Foreign bodies in the air-passages : the substance of two clinical lectures delivered in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow / by Hector C. Cameron.

  • Cameron, Hector Clare, 1843-1928.
Date:
[between 1890 and 1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Foreign bodies in the air-passages : the substance of two clinical lectures delivered in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow / by Hector C. Cameron. 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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    ]QG I NT E RN AT I ON A R C' r A NICS. treatment without any aj)prccial)le result whatever (exee])t very gradual loss of strength^ as stated in this summary, and evidently tending to a fatal issue), for six months from the 9th of September, 1884. ‘‘Boy, aged eleven, fetid (gangrenous?) and purulent expectoration (no tubereular baeilli detected), probably proceeding from one large or several smaller excavations in the lower lobe of the left lung, pos- teriorly. The existing symptoms were of four years’ duration on admission, but with a history of ‘ inflammation’ on left side at two and a half years of age, followed by recovery and good health till seventh year, when ‘ inflammation’ was renewed. Continuous expec- toration of the kind described ever since. Well-marked deformity (retraction) of left side, but whether due to first or second attack, no information. Emaciation slight or perhaps absent. Febricula quite exceptional, temperature most commonly normal (tending, however, to rise more of late, March 16). Incipient clubbing of finger-ends (probably only since admission). A single iutercurrent attack of diar- rhoea, not persistent or formidable. Haemoptysis—apparently insignifi- cant under the circumstances—very trifling and accidental. Bronchitic rales, mucous and wheezing, scattered through both lungs. Question- able state of apices, but apparently no advancing disease there. The more marked—and especially the caveimous—phenomena confined to the left lung, above and below the angle of the scapula, three and a half inches from the spine.” Dr. Gairduer requested Dr. Fiulayson to make an independent ex- amination of the case and to draw up a short statement for submission to Dr. Powell, with a view to obtaining his opinion as to the propriety of surgical interference. This Dr. Fiulayson did in the following terms: “There is no doubt one large cavity, if not several, in this boy’s lung. On getting him to stoop down to touch the floor, thin homo- geneous pus ran out of his mouth, exciting, as it did so, much cough- ing, which came in paroxysms like whooping-cough. Pus to the ex- tent of four and a half ounces flowed out in this way ; probably more could have come, but the ])osition was changed, as the boy was getting fatigued and breathless with the jn’oeess and with the stoo])iug. The ])us has a very distinct fetid odor, but by no means suggestive to me of the regular gangrene of lung. A few slides examiiuHl failed to .show lung-tissue, whic;!) may be said to be at least not abundant, but more searching would be requin'd to judge correctly. There are no spla.sh- ing sounds on shaking the patient, and the idea of the pus coming from the })leura may, I think, be dismi.sswl. The physical signs }X)iut