PULMONARY APOPLEXY.
BY WILLIAM CARSON, M.D.
DEFINITION.—Escape of blood into the pulmonary parenchyma, with laceration of its substance.
SYNONYMS.—Hemorrhage (pulmonaire) foyer (Jaccoud); Diffuse pulmonary apoplexy or Diffuse pneumorrhagia (Fleich); Diffuse pulmonary apoplexy (Loomis); Pneumo-hemorrhagie (Gendrin), etc.
HISTORY.—Latour1 is quoted as being the first to use the words, "apoplexie du poumon."2 Yet Duguet3 also quotes from Frank that Dolocus had a long time before employed it. It is known that cases had been described long before this, as by Corvisart in 1808, Allan Burnes in 1809, among those of this century, and by Prosper Martiano, Bonet, Morgagni, Haller, etc., among the more ancient authors.4 Again, Laennec gives the weight of his authority, and establishes Latour's use of the name, until, as the synonyms show, modern usage has almost abandoned it. Among the multitude of those who have treated of pulmonary apoplexy, we will have filled the requirements of this brief historical statement by mentioning Virchow and his pathological investigations into embolism, and also Cohnheim,5 and later Litten's6 studies on infarction, which have some indirect connection with pulmonary apoplexy.
1 Histoire philosophique et médicale des Hémorrhagies, 1815, passage misquoted in L'apoplexie pulmonaire by Duguet.
2 Op. cit., pp. 220, 222, and 224.
3 Op. cit., p. 11.