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
After the use of much medicine, on the 6th of November, the effused
fluids began to be absorbed, and passed out through the urinary organs
with such rapidity, that on the 12th the dropsical enlargements had
nearly disappeared. The pulse was much reduced, in hardness and
frequency, by the medicine, and, as it fell, he became more easy. On
the 10th the state legislature convened, and the call of business
roused, like magic, the vigor of his mind; and the symptoms of his
disease almost disappeared. During this session he made little
complaint, dictated many important communications, and attended to all
the duties of his office, without neglecting the most minute. As soon
as the legislature adjourned, he declared, that his work was finished,
and that he had no desire to remain longer in this world. He entreated
that no farther means should be used to prolong his existence, and
immediately yielded himself to the grasp of disease, which appeared
waiting with impatience to inflict its agonies.
From this moment the distressing difficulty of breathing had very
slight remissions. The consequent disposition to incline the superior
part of the body forward, for the purpose of facilitating respiration,
increased so much, that he frequently slept with his head reposed on
his knees. The cough became occasionally very violent, and was always
attended with an expectoration of a brown coloured mucus, sometimes
tinged with blood. The abdominal viscera lost their activity. The face
was sometimes turgid and high coloured, at other times pallid and
contracted. A gradual abolition of the powers of the mind ensued, with
a low delirium, and two short fits of phrenzy. The state of the
circulation was very variable; the pulse at the wrists principally
hard and vibrating, rarely soft and compressible; the less pulsations
becoming more indistinct, and at length scarcely perceptible. No
perfectly distinct beat of the heart was felt, but a quick undulating
motion, not corresponding with the pulse at the wrist. Three days
before death the arteries assumed this undulatory motion, corresponded
with the motion of the heart, and, for forty-eight hours, lost the
irregularity of pulsation[3].
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