Thoughts on pulmonary consumption; with an appendix on the climate of Torquay / [William Herries Madden].

  • Madden, William Herries, -1883.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts on pulmonary consumption; with an appendix on the climate of Torquay / [William Herries Madden]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    true nature of pulmonary plitliisis, it is not enougli that we are acquainted with the signs and symptoms of its various stages, nor that we can recognise the alterations of structure revealed by microscopic inves¬ tigations : these are essential portions, but not all, of the knowledge required. And even these, if they are to teach us anything, must be viewed in combination. Attention to symptoms alone will lead us into frequent errors; we may mistake a mere chronic bronchitis for the more serious phthisical disease, and thus inflict the tortures of undue apprehension; or, vice versa, we may deceive ourselves and our patients with the hope of a permanent cure, when the lungs are extensively and irretrievably damaged. Undue reliance upon signs is almost equally dangerous; and both together are of little worth, unless w^e are instructed in the physical changes to which they owe their origin. Still, however accurately these things may have been observed, and however skilfully arranged in our minds, they will not secure us against the most in¬ jurious mistakes, nor lead us to correct and scientific practice, if we stop short at them and push our in¬ quiries no further. • In examining a tuberculated lung, we very often find unmistakeable evidences of inflammation, and many practitioners, seizing at once upon this fact, and omitting all investigations into the essential nature of the new formation, have imme¬ diately sprung to the conclusion, that tubercle is in every instance the product of inflammatory action, and that the antiphlogistic plan is the true and only