New and complete manual of auscultation and percussion, applied to the diagnosis of disease / by M.A. Raciborski. Translated by William Fitzherbert.

  • Adam Raciborski
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New and complete manual of auscultation and percussion, applied to the diagnosis of disease / by M.A. Raciborski. Translated by William Fitzherbert. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/226 (page 15)
    ]5 souffle, named by him the bruit de diahle, and already observed in several arteries by Laennec, exists constantly in the carotid arteries of those affected with chlorosis. This accompanying sign of chlorosis has already more than once become very precious in practice *. Have not likewise the affections of the abdomen found a valuable method of investigation in mediate percussion ? How often have pains in the epigastric region been taken for the signs of gastritis, whereas mediate percus- sion has discovered their seat in the left lobe of the liver ? Finally, one of the most happy applications of this latter method to diagnosis is that which has been made of it to pregnancy. It is known that the movements of the foetus, regarded as the most certain sign of preg- nancy, may sometimes completely fail, and that at other times hysterical females have fancied they have felt these movements without being pregnant. Auscultation, detecting as it does the two noises of the foetus, that of the beatings of the heart and the placenta, will not allow us any more to be led into error. Surgery even has been able to deduce some advan- tages from auscultation. * Where the hruit de diahle exists it denotes an impoverished state of the blood. Hence it is evident that the auscultation of different arteries, e. g. carotid, femoral, &c., may be of great service. For in- stance, if you wish to let more blood, but find by auscultation the hruit de diahle, you will be deterred. Also since the hruit de souffle may be produced in an artery by compressing it, the presence of tumoui's may in certain cases be detected, or at any rate the opinion of their existence corroborated, by the auscultation of the arteries. As for instance, in the case of a tumour in one of the ovaria, compressing either of the iliac arteries.—Note of Translator.