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Lectures on the diseases of the lungs and heart
Lectures on the diseases of the lungs and heart Author:Thomas Davies Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE III. THROltV OF THE SIGNS OF DISEASES OF THE LI'NUS — (cniitiinivil). PERCUSSION. Obscurity of Si:ns of Discuses of the Chest— Why?—Siu'iis mis... more »taken for Diseases— Equivocal Nature of Sinus— Notice of Aveiibrujsjer—/V;-vfwn—Principle upon which it depends — Experiment — Application to the Chest — Position of Patient — Mode of Percussing— Plntimeter— Variations in Sound at different Ajics and Temperaments—Variations of Sound at diHcrent Parts of Chest. l(i-ni(is of tin- Cfii'.il — jlntrrior. Clavicular—Anterior Superior — Superior Mammary — Sub Mammary — Liil/'i-nl —- Axillary — Superior Lateral — Inferior Lateral — 1'ia/erinr — Supra and Infra Spinal — Interscapnla — Dorsal — Character of Sounds in different Regions. Inferences — Diminution of Sound — Why ? — Increase of Sound — Why '', — Value of Percussion — Sitrciission. W E now proceed to the subject of Percussion. The diseases of the chest were involved in great obscurity from the earliest periods of medicine up to the middle of the last century. The reason of this appears obvious. In the first place, the lesions of the particular textures which enter into the composition of the lungs and heart, were not then well understood. An acquaintance with morbid anatomy in general had not arrived at the point which it lias attained at the present day ; and it follows as a matter of necessity that if these morbid lesions were not known, neither could the signs be to which they gave rise. We have been too much, also, in the habit of satisfying ourselveswith the study of signs alone, and considering them as diseases, instead of reflecting upon the alterations of structure which give origin to them. Thus we find that Cullen has established a genus which he calls dyspncea. Now difficulty of breathing is only a ...« less