Medical diagnosis : a manual of clinical methods for practitioners and students.

Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Medical diagnosis : a manual of clinical methods for practitioners and students. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    5 ft. 2 in. ... 9 st. 9 lb. 5 ft. 9 in. .. 11 st. 10 lb. 5 „ 3 ,, ... 9 „ 12 „ 5 „ 10 „ .. 12 „ 2 „ 5 „ 4 „ ... 10 „ 2 „ 5 „ 11 „ ... 12 „ 7 „ 5 „ 5 „ .. 10 „ 5 „ 6 „ 0 „ .. 12 „ 13 „ 5 6 „ ... 10 „ 9 ,, 6 „ 1 „ •• 13 „ 6 „ 5 „ 7 „ ... 11 „ 0 „ 6 „ 0 - 1) • • 13 „ 13 „ 5 „ 8 „ ... 11 „ 5 „ 2. Development and Muscularity.—To be typical of perfect health, the various parts of the body should be accurately pro- portioned one to another. A moderate amount of adiposity is quite consistent with health, provided that the muscular system is correspondingly developed. Generally, as age advances, the tendency to the deposition of fat increases, and this must be borne in mind. At the same time, its rapid accumulation after fifty years of age is not a symptom of health. Spare people are often the longest livers. 3. Condition of the Skin: (1) as to Colour. (a) Pallor is due to defective filling of the capillaries, to deficiency in the quantity of the blood, or of the haemoglobin it contains. Pallor, consequently, may arise from any condition which interferes with the formation of the blood (chlorosis), from any disease leading to loss of blood (as from haemorrhage, menorrhagia, gastric ulcer, etc.), or causing haemolysis (destruc- tion of red blood corpuscles, as in pernicious anaemia, malaria, and other infective diseases), or from Bright’s disease, malignant disease, etc., or finally, from any affection of the vascular system interfering with the proper propulsion of the blood (mental emotions, myocardial and valvular disease of the heart, etc.). Paleness of the skin can best be appreciated where the epidermis is thin and the true skin very vascular, as on the ears, cheeks, eyelids, or lips. Pallor is also readily appreciated by examining the conjunctive and the mucous membrane of the lips. (b) Redness of skin beyond the natural tint, first and princi- pally shows itself at those points which have just been mentioned in connection with pallor; but it must be borne in mind that those persons who are, by reason of their occupation, exposed to the weather, are usually ruddy in complexion. Apart, however, from this cause, redness occurs either as a result of increase of the amount of blood in the body, or of its haemoglobin (as is seen in “full blooded” plethoric persons), or is due to dilatation of the capillaries. The latter cause accounts for the blushing produced by mental emotion, as well as that following the inhalation of nitrite of amyl; and in a similar way may be explained the red- ness of the scalp and face in hemicrania, and the general redness
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