The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 319 of 653changes in its external shape. If the hypertrophy is general, theheart assumes the shape of a triangle with obtuse angles; if theleft ventricle alone is hypertrophied, the heart becomes elongateand somewhat conical, and the apex is turned more towards theleft side ; if the right ventricle is hypertrophied, the shape ofheart becomes more rounded, its diameter in breadth is longer, anthe heart approximates more to the right side. The base of the874 Diseases of the Heart.hypertrophied heart generally reaches a little below the aormalline.Sf/mptoms and Course. Only two forma of cardiac hypertrophycan Re described symptomatically, because they alone occuras primary diseases, we mean hypertrophy of the whole heart andthat of the left ventricle ; whereas hypertrophy of the right ventricle is almost always of a secondary character, and its symptommanifestation is essentially depending upon the nature of theprimary disease. So far as hypertrophy of the right ventricle isconcerned, we shall therefore have to confine ourselves to indicathe general consequences of this disorganization.Whereas primary hypertrophy of a certain grade always represents a really morbid condition of the heart, secondary hypertropcan at the commencement only be regarded as an endeavor of theorganism to restore the disturbed equilibrium. This is the reasonwhy the lesser degrees of this structural change exist without anmorbid symptoms, or are only accompanied by disturbances, suchas are called forth by accidental stimulations of the heart's actThe more frequent and violent such stimulations and the longertheir duration, the more they contribute to increase the existinghypertrophy and to complicate it by the production of valvulardisease and dilatation of the cardiac cavities.In moderate hypertrophy of the left ventricle, without anymarked dilatation, the arterial blood is driven with increased pointo the arteries of the systemic circulation and likewise througan increased frequency of the contractions of the heart. Theimpulse of the heart is stronger and generally visible, and extenover a larger area, so that it can be felt even in the fifth andintercostal spaces, and even beyond the nipple. A larger extent odulness is not always traceable on account of the overlapping portions of lung. While in a state of rest, the patients generally fwell, they complain at most of a slight feeling of pressure in thprecordial region. Every rather violent and continued motion,every mental excitement not only causes a troublesome and evendistressing palpitation of the heart, but along with it an oppresand feeling of anxiety in the chest, a sensation as it the clothewere too tight, dyspnoea. The increased excitement in the arteriacirculation gives rise to congestions of the head, the face looksflushed, the eyes glisten and are injected, the margin of the lidoften looks as if inflamed, there is buzzing in the ears, vertigothe congestion is less frequently met with in the tract of the aoHypertrophia Cordis. 875http://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt