Lecture introductory to a course of clinical medicine, delivered in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, on the 13th November, 1849 / by J.A. Easton, M.D.

  • Easton, J. A. (John Alexander), 1807-1865.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lecture introductory to a course of clinical medicine, delivered in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, on the 13th November, 1849 / by J.A. Easton, M.D. 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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    of the lung gives way, its vesicular structure becomes disorgan- ised, and emphysema more or less general, is induced,—a con- dition which soon retards,and ultimately obstructs, the pulmonary circulation. Respiration then becomes intolerably oppressive, for every breath drawn adds to the distention of the bronchial tubes and vesicles, so that the very air of Heaven, which, in ordinary circumstances is prized as one of Heaven's choicest blessings, ceases to be a source of enjoyment, by being converted into an instrument of distress. Now a superficial observer called at this stage of the proceed- ings, and contenting himself with a partial examination of his patient's condition, would very likely pronounce the disease to be chronic bronchitis, or pulmonary emphysema, and treat it accordingly. But the Lungs are not the only parts of the body that suffer from the resistance to the blood in motion, resulting from that ab- normal condition in the fibre-serous tissue of the heart, which has been occasioned by rheumatic inflammation ; and they, in their turn, and in their now altered physical condition, add to existing evils, and become themselves additional impediments to the pi'o- gress of the blood. Bearing in mind the important fact stated before, that every obstacle to the circulation operates in a retro- grade direction, you will easily understand how, from their relative position, the lungs, next to the heart itself, will feel the effects of the valvular lesion, and how, from the occurrence in the former organs of those changes Avhich I endeavoured to des. cribe, the advancing column of blood, now doubly opposed in its onward course, by lungs and heart, is obliged to fall back on somS other part of the body, and that thus the Liver, in its turn, may feel the effects of the cardiac lesion, and become enormously distended. Now, to those very smart people—and their name is Legion—who see through a thing at once, those universal