The curability of consumption: being the reprint of a series of papers, presenting the most prominent and important practical points in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the disease / [Francis Hopkins Ramadge].

  • Ramadge, Francis Hopkins, 1793-1867
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The curability of consumption: being the reprint of a series of papers, presenting the most prominent and important practical points in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the disease / [Francis Hopkins Ramadge]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of catarrhal cases, it will be granted, are not followed by phthisical symptoms; persons very liable to colds rarely e of consumption. When this disease shows itself in summer, catarrh seldom accompanies it: the coincidence takes place m the winter,—and, finally, there is no argument founded on either anatomical or pathological deduction which can be brought forward to prove that catarrh ever stands with respect to phthisis as its primary cause. This seems to be one of those as¬ sumptions, which by tacit general acquiescence has been allowed to pass as an indisputable truth. Under what circumstances, and to what extent, it may be regarded as an exciting cause of the manifestation of this disease, is another and very nnpoitant question. Laennec observes, we meet with many persons whose first cold is merely the catarrh that accompanies phthisis, ex¬ cited, no doubt, by the presence of tubercles in the lungs, making out that catarrh is frequently the effect, and not the cause. This may be explained as follows. An extension of ir¬ ritation takes place from the diseased structure of one lung into its bronchial ramifications. The trachea is then affected and irritated by sympathy ; this irritation is then reflected, and operates in the same way on the mucous membrane of the other lung. But we may safely go further than this. Irritation and in¬ flammation of the mucous membrane, when severe, may, and often do, lead to liquefaction of tubercles already formed ; i. €., may cause the manifestation of phthisis previously latent. The most heterodox part of this view may appear to be that which considers catarrh to possess a curative influence on phthisis. How it operates by dilatation of the air cells and expansion I have already explained; and, on this head, court the most ample discussion. “ The motion of the upper part of the chest,” Sir James Clarke states, “ at the early periods of phthisis, if carefully observed during inspiration, may be re¬ marked to be unequal; one side of' the chest being more fully ex¬ panded than the other.” In the progress of the disease, “ the upper parts are less freely raised during inspiration,” and at a more advanced stage “ the form of the chest is remarkably