232 OF HAEMORRHAGES. Sect. XXVll. 2. t* 



are termed putrid, and which iserroneoufiy afcribed to the thin- 



fs of the blood : for the blood in inflammatory difeafes is equal- 

 ly fluid before it coagulates" in the cold air. 



Is not that hereditary confumption, which occurs chiefly in 

 darkeyed people about the age of twenty, and commencJM 

 with flight pulmonary hemorrhages without fever, a difeafe or 

 this kind ? — Thefe haemorrhages frequently begin during fleep, 

 when the irritability or the lungs is not fuflicienc in thefe patients 

 to carry on the circulation without the atti fiance of volition j for 

 in our waking hours, the rrfotions of the lungs are in part volun- 

 tary, efpecially if any difficulty of breathing renders the efforts 

 of volition neceffary. See Oafs I. 2. r. 3. and Clafs III. 2. 1- 

 12. Another fpecies of pulmonary confumption which feems 

 more certainly of lcrofulous origin is described in the next Sec- 

 tion, No. 2. 



I have feen two* cafes of women, cf about forty years of age* 

 both of whom were feized with quick weak pulfe, with difficult 

 refpiration, and who fpit up by coughing much vifcid mucus 

 mixed with dark coloured blood. They had both large vibices 

 on their limbs, and petechia? ; in one the feet were in danger of 

 mortification, in the other the legs were ©edematous. To relieve 

 the difficult refpiration, about fix ounces of blood were taken 

 from one of them, which to my furprife was fizy, like inflamed 

 blood : they had both palpitations or unequal pulfations of the 

 heart. 1 They continued four or five weeks with pale and bloat- 

 ed countenances, and did not ceafe fpitting phlegm mixed with 

 black blood, and the pulfe feldom flower than 130 or 135 in a 

 minute. This blood, from its dark colour, and from the many 

 vibices and petechia - :, feems to have been venous blood ; the 

 quicknefs of the pulfe, and the irregularity of the motion of the 

 heart, are to be afcribed to debility of that part of the fyftem ; 

 us the extravafation of blood originated from the defect of ven- 

 ous abforption. The approximation of thefe two cafes to fea- 

 fcurvy is peculiar, and may allow them to be called fcorbutus 

 pulmonalis. Had thefe been younger fubjects, and the paraly- 

 fis of the veins had only affecled the lungs, it is probable the 

 difeafe would have been a pulmonary confumption. 



Lafl week I faw a gentleman of Birmingham, who had for 

 ten days laboured under great palpitation of his heart, which 

 was fo diflinctly felt ky the hand, as to difcountenance the idea 

 of there being a fluid in the pericardium. He frequently fpit 

 up mucus (tained with dark coloured blood, his pulfe very un- j 

 equal and very weak, with cold hands and nofe. He could not 

 jie down at all, and for about ten days paft could not fleep a min- 

 ute together, but waked perpetually with great uneafmefs. 



Could 



