Inaugural dissertation on enlargement of the heart : submitted to the medical faculty of the university of Edinburgh in conformity with the rules for graduation by authority of the very reverend principal Baird and with the sanction of the senatus academicus / by William Robertson, Surgeon ; candidate for the degree of doctor in medicine.

  • Robertson, William, active 1839.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inaugural dissertation on enlargement of the heart : submitted to the medical faculty of the university of Edinburgh in conformity with the rules for graduation by authority of the very reverend principal Baird and with the sanction of the senatus academicus / by William Robertson, Surgeon ; candidate for the degree of doctor in medicine. 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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    with great dilatation and some hypertrophy of the left ventricle; thus explaining-, what had been remarked during life, viz. that although other symptoms left no doubt of the existence of considerable cardiac disease, yet the apex con- tinued to pulsate in the 5th intercostal space. A patient named Ainslie, who died under Dr. Christison's care, had similar symptoms, and presented similar appearances on dissection. Em- pyema, and pneumo-thorax may affect the posi- tion of the heart. In the case of Robert Mac- kay, a patient of Dr. Traill's, in the Infirmary, who died of pneumo-thorax and acute pleuritis of the left side, consequent upon the bursting of a tubercular cavern, the apex was forced to the right of the sternum. The undulating tumbling motion, felt by the hand, is most frequently ob- served when dilatation exists without hypertro- phy. A double or even triple impulse is men- tioned by authors, and is frequently met with. Sometimes it depends upon the back-stroke* or return of the heart to its position during the diastole of the ventricles. In other instances there is a kind of fluttering irregularity in the heart's contraction, which seems to give the double or triple impulse. This symptom occurred * Hope.