234 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



into vessels of the smallest size ; and these email vessels, spread 

 out near to the internal surfaces of the bronchial cavities, are si- 

 tuated in a loose cellular texture, and covered by a tender mem- 

 brane only ; so that, considering how readily and frequently 

 these vessels are gorged with blood, we may understand why an 

 haemorrhagy from them is, next to that of the nose, the most 

 frequent of any ; and particularly, why any violent shock given 

 to the whole body, so readily occasions an haemoptysis. 



DCCCXXXII. An haemoptysis may be occasioned by ex- 

 ternal violence at any period of life; and I have explained 

 above (DCCLX.), why, in adult persons, while the arterial 

 plethora still prevails in the system, that is, from the age of six- 

 teen to that of five-and-thirty, an haemoptysis may at any time 

 be produced, merely by a plethoric state of the lungs. 



DCCCXXXIII. But it has been also observed above 

 (DCCLXL), that an haemoptysis more frequently arises from 

 a faulty proportion between the capacity of the vessels of the 

 lungs and that of those of the rest of the body. Accordingly, 

 it is often a hereditary disease, which implies a peculiar and 

 faulty conformation. And the disease also happens especially 

 to persons who discover the smaller capacity of their lungs, by 

 the narrowness of their chest, and by the prominency of their 

 shoulders ; which last is a mark of their having been long liable 

 to a difficult respiration. 



DCCCXXXIV. With these circumstances also the disease 

 happens especially to persons of a sanguine temperament ; in 

 whom, particularly, the arterial plethora prevails. It happens 

 likewise to persons of a slender delicate make, of which a long 

 neck is a mark ; to persons of much sensibility and irritability, 

 and therefore of quick parts, whose bodies are generally of a deli- 

 cate structure ; to persons who have been formerly liable to fre- 

 quent haemorrhagies of the nose ; to persons who have suffered 

 a suppression of any haemorrhagy they had formerly been liable 

 to, the most frequent instance of which is in females who have 

 suffered a suppression of their menstrual flux ; and, lastly, to 

 persons who have suffered the amputation of any considerable 

 limb. 



DCCCXXXV. In most of these cases (DCCCXXXIV.) 

 the disease happens especially to persons about the time of their 



