CASES
OF
ORGANIC DISEASES
OF THE
HEART.
WITH DISSECTIONS AND SOME REMARKS INTENDED TO POINT OUT THE
DISTINCTIVE SYMPTOMS OF THESE DISEASES.
READ BEFORE THE COUNSELLORS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS
MEDICAL SOCIETY.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY THOMAS R. WAIT AND COMPANY.
COURT-STREET.
1809.
PLATE I.
Appearance of the valves of the aorta in Case 3d, Article 10.
- a a The two valves thickened.
- b b Bony projections, one of which extends across the cavity of thevalve.
- c The orifices of the coronary arteries.
- d d Fleshlike thickening of the aorta.
PLATE II.
Is a representation of the fleshlike thickening of the aorta incase 7th. The valves are smaller than usual, and their form is insome degree changed. A round spot, thickened, is seen at a littledistance from the seat of the principal disease.
CASES OF
ORGANIC DISEASES OF THE HEART,
WITH DISSECTIONS.[1]
Morbid changes in the organization of the heartare so frequent, as to have attracted the observationof those, who have devoted any attention to thestudy of morbid anatomy. Derangements of theprimary organ of the circulation cannot exist withoutproducing so great disorder of the functions ofthat and of other parts, as to be sufficiently conspicuousby external signs; but, as these somewhatresemble the symptoms of different complaints, especiallyof asthma, phthisis pulmonalis, and water inthe thorax, it has happened, that each of these hasbeen sometimes confounded with the former[1]. The[2]object of the following statement of cases is to shew,that, whatever resemblance there may be in thesymptoms of the first, when taken separately, tothose of the latter diseases, the mode of connectionand degree of those symptoms at least is quite dissimilar;and that there are also symptoms, peculiarto organic diseases of the heart, sufficiently characteristicto distinguish them from other complaints.
CASE I.
The symptoms of organic disease of the heart aremarked with extraordinary clearness in the followingcase. The opportunity for observing them was veryfavourable; and there was every incitement to closeobservation, which could arise from the importantand interesting character of the patient. These advantageswill justify an uncommon minuteness inthe detail of the case; especially, as the most accurate[3]knowledge of a complaint is obtained from asuccessive view of its stages.
The...