Volume 1

Diseases of the organs of respiration : a treatise on the etiology, pathology, symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of diseases of the lungs and air-passages / by Samuel West.

  • West, Samuel (Samuel Hatch), 1848-1920.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Diseases of the organs of respiration : a treatise on the etiology, pathology, symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of diseases of the lungs and air-passages / by Samuel West. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that they dilate, not the vessels of the abdomen or of the skin only, but of the whole body, and therefore of the lungs as well, is not, I think, insuperable ; but the value of these drugs must be settled by actual observation. In counter irritation we have a means of producing vascular dilatation in the skin ; but, to be eifectual, it would seem necessary that it should be very extensive, unless its action be not mechanical but reflex. By the remedies above referred to an attempt is made to fulfil the conditions indicated upon the circulation by means of the vessels. We may now turn to those which produce the same effect through the heart—to the group of cardiac depressants as well as to those of nauseating or depressant emetics. Of the cardiac depressants, the only one that has been freely used is tartar emetic. This must be administered until marked depression is produced, and it is a remedy, therefore, which requires to be carefully watched. Of the nauseants, ipecacuanha has been highly vaunted. Trousseau used it largely, and praised it highly, quoting Baglivi, who, 150 years before, wrote of it as a specific, “ Radix ipecacuanha est specificum et quasi infallibile remedium in fluxibus dysenteriis aliisque lifemorrhagiis. ” One other method of treatment remains for consideration, to which sufficient importance is hardly attached, at any rate in writings upon haemoptysis, i.o., Dieting. It is an old rule of practice in haemoptysis to place the patient upon a restricted diet. Knowing the close relation between the lungs and stomach which exists through the nerve-supply, it is not irrational to expect a detrimental effect upon the lungs by an overloaded or irritated stomach, and the harm which experience proves to arise from these causes is usually referred to reflex action. But careful dieting is not only useful because it avoids the risks which improper feeding may introduce, but because, when rationally employed, it becomes a real means of active treatment of the diseased condition. END OF VOLUME 1. [NOTE.—For the Contents of Volume II. see the analytical table at the commencement of this Volume. The Index to the whole work will be found at the end of Volume II.] PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.