The American eclectic practice of medicine (Volume 2).

  • Jones, I. G. (Ichabod Gibson), 1807-1857.
Date:
1853-54
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American eclectic practice of medicine (Volume 2). 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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    adynamic affection, resulting from insufficient food, or fol- lowing in the wake of protracted disorder of another kind. In the first case, it will be associated with hot skin and a general febrile action, and the swelling exhibits a hard and elastic character; while in the latter, the symptoms are, gene- ral weakness, cool skin, and a very dead, inelastic and doughy feel of the swelling. When it comes on suddenly, it will usually be found to present the character of the fibrinous dropsy already des- cribed ; but in the more slow or gradual forms it has the char- acter of the serous modification. Diagnosis. The only affections, or symptoms of other dis- eases, with which anasarca is liable to be confounded are the puffy swellings, sometimes occurring in rheumatic affections of an insidious character and attended by scarcely any feb- rile or constitutional symptoms, and the swelling produced by the effects of certain poisons upon the system. But it will be distinguished from all those symptoms by the absence, in them, of the inelasticity, or pitting peculiarity, which always characterizes anasarcous swellings. Post mortem examinations show that the effused serous fluid is not confined to the cellular structure immediately under the skin, but often extends deep into the cellular struc- ture between the muscles, softening their structure, and pro- ducing a condition favorable to rapid decomposition after death. Causes. Any of those influences heretofore described when treating of dropsies in general, are capable of producing ana- sarca. In its uncomplicated character, it is most frequently produced by colds occurring after some of the exanthematous diseases; or it may result from local causes operating upon the venous trunks, as in pregnancy. It is often a mere symptom attendant upon other diseases, and subsides when the original affection is cured, or continues until the case proves fatal. It may be of a general character, resulting from the general dropsical tendency or predominance of serous accumulation in the blood. Treatment. From what has been said, it is apparent that