A Practical Essay on the History and Treatment of Beriberi (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1835 edition. Excerpt: ...with blood, were found in the pericardium, and four pounds of brownish serum in the chest, also spontaneously coagulating, but like thatin the abdomen, the coagulum disappeared in twenty-four hours: no marks of disease of the lungs or heart, except an adhesion of the pleura pulmonalis to the pleura costalis of an inch square, near the heart. The kidneys although of their 1,0 Ft will, I believe, be found that indications of abdominal inflammation occur more rarely, than they would appear to do from the above statement. The case here recorded was sent me by Mr Davidson, before the paper was copied for transmission to the Board; had he had an opportunity of enquiring minutely into the symptoms during life, it would have been of greater value. The case of F. (Jouge (note 92) since communicated supplies this deficiency, and Mr. D. has also met with similar appearances in other patients, who died of protracted beriberi. The examination of his detailed cases, confirm the account of the symptoms, derived from the less accurate histories which I was in possession oi, at the time of drawing up the paper. In old cases, the secretions seem almost always lo become disordered, and the patient dyspeptic. A certain relation between the abdominal symptoms and those of the nervous system, could also generally be traced. In a patient in whom the numbness extendi d as high as the umbilicus and the arms were similarly affected, the thighs and the skin of the abdomen (chiefly the lower part) were oedematous, with feeling of fulness in the latter. There was some pain on striking the parietes with the tip of the fingers, and the muscles started into action in an unusual manner. It was remarkable, that oedematous tumours formed suddenly over the epigastrium and...