. &c. But the antiphlogistic treatment alone is not to be relied upon: rarely does it, in a severe case, effect a complete cure. The practitioner sees all his resources gradually exhausted, while the disease proceeds with an even, uncontrolled tenor, to its fatal ter- mination. Sometimes, indeed, all the other symptoms disap- pear, but the action of the heart remains stronger than natural: at other times the heart even regains its healthy action and the cure appears complete; yet, in both these cases, the palpitation, accompanied with symptoms of organic disease of the heart, recurs when the patient resumes his accustomed occupations. The reason of this is very intelligible. Unless the effused lymph, as well as the serum, be absorbed, it causes an adhesion of the pericardium, and thus constitutes a destructive disease; or, if the pericarditis was complicated with endocarditis, an irreparable valvular lesion is its sequel. Now antiphlogistic measures can neither prevent the effusion of lymph, nor with any degree of cer- tainty cause its absorption. Mercury can do this,—as is visibly displayed in iritis, and as has been proved in this country by an overwhelming amount of irrefragable evidence, ever since the mineral was introduced as a remedy for acute inflammations by Dr. Hamilton of Lynn Regis, in 1783. Mercury, therefore, is the sheet anchor of the practitioner. Dr. Latham is of opinion that its success is restricted to the condition of its producing saliva- tion, and producing it rapidly. Though, from many observations, I am satisfied that there is an advantage in promptly producing a decided effect; and though, therefore, I always aim at this by administering full and frequent doses at first; yet I do not think that success is restricted to the condition of salivation, or even of a sensible effect on the gums being produced; for I have fre- quently seen cases in which cures, not falsified after many months, were effected, though salivation was not produced. The mineral, however, was freely administered, and probably produced its