Physiological remarks upon the causes of consumption.

  • Duke, Valentine.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiological remarks upon the causes of consumption. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    difficult to secure unanimity upon any subject, and in none more so than matters medical. Look, for example, at the manner in which a proposition for the better ventilation of a public office or establishment is received by men of different ages. The old, in whom respiration is slow and all the functions of life are performed with comparative sluggishness, are satisfied with things as they exist, and are opposed to all alteration respecting windows, &c, whilst the young, with their more rapid respiration, ardent temperaments, and quicker perception, soon ex- perience the injurious effects of a close atmosphere, and call loudly for change and improvement. Thus it is with almost every sanitary reform. Having spoken with a considerable degree of confidence respecting the general causes of con- sumption, representing the great majority as being comparatively avoidable, whilst but a few are strictly unavoidable, and having expressed a decided opinion that over the effects of even these latter we possess a considerable amount of control, it may be fairly asked, why we do not more fre- quently cure the disease, or at least prevent its occurrence ? The answer to the first part of the question is plainly because, where consumption is really established, certain structural changes have taken place in important vital organs, over