Glossology, or, The additional means of diagnosis of disease to be derived from indications and appearances of the tongue : read before the Senior Physical Society of Guy's Hospital, 4th November, 1843 / by Benjamin Ridge.

  • Ridge, Benjamin, 1807-1889.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Glossology, or, The additional means of diagnosis of disease to be derived from indications and appearances of the tongue : read before the Senior Physical Society of Guy's Hospital, 4th November, 1843 / by Benjamin Ridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    by any appearance on the tongue, disease of the valves, or ossification. There is, however, an affection of the heart, when neither dilatation, nor hypertrophy, nor disease of the valves, are present, which comes under the denomination of papitation and morbus cordis, names certainly but mere words. Palpitation may arise from exciting causes acting on proximate causes, as a matter of course. Sudden fear, or any other sudden mental action, will produce it. Indi- gestion and dyspepsia will do the same. I have every reason for supposing that the heart may exhibit palpita- tion, without being itself in a morbid state, or having any disease whatever. The blood is to the heart what the air is to the lungs, a natural stimulant. If no blood went to the heart, there would be no action in that organ; and if air did not visit the lungs, they would cease to play. If the lungs inhale air of a deleterious nature they become irritated, and the respirations are frequent and laborious. Fear will change the chemical character of the blood as suddenly as it will be gradually restored in the course of circulation; and this altered state of the blood will irritate the heart, or it will be irritated through the nerves from the sensorium, which has first felt the change in the nou- rishing fluid. But when fear has not been the exciting cause, how are we to account for the palpitation coming on when a person is sitting engaged in some quiet occu- pation, unless we surmise that some irritative quality in the blood has brought on a quicker action of the heart ? I have remarked that thin, spare, narrow-chested girls, from the age of twelve to sixteen, have hearts so irritable that the pulsation could not be counted: the heart is seen to beat externally, and loud enough to be heard when near