A treatise on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the chest. Part 1, Diseases of the lung and windpipe / By William Stokes.

  • Stokes, William, 1804-1878.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the chest. Part 1, Diseases of the lung and windpipe / By William Stokes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    permanent irritation and flux are established. This may have various terminations, giving rise in one patient to dilatation of the tubes, in another to Laennec’s emphysema, and in a third, to the complication of these affections with phthisis, morbus cordis, hydrothorax, or general dropsy. The sufferings of these patients vary according to the degree of nervous susceptibility of the lung, as we observe that in some, asthmatic symptoms may be established, while in others, the disease never assumes this character. Where the flux becomes very considerable, there is often a great degree of emaciation, yet in such cases I have remarked, that the circulating and digestive systems often continue in a singularly healthy state, a circumstance which, as far as it goes, is of importance in the diagnosis between this affection and tu¬ bercular phthisis. I have already stated that in certain cases a chronic bronchitis becomes complicated with tubercular disease of the lung, and my experience leads me to conclude that this oc¬ currence is much more frequent than has been hitherto supposed. In describing phthisis, I shall return to this subject, and here only remark, that as far as I have seen, this result of bronchitis is more common in individuals who have passed the meridian of life, and although the transition from the state of mere bronchitis into that of the tubercular complication is commonly slow and indistinct, yet that it is pointed out by a general, though gradual failure of the vital powers, by the pulse becom¬ ing accelerated, and by a slow, though decided, emaciation of the patient. Under these circumstances, a careful physical ex¬ amination will often enable us to detect some degree of solidity in the upper portion of one lung, advancing slowly, and ulti¬ mately, though almost always at a remote period, being suc¬ ceeded by the signs of ulceration of the lung. This most unfavorable change in the symptoms and signs, I have seen to supervene at so late a period as four years after the first invasion of the bronchitis. The patients appeared to re¬ sist the tubercular development for a great length of time, and