The diseases of the chest : including the principal affections of the pleurae, lungs, pericardium, heart, and aorta / by Vincent D. Harris.

  • Harris, Vincent Dormer.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the chest : including the principal affections of the pleurae, lungs, pericardium, heart, and aorta / by Vincent D. Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    sideration of tlie physical signs (for pericardial effu- sion, see p. 301). If there be a small pericardial effusion with acute dilatation of the heart the diagnosis becomes a matter of great difSculty. Treatment.—As hypertrophy of the heart is a conservative effort of nature it obviously does not require treatment. The conditions which have given rise to it must be sought for and, if necessary, treated. Some general rules, however, may be laid down :— Excitement, great muscular exertions, over-eating and drinking, and all such conditions which tend to produce distension of the stomach with gas must be avoided. Purgatives are often necessary to keep the bowels freely open. Applications of belladonna plasters are useful if palpitation is troublesome. ZI. Dilatation of the Heart [A condition of enlargement of the chambers of the heart, without a corresponding increase in its muscular substance.] Etiology.—Dilatation of the heart is a problem in the physics of the circulation. It arises whenever for any length of time the normal relationship between the propelling power of its muscle, the normal amount of the blood propelled at each con- traction, and the resistance which the propelling power has to overcome in the arteries is disarranged. Inasmuch, however, as the main circulation is, as it were, a double one, viz. systemic and pulmonary (see Fig. 46), each with its own propelling half of the heart, it is manifest that the equilibrium of the forces which maintain the circulation of each part may be disturbed either in one part or the other. Of course, as the two parts of the circulation are