2 3 .2 OF HEMORRHAGES. SECT. XXVII. 2. i. 



are termed putrid, and which is erroneouflv afcribed to the thin- 

 nefs of the blood : for the blood in inflammatory difeafes is 

 equally 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 commences 

 with flight pulmonary haemorrhages without fever, a difeafe of 

 this kind ? Thefe hasmorrages frequently begin during fleep, 

 when the irritability of the lungs is not fufficient in thefe patients 

 to carry on the circulation without the affiftance of volition ; for 

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

 tary, efpecially if any difficulty of breathing renders the efforts 

 of volition neceflary. See Clafs I. 2. I. 3 and Clafs III. 2. i. 

 j-2. Another fpecies of pulmonary confumption which feems 

 more certainly of icrofulous origin is defcribed in the next Sec- 

 tion, No 2. 



I have feen two cafes of women, of 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 petechiae ; in one the feet were in danger of 

 mortification, in the other the legs were cedematous. To relieve 

 the difficult refpiration, about fix ounces of blood were taken 

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

 blood : they had both palpitations or unequal pulfations of the 

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

 ed countenances, and did pot 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 petechise, 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 ; 

 as 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 fubjecls, and the paraly- 

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

 difeafe would have been a pulmonary confumption. 



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

 ten days laboured under great palpitation of his heart, which 

 was fo diftindtly felt by the hand, as to difcountenance the idea 

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

 up mucus ftained with dark coloured blood, his pulfe very un- 

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

 lie down at all, and for about ten days pad could not fleep a min- 

 ute together, but waked perpetually with great uneafmefs* 



Could 



