Account of a case of irregular formation of the heart, accompanied with a supernumerary valve in the pulmonary artery / [Theophilus Thompson].

  • Thompson, Theophilus, 1807-1860
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a case of irregular formation of the heart, accompanied with a supernumerary valve in the pulmonary artery / [Theophilus Thompson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/8 (page 4)
    with roughness, and there was no evidence of any obstacle to the circulation, excepting from dilatation in the heart. On account of anasarca, the patient was treated with decoction of chimaphila, and other diuretics, and subsequently with quinine, to coun¬ teract debility. Her weakness, nevertheless, pro¬ gressively increased; her legs became more and more cedematous, and at length erysipelatous and gangrenous. She gradually sank, and died in the second week of January in the present year. I ascertained from the friends of the patient that although never robust she had enjoyed an average share of health, until attacked with Asiatic cholera during the prevalence of that disease in this country : after which her strength was permanently impaired, and she occasionally complained of palpitation of the heart on going up stairs. Two years before death her constitution suffered additional injury from an attack of fever, which her medical attend¬ ant denominated “ black fever.” From this time she exhibited a livid complexion, and a peculiar drowsy, apathetic appearance, which induced visitors to suppose her idiotic. The principal morbid appearances observed on inspecting the body after death, were some effusion into the peritoneum, pleura, and pericardium, and serous infiltration with redness of the bronchial tubes ; but the circumstance of especial interest was the remarkable formation of the heart. This organ was larger than natural, and exhibited a circum¬ scribed dilatation at the part of the right ventricle