The restorative treatment of pneumonia / by John Hughes Bennett.

  • John Hughes Bennett
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The restorative treatment of pneumonia / by John Hughes Bennett. 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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    they should occur, bleeding would again he required for their treatment. In this respect the case resembles that of Eoderick ]\I‘Farlane, Case II. ; and in severity that of Peter Eobertson, Case IV. In consequence of the dyspnoea and evident engorge- ment of the right side of the heart, he was cupped,,and 5v of blood extracted, with the effect of relieving his symptoms, but for a time only, as they returned with equal intensity in a few hours. This is the result which usually followed large venesections, and which misled practitioners as to their utility. I have no doubt that a large bleeding in this case, if it had not proved fatal, would have seriously prolonged his recovery, which commenced under an oppo- site treatment on the ninth day. The case inculcates another cau- tion—viz. the necessity of avoiding exposure to cold during convales- cence, as in the debilitated condition which then exists there is very likely to be a relapse, or some other form of febrile disease, again proving that these are the results of weakness rather than of strength. Case VII.*—Double Pneumonia, involving the whole of the Right Lung, and the lower two-thirds of the Left I/img—Cardiac disease—No Bleeding—Palliative effect of warm poultices— —Convalescent in fourteen days—Dismissed well from- the Infirmary after sixteen days' Residence. History.—John Baker, set. 57, hawker—admitted December 20, 1860. This man was discharged from the army in 1847 in conse- quence of long-standing chest-disease, attended with cough, expectora- tion, haemoptysis, and aphonia. Nine years ago he had severe rheuma- tism, since which time he has been subject to palpitations. On the evening of the 14th, after exposure to inclement weather, he was seized with a severe rigor, followed by intense febrile symptoms, cough, and expectoration. On the 16th he felt pain at the base of right lung anteriorly. These symptoms increased untd. he was admitted into the Infirmary. Symptoms on Admission.—Urgent dyspnoea, respirations being 56 in the minute. A cutting pain in the right chest anteriorly, increased on inspiration. Occasionally severe cough, with scanty frothy expectora- tion. On percussion, the anterior surface of the chest is resonant, with the exception of the lower third of the right lung, over which there is dulness. On auscultation there is crepitation heard over the dull por- tion on the right side, and great harshness of breathing in the upper two-thirds. Posteriorly there is dulness on percussion over the lower two-thirds of the right lung, with crejiitation, sibilation on expiration,
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