On hydatids of the lung : their diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, and observations on their relations to pulmonary consumption, and other diseases of the chest / by S. Dougan Bird.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On hydatids of the lung : their diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, and observations on their relations to pulmonary consumption, and other diseases of the chest / by S. Dougan Bird. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    unexplained internal tumour, especially if it be painless, is in all probability a hydatid. We must now consider the systematic diagnosis of the unbroken hydatid cyst within the chest wall, and probably imbedded in the lung substance. First we will note the General symptoms. When the cyst is still of moderate size, and there- fore does not interfere much with the surrounding structures, it may cause little or no disturbance—in fact, may remain unnoticed by the patient for a con- siderable period, particularly if, as often happens, he has a capacious well-developed chest, and lives an active open-air life. I have frequently seen cases where a portion of the lung, amounting to certainly not less than one-fourth or even one-third of its bulk, was nullified for breathing purposes by the size and pressure of a hydatid cyst, though the patient com- plained but little of shortness of breath. The accom- modating power of healthy lung tissue to increased work is indeed most wonderful when there is no constitutional mischief at work, as in these cases when uncomplicated. But as the cyst enlarges, which it inevitably does if not interfered with, a train of general symptoms in most cases ensues which are the result of pressure, or irritation, or both of these. Dyspnoea and duskiness of the skin may be observed more or less marked according to the size, locality, and rapidity of increase of the tumour, and the capacity and mobility of the indi- vidual thorax. In women, if the cyst occurs in the