Collection of facts illustrative of the morbid conditions of the pulmonary artery / by Norman Chevers, M.D.

  • Chevers, Norman, 1818-1886.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Collection of facts illustrative of the morbid conditions of the pulmonary artery / by Norman Chevers, 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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    could scarcelyliTe through those vicissitudes or excesses whicli occasion the commoner forms of mottUng and granular disease of the kidney. Hence, whenever failure of the renal fimction, or an albuminous state of the urine, occurs in these cases, it must be viewed with much apprehension, as indi- cating the superaddition of more or less severe structural alteration in organs which have never performed their functions ynth healthy freedom. It is here that the most delicate disci'imination of tlie pathologist, and the nicest judgment of the therapeutist, must combine in an endeavour to relieve the weak and overloaded heart, to remove bronchitis, that the pulmonary transpiration may be rendered as free as possible, to in- crease the action of the skin, to exclude from the diet and medicine everything that may act directly or indirectly as an ex- citant to the suffering organs; and, in short, so carefully to free the kidneys from all excessive duty and additional causes of ir- ritation, that the congestion may have a tendency gradually to subside, and to leave the organs capable of performing a moderate function with compai-ative ease. In concluding this perhaps undiily lengthened memoir on diseases of the pul- monary artery, I should feel that I owed an apology to those who may have done me the honour to accompany me throughout my investigation, did I not believe that I have rendei'ed some service to medicine in proving that a class of diseases which has hitherto been considered of such unfrequent occurrence, so barren of interest, and so destitute of importance, as scarcely to de- serve a separate place, or even more than a passing notice, in systematic works, will, upon being observed with proper attention, reveal a series of physiological and patho- logical facts of the highest interest, and a set of therapeutic indications of no trivial moment.* * It was originally my intention to have con- cluded these observations with a concise abstract of views relative to the treatment of cardiac dis- eases. Finding, however, that my remarks ex- tended themselves beyond tlie due limits of this already very lengthened paper. I have embodipd them in a separate treatise— On the Manage- ment of Diseases of the Heart, and of Aortic Aneurism—which is now publishing in Calcutta, and which, I trust, will shortly be submitted to the profession at home. L Chittagong, Bengal, November 1st, 1850. THE END.