A case of aortic aneurism, in which a communication with the pulmonary artery was recognised during life by physical signs.

Date:
[cbetween 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of aortic aneurism, in which a communication with the pulmonary artery was recognised during life by physical signs. 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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    The diagnoftic fuccefs here obtained is certainly an encourage- ment to make the attempt to unravel fuch cafes hereafter. It will alfo be an afliftance to our future efforts, fince the acouftic phe- nomena were thofe we might naturally expeft to attend fuch phyfical conditions, and are therefore pretty certain to be prefent in all the cafes of which the anatomical conditions are nearly fimilar. This belief is fortified by the fa£t that in Dr. Hughes Bennett's cafe, where the lefions were nearly the fame, the phyfical figns alfo correfponded. And although Dr. Bennett did not come to any precife diagnofis during life, he neverthelefs confiders with me that the relation between the founds heard during life and the lefions difcovered after death was evident. He fays that there was evidence of a profound lefion of the heart, although its nature was very myfterious, the more fo as no thrill or tremor was detedled. The cafe, however, was at once made clear, and the nature of the founds explained by the examination of the body after death. Jarnes Selwood^ set. 35, married, a porter in the Parcels Office at the New Street Railway Station, applied at the Birmingham General Difpenfary, on May ift, i860. He was a fine-looking, well-made man, and complained of flight cough, fome general debility, and a little lofs of flefh. Thefe lymptoms had been coming on for feveral months. Sufpeiting phthifis, I ftripped him to examine the lungs. Not finding any fign of difeafe in the anterior portions of thefe organs, I applied the ftethofcope to the heart, and diredtly heard founds which convinced me that the cafe was not one of ordinary valvular difeafe. I therefore recom- mended the patient to enter the Queen's Hofpital, under my care, which he did in a few days. I found that for four years he had fuffered much from piles, and about November, 1859, had loft as much as a pint of blood in a day, and, ever fince, the loffes have been confiderable. To thefe fluxes he attributed the debility and wafting which induced him to confult me. About Chriftmas, 1859, his duties, in calling over the parcels, &c., being at that time very onerous, he fuffered for a day or two from hoarfenefs, and has fince often felt a rifing in the throat. Two weeks before I firft faw him, while wheeling a heavy truck acrofs the line, an engine ran up, and, to avoid it, he was obliged to make a violent