This patient is uneasy in bed, though she raises her head almost upright; her sleep is disturbed by unpleasant dreams, and by startings, sometimes quite to an upright posture, without any cause discoverable to herself. She can incline a little to the left side, but never to the right, because it brings on a singular oppression, and a sense of weight drawing on the left side. When most distressed by dyspnoea she bends her head and trunk forward, and remains thus seated a considerable portion of the night, often sighing quickly and convulsively. She is subject to profuse sweatings, and very liable to take cold, and is then more uneasy.
This lady is still corpulent. She has taken much medicine, under the direction of eminent physicians, sometimes with temporary relief, but most commonly without any. The exercise of walking slowly, in pleasant weather, although it increases the palpitations at the moment, is followed with relief from the distressing feelings, which are increased when she sits still for a long time. She has no suspicion of her hopeless situation, and confidently expects relief from medicine, yet labours under a melancholy which is unnatural to her.
The following case of hydrothorax will shew, that water may exist in the chest without the symptoms, which we have attributed to organic diseases of the heart.
Mrs. T----, aged 56 years, of an excessively corpulent habit, had been affected for a great number of years with a scirrhus of the right breast. Finding her health decline, she at last disclosed it, and in coincidence with the opinion of Dr. WARREN, sen. I amputated it on the 30th of May, of the present year. We however informed her friends, that the probability of eradicating the disease was extremely small. The skin was in many places hardened and drawn in, and in others discoloured, and ulcerated at the nipple, so that it was found necessary to remove, not only what covered the breast, but some portion of that which surrounded it. A long chain of diseased glands, extending quite to the axillary vessels, was also extirpated. She bore the operation well, lost no great quantity of blood, and recovered her appetite and strength surprisingly in a few days, while the wound healed rapidly. At the end of twenty days a difficulty of breathing commenced, and soon became so oppressive, that she could no longer lie in bed; partly, no doubt, on account of her extraordinary obesity. The pulse was small, quick, and commonly feeble, but sometimes a little hard, when any degree of fever was present. The countenance became pale, the lips of a leaden hue, the eyes dim. We were surprised at the change, and conjectured that the cancerous action had suddenly extended to the lungs. Yet she had not the slightest cough; and it was remarked by Dr. WARREN, sen. that he had never observed that diseased action to increase, while the wound remained open. At last the lower extremities swelled, which might be attributed to the upright posture, and the pressure on the absorbent vessels in that posture. The appetite failed; she complained of a constant sense of depression at the stomach, and, without any remission of the difficulty of breathing, died on the 1st of July.