A manual of percussion and auscultation : of the physical diagnosis of diseases of the lungs and heart, and of thoracic aneurism / by Austin Flint.
- Austin Flint I
- Date:
- 1876
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A manual of percussion and auscultation : of the physical diagnosis of diseases of the lungs and heart, and of thoracic aneurism / by Austin Flint. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
70/280 page 66
![amphoric sound thus produced may be made to vary much in pitch. This illustration exemplifies the mechanism of the sign in disease. The sign represents a pulmonary cavity which is generally phthisicah The conditions, aside from the existence of the cavity, are, rigidity of its walls, so that they do not coHapse, the presence, of course, of air within the cavity, and free communication w^ith the bronchial tubes. These accessory conditions are not constant, so that an amphoric resonance over a cavity is sometimes found, and at other times want- ing. Direct]}^ after having been wanting, it may be reproduced if the patient expectorate freely. When percussion is made with reference to this sign, the mouth of the patient should be open, and one or tw^o rather forcible blows are better than a series of four or six. The amphoric sound may be often distinctly perceived if the ear be brought into close proximity to the patient's open mouth, when the sign is not appreciable otherwise. It may be rendered still more distinct by means of the binaural stethoscope, the pectoral extremity being close to the mouth of the patient. As a cavernous sign the amphoric resonance is very reliable; but it does not invariably denote a pulmonary cavity. It is obtained in some cases of pneumothorax, the pleural space filled with air having a cavity which communicates with the bronchial tubes through a perforation of the lung situated above the level of the liquid. It is some- times ohtained over a solidified portion of lung situated in close proximity to a primary bronchus, the resonance being derived from the air within the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21052311_0070.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
