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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1845 Excerpt:...violent, V.S. was out of the question, on account of the debility. CHAPTER VI. DILATATION. Dilatation may be an idiopathic disease, and exist under three forms--first with the cardiac walls thickened; this is Dilatation with Hypertrophy combined: secondly, the walls maybe of their natural size; but the cavity is enlarged: thirdly, the cavity enlarged and walls attenuated. The attenuation may be such that the most substantial part of the left ventricle is only two lines in thickness instead of thirteen, the natural thickness; but extreme attenuation is more common in the right ventricle. Dilatation takes place more in the transverse than in the longitudinal direction; thus an unusually spherical form is communicated to the heart, and the diameter of the organ near its apex is almost as wide as its base; the apex itself can hardly be distinguished. This last fact has been laid down as the best criterion for determining when there is Dilatation or not. Dilatation is often attended with softening it is said, and thus may give rise to rupture of the heart. I have never met with an instance of rupture from this cause. Difficulty has been felt in distinguishing post mortem, whether the cardiac cavities have been merely distended or dilated; but we shall succeed in satisfying our minds by recollecting the altered form of the apex, and the following criteria laid down by Laennec. A Distended Auricle is tense, and through its thinnest parts shows distinctly the dark blood within; when cut into, it returns at once to its natural size. A Distended Ventricle is found enlarged, firm, tense, but these conditions disappear, on pressing out the blood. A Dilated Auricle does not appear so tense, and its parietes are more opaque. When cut into, it maintains almost the same si...