Case of univentricular or tricoelian heart / by Robert Elliot.

  • Elliot, Robert, -1882.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of univentricular or tricoelian heart / by Robert Elliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Appetite good, bowels regular, urine generally turbid, sleep of average length and depth, but with thick stuffy breath- ing. In summer, especially in warm weather, feels himself best. His health was wonderfully good and uniform. In his last and only important illness, extending over three weeks, his appetite was extremely poor, he vomited frequently, his tongue was dirty, aphthous, and sore; and his pulse was small and rapid; he had much precordial pain and oppression, his breathing was laborious, so that he was obliged constantly to sit up, he had drowsiness gradually deepening, extremities slightly oedematous, very cold and livid, face still more livid, and mouth and tongue most so. He died calmly, and as if through gradual exhaustion, on May 19th, 1867. He got great relief from the inhalation of oxygen, but was not troubled with any other medication. Under the influence of this gas his precordial pain lessened, his colour mightily improved, his bowels, skin, and kidneys, all acted better, and he breathed so much more freely, that he said he had not felt so easy and well for years. I made an autopsy with the kind aid of Drs Walker and Eobertson days afterwards. There was great oedema of the extremities, the body was generally livid, and especially so were the extremities, the neck and face, and the inside of the mouth most intensely so, as in life. The brain was not inspected. Both lungs were quite healthy: no trace of tubercle or of any disease in either of them. Slight effusion existed in each pleural sac. No adhesions. The liver was healthy. The pericardium externally was normal, internally there was slight effusion, and but one trifling adhesion, old, and elongated. The heart, after more than two months immersion in spirit, was very carefully examined, on 24th July, 1867, with the important help of Dr Embleton, of Newcastle-on-Tyne^^i^l^ \WA‘lernhlly: The organ appears large, measures round its