An essay on fevers : to which is now added, A dissertation on the malignant-ulcerous sore-throat / by John Huxham, M. D. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh, and of the Royal Society at London.

John Huxham

Date:: [1785?]

Credit: An essay on fevers : to which is now added, A dissertation on the malignant-ulcerous sore-throat / by John Huxham, M. D. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh, and of the Royal Society at London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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$H ;.certain that water, ferum, &c. pafs \\ -cdy from the pulmonary arteries I j Uo the bronchial veficular cavities; t j > Appears from the experiments of \\ luyfch and the accurate Doftor tj Tales. Indeed, as the bronchial and fl iilmonic arteries, in their different Ij unifications, join by innumerable I lallomofes, even by this way the •:i ulmonic arteries may have a coni- ! lunication with the bionchia. Now, ;j . hen theobftrufting matter is fo duly i ttenuated and concofted, • and the j jifels fo far dilated as to give a fre- j aflage, it is thrown into the cavities j f the bronchia, and fo out of the I mgs by expedloration. It feems j vident that the lateral, or ferous 1 ranches of ihofe arteries, at their j .vtremities, are fo far dilatable as in I 3me cafes to pafs red globules, and :nat too freely, into the cavities of ihe bronchia; as is particularly feen n thofe fpittings of blood, which re made />er diapcdejin, as Galen and ;ae ancients called it; for I think it 5 pretty certain, that fome hasmop- oes do not arife from a rupture of he vefTels, as no manner of pain, .'urulence, or the like, precede, fuc- :eed, or accompany them. But where thefe fmall vefTeh of the jngs are by nature or art made eafily iiilatablc, they fuffer lefs from inflam- ^.aatory lentor, than where they are ■■ ery rigid and elaftic ; as commonly •appens in the robuft,and laborious, /ho, according to the obfervation of ;-Iippocrates, are moft fubjeft to, and .uffer moll from, inflammations of he breaft and lungs.* And this in- leed is confirmed by every day's ex- lerience; and fo is likewife the fol- owing remark of the fame great ather of phyfic, relating to the laud- .ble expectoration I mentioned above, • c«r A^yyi (jLtv Trj<; yitra, 'alvofittot wtptB- ^ rf-oy f )tj xaplx upi?^t i : Hippoc. * Coac. Praenot, 29. Lib. II. Cap. xvi. )e Pleur; ide. Edit. Dureti. f So J-chufe to read wiili Foefius rather han «rE;isx7<«dv as more agreeable to ih? ?nfe, and ;he Hij»pocra;ic diction, 7S Prognoft. And indeed it hath been the obfervation of the very nurfes in fome epidemic pleuropneumonies, and peripneumonies, that all thofe who fpit blood do well. However this is very far from being always true, un- lefs the matter is conditioned as above: for whenever either very frothy, or fincere florid blood is fpit up, or black and partly coagulated, fpongy, liver- coloured blood, it is quite otherwife ; as it fliews that there is nothing like refolution, or digefl:ing of the ob- ftrufting matter performed; but that the obltruftion being deeply radicated, and the impelling force of the heart vehement, fome veflTels are burft open, _ and an extravafation of blood made into the cavities of the lungs, and fo fpit up. For when great obltruftions are formed in fome parts of the lungs, the blood muft be forced in greater quantities, and with greater rapidity, through the veflels that are pervious; which hence, being over diltended, frequently break, and the blood gullies into the cavities of the bronchia, and many times in the inmoll recefles of the veficular cells. Wliat of this blood is fpit off immediately appears florid and frothy, and does no farther damage ; but the chief misfortune is, that a great part of it remains com- monly in the lungs, and IhifiPs up the air-bladders, and comprefl!es and ob- ftrudls their blood-veflels; which very much encreafes the difiiciilty of breath- ing, and greatly hinders the circula- tion of the blood through the lungs. Befides as it is exceeding diflicuit to be pumj ed up from thefe minute vefi- cular cells, by continuing there it grows more and more putrid, till at length it becomes a corrofive fanies, that deftroys the very fubltance of the lungs : but of this more hereafter. As all the inflammations of the lungs will either quickly choak the patients by hindering the pafla^;' of the blood thro' them, or terminate in fuppuration, gangrene, or fcirrhofity, if the obftructing matter is not foon kindly refolved, or digeited ; we iliouid be as e<trl/ as pofliblc in Qur cn^^a- vours$