A friendly letter of counsel and advice to consumptives and other invalids : also, prescriptions, with special directions for the cure of chills and fever / by S.S. Fitch.

  • Fitch, Samuel Sheldon, 1801-1876.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A friendly letter of counsel and advice to consumptives and other invalids : also, prescriptions, with special directions for the cure of chills and fever / by S.S. Fitch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    grapes united to one branch. Into and through these the air freely passes, filling and inflating them. The walls of these little cells are composed of a thin, deli- cate membrane, over which is spread a thick mesh or net-work of fine blood- vessels. The blood is thrown into the lungs from the heart, through vessels that branch off and sub-divide until they come down to this net-work on the walls of the air-cells; and while passing through these minute channels the vital element of the air, with which the lungs are filled by breathing, passes directly through the walls of the cells into it, at the same time that carbonic acid gas which has been formed' in the blood passes out from the blood into the air-cells, and is expelled with the returning breath. This is the process by which the blood is aerated or vitalized. When tuberculous matter exists in the blood, as I have before described, it is arrested in the lungs while the blood is passing through them, and remains deposited at various points, in small granules, usually about the size of a pin's head, and from that to the size of a small pea. At first these resemble in con- sistency and appearance small pellets of hard cheese. While they remain in this state they seem to do but little harm, except to reduce the capacity of the lungs for air, thus causing some shortness of breath, want of flexibility in the lungs, and loss of strength and flesh. Usually, however, they soon soften and dissolve, and in doing so inflame, ulcerate, and destroy the tissues of the lungs themselves. In the progress of the disease, whole clusters or masses of these tubercles thus dissolve, at the same time that successive clusters are being deposited, which in their turn soften, dissolve, and involve the substance of the lungs, the air-cells and blood-vessels in their vicinity—the pus or corrupt matter result- ing from this process passing into the air-tubes, and being coughed up and expectorated. This destruction goes on until there is not enough of sound lung- left to sustain life, and the patient dies. Such is tubercular consumption. [See my Six Lectures.] What I have described is pure tubercular consumption. But there is, as I have said, almost always another disease connected with it—the same that is popularly called bronchitis, when confined to the throat and the two divisions of the wind- pipe leading to the lungs. This bronchitis in the lungs may result from a cold that settles and becomes chronic in them, or from inflammation of the lungs, or a humor or skin disease in the membrane lining them ; or catarrh commencing in the head may make its way down the throat and fasten on the lungs ; or the very presence of tuber- cles may set up an irritation and, ultimately, inflammation in this membrane ; or irritating substances may be inhaled in the air for a length of time and cause it. But whatever its cause may be, it is an active, aggressive disease, requiring totally different remedies from tubercular consumption. One of the reasons why physicians so generally fail to treat consumption successfully is, because attention is not paid to the fact that these two diseases are usually present in all cases ; and that remedies which will tend to cure the one may aggravate the other. Still, both may be treated at the same time, and the different remedies required for each made to harmonize.