Cliniques du Dr. Potain. Manuscript notes by A. Dessuis
Publisher Information: 1874-77.
Potain, Pierre C. E. (1825-1901). Cliniques du Dr. Potain. Manuscript notebook in the hand of medical student Alfred Dessois. [2], 93, [104, blank], 8pp. Some text drawings. [Paris], 1874-77. 186 x 150 mm. Original quarter cloth, boards, hinges worn, some rubbing. Endpapers a bit foxed, but very good.
Rare manuscript notebook written by one of Potain’s medical students, containing extensive notes taken during Potain’s clinical lectures at the Hôpital Necker in Paris. Potain was one of the leading cardiologists of his day: He published classic studies of the heartbeat and of the movements and murmurs of the jugular veins (see Garrison-Morton.com 2766, 2777), developed a portable sphygmomanometer to measure blood pressure (Garrison-Morton.com 2798), perfected an apparatus to count red blood cells, and co-invented (with his intern, Georges Dieulafoy) a pleural aspirator with vacuum apparatus. He served on the staffs of the Hôpital Sainte-Antoine, Hôpital de la Charité and Hôpital Necker; became an associate professor at the Faculté de Médecine de Paris in 1861; and in 1876 was appointed professor of pathology at the University of Paris.
The first and most important section of Dessois’s notebook, written in 1877, contains 44 observations spread over 93 pages; the first sheet corresponds to the title and the table of contents. Several observations relate to cardiology: Anemic murmur, aortic aneurysm, beating of the liver (valvular heart disease), dilation of the heart, tricuspid insufficiency, aortic insufficiency, extracardiac murmur, etc. Other observations relate to various subjects: Tuberculosis, diabetes, hysteria, lead poisoning, melancholy, pneumothorax, rheumatism, dizziness, etc. The final 8 pages, written in 1874, contain notes on hemiplegia and tuberculous meningitis taken at lectures by Dr. August Millard (1830-1915), one of the discoverers of Millard-Gübler syndrome (unilateral lesion of the pons). Dessois defended his medical thesis in 1878. Willius and Keys, Cardiac Classics, pp. 531-532.
Book Id: 45240Price: $750.00