Outlines of medical treatment / by Samuel Fenwick and W. Soltau Fenwick.

  • Samuel Fenwick
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of medical treatment / by Samuel Fenwick and W. Soltau Fenwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    scientific knowledge, whilst its neglect will render the most accurate acquaintance with pathological and thera- peutical science comparatively useless. B. Li all acute disorders watch carefully the condition of the heart and circulating system. Most acute diseases are the results of some morbific material imported from without, or formed within the animal body. For example, scarlatina is jjroduced by a poison communicated from one person to another, whilst gout is the consequence of an accumulation of urate of soda generated within the system. In the majority of acute disorders there is a tendency to recovery after a certain time has elapsed, in case there is no failure in the function of any of the organs that are essential to life. Now the heart is especially necessary for the continuance of existence, and on this fact is founded the above general rule, which is applicable to the treatment of all acute diseases. You must have remarked how a cai'eful physician at each visit examines the pulse, and often the heart, in every acute disorder. This is to enable him to ascertain the state of the circulating system, for he knows that any undue excitement or any failure of the heart's power may give rise to serious consequences. In the early stages its force is often greatly increased, and if there be a coexisting con- traction of the smaller arteries and caj^illaries, the tension of the arterial circulation will be augmented, and an embarrassed state of any organ that is especially liable to disease may result. In this case he directs his efforts to moderate the undue excitement. But in the later stages, and sometimes also in the early periods of an acute disorder, he has generally to combat a failure in the power of the heart. This may arise in different ways. The heart, like the other muscles of the body, is often enfeebled
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