A treatise on the diseases of the chest : in which they are described according to their anatomical characters, and their diagnosis established on a new principle by means of acoustick instruments : with plates / tr. from the French of R.T.H. Laennec, with a preface and notes by John Forbes.

  • Laennec, R. T. H. (René Théophile Hyacinthe), 1781-1826.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of the chest : in which they are described according to their anatomical characters, and their diagnosis established on a new principle by means of acoustick instruments : with plates / tr. from the French of R.T.H. Laennec, with a preface and notes by John Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    ated and hollow on examination after death. In the majority of cases, however, the development of tu- bercles is evidently successive, so that, on examina- tion, we generally find these bodies in the different stages we have described, viz: 1. granular, grey or colourless, and semi-transparent; 2. grey, but larger, and yellow and opaque in the centre ; 3. yellow and opaque throughout, but still hard; 4. soft, especially towards the centre ; and, lastly, cavities more or less completely empty. SECTION SECOND. Of some ulterior changes in certain cases of the Tuber- cular Disease; and on the curability of Phthisis. To many practical physicians, who are not anato- mists, the possibility of a cure taking place after the formation of an ulcerous excavation in the lungs, may seem quite admissible. This opinion, however, will, in all likelihood, appear quite absurd to those who have paid much attention to morbid dissection. Previously to the knowledge of the true character and mode of development of tubercles, and while consumption was considered simply as a consequence of the chronic inflammation and slow suppuration of the pulmonary tissue, medical men did not question (any more than the vulgar now do) the possibility of curing this disease by a suitable mode of treatment, especially if taken in time, and during the first stage of it. It is now, however, the general opinion of all those who arc acquainted with the actual state of