Cases and observations illustrative of the nature of gangrene of the lungs / by David Craigie.

  • Craigie, David.
Date:
[1843?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases and observations illustrative of the nature of gangrene of the lungs / by David Craigie. 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.

    29/54 (page 27)
    The mucous membraue of the bronchial tubes connected with this lung was very uuich reddened. Eyicrms.—In order to understand the nature and course of* tliis complicated case, I think it is requisite to distinguish three periods of the disorder. The first is that which took place previ- ous to admission, and the 10th of April, and which, 1 think, the history of the symptoms, the actual symptoms at admission, and the appearances disclosed by dissection, warrant us in inferring was pneumonia and pleurisy of the left lung, affecting the lower part of the upper lobe and the whole of the lower lobe. The se- cond is that which extended from the 10th of A])ril to the 21st of April, when he was attacked with symptoms of pleurisy of the right side. And the third period is from that time till the fatal event —a space of eight or nine days. The whole time between the date of admission and that of death was only sixteen days. The first period was evidently the long- est, and, so far as the statement of the patient could be trusted, occupied between four and five weeks. The second period was about ten days ; and the third, as already stated, was eight or nine days. 1. At the time at which the patient was admitted, his symptoms were those of pleuro-pneumonia of the left side. The presenceof the pneumonic affection was indicated by the cough, the expectoration, the crepitating rattle, and the resonance of voice in the middle part of the left side ; all of which seemed to show that the lower part (;f the upper lobe and the upper part of the lower lobe were be- ginning to be indurated or solidified. It is probable that this dis- ease had been proceeding for some weeks, perhaps the whole of the four weeks previous to admission, during which he had been unable to work. But it is further likely that the disease had com- menced, and was proceeding some time previous to this, as it was afterwards ascertainetl that the patient had been labouring under cough, and occasional difficult and constrained breathing the greater part of the winter, and had been less able than previously to work at his occupation, namely, that of a coach-carpenter. One symptom generally present in pneumonic inflammation was Avanting in this case till the 20th of April, that is, four days after admission. This was the rusty or orange-coloured aspect of the sputa. Previous to this the matter expectorated was viscid ond jelly-like, but not rusty-coloured. The absence of this symptom, however, was not material, as it is occasionally wanting in the com- mencement of the disease, and especially if antiphlogistic measures be employed. But, besides the pneumonic, there was pleuritic inflammation ; and it was manifest that this caused the pain of the left side, the dull sound elicited by percussion over the convex part of the left ^uhaxillary region, and the diminished mobility of that part of the