Remarks on aneurism and diseases of the heart at Aldershot / by Inspector-General Lawson.

  • Lawson, Robert
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on aneurism and diseases of the heart at Aldershot / by Inspector-General Lawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    11 and warmth applied to the feet. The body was examined 10 hours after, when the rigor mortis was well marked, and there was considerable livor of the hack (depending) parts. White froth issued freely from the mouth and nostrils, and on compressing the thorax a continuous stream welled up. (>n incising the skin the veins bled freely. The heart was somewhat hypertrophied and dilated, valves healthy, walls with a good deal of fat. Right side full of fluid blood. Left ventricle contained a feebly coloured clot attached to its anterior wall. Right pleura firmly adherent throughout. Trachea and bronchial tubes full of frothy serum. Lungs, especially right, much congested, but every portion floated in w'ater. No other indication of disease in them. The symptoms in the first of these cases might have been attributed to the impediment to the circulation caused by the aneurism, but for the imme- diate occurrence of the other in which no such obstruction existed ; it seems very probable, however, that the extremely rapid course of the disease in Pope wras determined by this complication. The weather had been very hot up to 22nd July; on 23rd the maximum was 72 '4° only, and it was not above 80° for the rest of the month, except on 2?tli and 28th, when it rose to 89’4 and 85'4 respectively, but on 29th was 72'8 only. The excessive discharge of serous fluid from the lungs bears some analogy to what is described as occurring occasionally in sun-stroke, but (independently of the cases occurring after the temperature was much reduced) it was not preceded or accompanied by the dryness and excessive heat of skin, or by the other symptoms characteristic of that disease. There w-as a disposition to cholera at the time these cases pre- sented themselves, and, on 13th August, a man of the 2nd Battalion 6th Regi- ment actually died of that disease. I am not aware that a connexion can be established between them, but in the absence of any trustworthy explana- tion of the causes of the former the coincidence may be mentioned. There was an instance of aneurism of the pulmonary artery, a very rare form of disease, and the first I have heard of in the Army. This occurred in Schoolmaster Sergeant James Thane, 98th Regiment, aged 27, who had com- plained of hoarseness and occasional dyspnsea for about six months before death, but for which no perceptible cause had been detected. On 2nd September he ' was found dead in bed, his head hanging over the side, and a large pool of blood on the floor that seemed to have flowed from the mouth and nose. An aneurism of the pulmonary artery, the size of a pigeon’s egg, was found, which had burst into the left bronchus, by a circular opening two lines in diameter. The sac contained dense layers of fibrine. The bronchial tubes on the same side were filled with blood, but the lungs were otherwise healthy, and there was no valvular disease of the heart. There were two cases of popliteal aneurism under treatment, which were cured by pressure, and both men have since returned to duty. The subject of one of them was Troop Sergeant-Major Henry Wadeson, 10th Hussars, aged 30, and with 13 years’ service, a stout healthy looking man. His horse fell with him at the Curragh on 6th May. Immediately after he marched for Aldershot, and on 12th he felt a sharp pain in left ham, with stiffness of limb, but he continued with his troop until he reached this station. On 7th he came to hospital, with a well defined aneurism as large as a hen’s egg ; pressure was applied to the femoral artery in front of the thigh, and the pulsation ceased in 70 hours. The limb remained stiff and weak for some months, but he has latterly been able to resume his mounted duties. The other case of popliteal aneurism occurred in Private J. Dillon, 97th Regiment, aged 30, and 10 years’ service, eight of which had been in India. This man was healthy in appearance, but of intemperate habits. He was admitted on 8th November with aneurism in left ham the size of a hen’s egg ; he had experienced stiffness, numbness, and cramps in the leg for a fortnight before, but was not aware of having injured it in any way. Pressure was applied over the femoral artery in front of thigh, and continued with intermis- sions until the 20th, when the pulsation ceased, and the swelling then diminished rapidly. The man was discharged to duty on 8th December, and has continued at it since, unless when in confinement. During the year there was an opportunity of examining the condition of the artery in a man who had had aneurism at the junction of external iliac and femoral on left side, some years before, which had been cured by the
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