Observations on aneurism, selected from the works of the principal writers on that disease from the earliest periods to the close of the last century / translated and edited by J.E. Erichsen.

  • Sydenham Society.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on aneurism, selected from the works of the principal writers on that disease from the earliest periods to the close of the last century / translated and edited by J.E. Erichsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    par6. of the natural colour of the skin, soft to the touch, and yielding 1582. on pressure in such a way that, if it be small, it disappears en- '—'—' tirely in consequence of the blood and spirit entering into the body of the artery; and then, on removing the fingers, will instantly reappear as before. When pressure is applied to some, a noise or blowing sound is perceived; this is also sometimes the case without the necessity of applying pressiu’es, in conse- quence of the impetuosity with which the spirit passes in and out of the small opening in the artery. But no noise is heard in those aneurisms that are occasioned by an extensive rupture of the artery, for this hissing is the result of a small and narrow opening. The reason why some aneurisms become large, with a bony circumference is, that the arterial blood becoming heated and boiling, causes the coats of the vessel first to dilate and enlarge, and then to give way; and taking from the neighboring parts matters similar to themselves, in order to reunite, thus occasion a large or a small tumour, according to the capacity of the part. Then httle by little the circumference of the tumour dries and hardens, hke a vessel, becoming cartilaginous, and then osseous by a material and efficient cause, as stones are formed in the kidneys and bladder; for the earthy matter of the blood being dried and thickened by the unusual heat, adheres to the coats of the artery and of the parts that it occupies, thus becoming hard and bony; and this, by a great foresight of Nature (the handmaiden of the Almighty), constitutes a rampart or strong barrier, lest the hot and boiling blood full of spirit should escape and pass out of the coats of the anetuismal or dilated artery. It may, however, be said that this hardness is owing to the cold and repercussing applications constantly made to snch tumours, which may harden and thicken them, as it is easy to gather from what Galen says in the last chapter of the fourth book ‘ De Prsesagitione ex Pulsibus.^ Besides, in very large aneurisms, there is frequently no pulsation; and on pressing upon them, the blood cannot be forced back into the artery, both because it is in too large quantity, and because it concretes into a thrombus, and afterwards putrefies, as it is no longer kept up by the natiual heat of the heart, from which great pain ensues, then gangrene and mortification of the part, and, lastly, death.