An essay on the organic diseases and lesions of the heart and great vessels / from the clinical lectures of J. N. Corvisart ... ; published, under his inspection, by C. E. Horeau ... ; translated from the French, with notes, by Jacob Gates.

  • Corvisart des Marets, Jean Nicolas, Baron, 1755-1821.
Date:
1812
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the organic diseases and lesions of the heart and great vessels / from the clinical lectures of J. N. Corvisart ... ; published, under his inspection, by C. E. Horeau ... ; translated from the French, with notes, by Jacob Gates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ARTICLE II. Of the adhesion of the pericarditis to the heart. The examination of the various degrees of the inflam- mation of the pericardium has taught us that, when pa- tients have died of this affection, the marks of organic lesion were as variable as the degrees themselves. Thus, in consequence of the first degree of acute pericarditis, we find in the cavity of the pericardium a small quan- tity of fluid, thickish, turbid, and reddish; the internal surface is red, livid, and marbled. When patients have died of a pericarditis whose pro- gress has been slower, or even of a chronic pericarditis, the internal surface of the pericardium, both upon its loose portion and upon that which adheres to the heart, is often covered with a considerable pseudo-membranous exudation, which I have sometimes found more than six lines thick. If we remove this stratum of lymph, which generally yields with facility, we find the mem- branous surface phlogose, sometimes unequal, of a p.'.le red and as if bleached by the surface which covered it. Between these two albumenous strata, one of which invests the external membrane of the heart, and the other the internal surface of the pericardium, we often find more or less of an effused purulent fluid ; but it is also common to observe, in consequence of inflammations, whose progress has not been rapid, the loose portion and the cardiac portion of the pericardium united to each other by the means of these two albumenous strata, and which can be separated sometimes by drawing these two portions of the pericardium in a contrary direction. Then each of these lymphatic layers still adheres to the part of the pericardium from which it had originated by exudation. In other cases they cannot be disunited; their separation appears to be the more difficult, accord- ing to the continuance of the exudation. Besides, what-