The elements of prognosis in consumption : with indications for the prevention and treatment / by James Edward Pollock.

  • Pollock, James Edward, 1817-1910.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of prognosis in consumption : with indications for the prevention and treatment / by James Edward Pollock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    25/484 page 9
    The organ which is apparently earliest affected, and chap. whose influence is most observable throughout the series .J^ of morbid actions which ensue, generally gives the name ^^^^ ^^t^* to the disease ; but the mechanical extent to which its rai disease structure is altered or destroyed is not per se the measure milure of of the injury inflicted on the system, nor of the gravity systemic of the case. This is exemphfied in slow enlargements of the liver, cystic disease, or cuThosis, with but slight im- pairment of health ; or in the chest by the obliteration of the respiratory space of one lung by fluid in the pleura, which often occurs unsuspected by the patient; or in the toleration by the system of a single large tubercular cavity. It is probable that there is no such thing as purely No purely functional disorder of organs. The latest researches ciisorder'^ have proved an intimate connection to exist between the ultimate cells of a secreting organ and the secretion itself, which, in certain instances at least, is accom- panied by a cell-exudation. The whole epithelial tract is frequently imdergoing this process. The con- stant waste and renewal of tissues, on which the in- tegrity of all structure depends, if interfered with by what we are accustomed to call functional disorder, is imperfectly performed, and an alteration in the vitality, if not in the form, of the cell results. It is only when an accumulation of disorder has altered the essential nutritive action of an organ, and caused its increase or diminution in size, or a new pro- duct to be mixed with its own structure,—in other words, when the error in its nutrition, and therefore in its functions, has reached a certain height, and has made considerable progress, that we call the disease ' organic' But the difference is in degree, and not in character ; the process is the same in both cases. Let us now examine whether we can observe any Origin of • r. .. IT 1 r> 1 • 1 • orgauie uniformity m the disturbance ot system which mva- affections riably takes place in chronic organic afiections. First, ^^Zks^^^
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3