Cases of Organic Diseases of the Heart — John Shaqi
Cases of Organic Diseases of the HeartWarren, John Collins
Science
Cases of Organic Diseases of the Heart
Warren, John Collins
Heart -- Diseases
lie on the left side, except a short time after the application of a
blister. At the end of the fifth day his sufferings abated, but the
sudden affusion of a small portion of a cold liquid on the head
produced a severe fit of epilepsy. This was followed by a return of
the symptoms equally distressing, and more durable, than in the first
attack[2].
[Footnote 2: During this time it was thought adviseable to
acquaint his friends, that an organic disease of the heart
existed, which doubtless consisted in an ossification of the
semilunar valves of the aorta, attended, perhaps, by
enlargement of the heart; that the disease was beyond the
reach of art, and would prove fatal within three months,
possibly very soon; that if it lasted so long, it would be
attended by frequent recurrences of those distressing
symptoms, general dropsical affections, and an impaired state
of the mental faculties.]
This violent agitation gradually subsided, and was followed by a
pleasant calm. The natural functions resumed their ordinary course;
his appetite returned; his enjoyment of social intercourse was
unusually great; and he amused and instructed his friends by the
immense treasures of information, which his talents and observations
had afforded him, and which, he seemed to feel, would soon be lost. At
the end of September the feet began to swell, and after some time the
enlargement extended up to the legs and thighs, and increased to an
extraordinary degree; the abdomen next swelled, and, after it, the
face. Toward the end of October there were some indications of water
in the chest; there was a constant shortness and difficulty of
breathing; the cough, till now rare, became more frequent and
troublesome; the contraction of the thoracic cavity rendered the
action of the heart more painful, to that beside an uniform stricture
across the breast, he sometimes described a dreadful sensation like
twisting of the organs in the thorax. He suspected the existence of
water there, and was inclined to consider it as his primary disease,
but was easily convinced of the contrary. At one time he had a
suspicion of a complaint of the heart, and, although he had never
heard of a disease of that organ, slightly intimated it to one of his
friends, and mentioned a sensation he had experienced in the chest,
which he compared to a fluid driven through an orifice too narrow for
it to pass freely. In this month, beside the dropsical affections and
increase of cough, he had occasional painful enlargements of the
liver, frequent starting up from sleep, a slight degree of dizziness,
a great disposition for reveries, and sometimes extraordinary
illusions, one of which was, that he was two individuals, each of whom
was dying of a different disease. This idea often occurred, and gave
him much uneasiness. He was also afflicted with long continued
frightful dreams, and sometimes a slight delirium.
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