The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 338 of 653As regards treatment we may refer to our statements whenspeaking of hypertrophy, since it is hypertrophy that invests valvular deficiencies with threatening danger. The general conductof such patients has to be regulated with much more care than insimple hypertrophy, for the reason that every unusual exitementof the action of the heart may result in what is so much to bedreaded, a rupture of the vessels. Every sort of bloodletting isexceedingly pernicious ; even now this is sometimes recommendedby physicians, or resorted to by the patient without the physiciaadvice, for the purpose of preventing or removing intercurrentcongestions.d. Stenosis of the Aortic Orifice*The aortic orifice is constricted and does not admit of a freepassage of the blood. The narrowing is occasioned by a thickeningAnomalies. 897of the semilunar valves consequent upon endocarditis, which incapacitates the valves from adjusting themselves to the walls ofthe aorta. This constitutes an insufficiency the force of which iin inverse ratio to stenosis.The necessary consequence of an impeded emptying of theleft ventricle is an increased activity of its w^alls to propel tblood, hence hypertrophy. It is to be observed that, if stenosisthe only difficulty, the hypertrophy does not become eccentric, oat least only very little so, whereas, if insufficiency is presenthe same time, hypertrophy becomes associated with dilatation.Stenosis does not exert a marked influence over the other parts othe heart until the hypertrophy is no longer sufficient to keep uthe compensating equilibrium. In such circumstances the pulmonary circulation is disturbed, the right ventricle becomes hypertrophied, but never in such a high degree as from stenosis of theleft auriculo-ventricular orifice. The influence of stenosis uponmotion of the blood through the arteries is manifested by the incompleteness and feebleness of the arterial current.The objective symptoms of this disorder are: All the symptomswhich have been previously indicated as characterizing a considerable hypertrophy of the left ventricle. Auscultation over theaortic orifice usually returns a loud systolic murmur which frequently reaches a -good ways laterally and downwards, disguisingthe sounds of the heart more or less, and being most commonlyaudible even in the arteries of the neck. The first sound of theaorta is absent, the second sound is generally feebler, more inditinct, or likewise replaced by a diastolic murmur if the stenosiscomplicated with insufficiency. The sounds of the right side ofthe heart are normal. As long as the stenosis is properly compensated by hypertrophy, the pulse is indeed somewhat small buthard, and only becomes small and even soft after the compensatingequilibrium is disturbed. The pulse generally constitutes an excelent means of obtaining a correct judgment of the condition ofthe heart.In cases where the stenosis is completely equilibrated by venhttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt