On consumption, and tuberculosis of the lungs : their diagnosis, causes, and preventive and general treatment / by E.H. Ruddock.

  • Ruddock, E. H. (Edward Harris), 1822-1875
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On consumption, and tuberculosis of the lungs : their diagnosis, causes, and preventive and general treatment / by E.H. Ruddock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sumption, but if hasmorrhage takes place into the lungs the blood-clot may become a cause of Phthisis of any variety. Elevated Heightened temperature of the patient Temperature. a]go affords an important sign of the nature of Phthisis. Dr. S. Ringer's observations, made on patients in University College Hospital, are very confirmatory of this point. He has been able to detect a persistent elevation of the general temperature of the body as the invariable accompaniment or pre- cursor of the growth of tubercle in any organ. This elevation he has found to exist for several weeks before diminished weight, or other physical signs, indicating Tubercular Phthisis of the lungs, could be appreciated. After a certain time, however, caseous infiltration be- came apparent by physical signs in the upper portion of the lungs. The writer has repeatedly verified these ob- servations in cases under his own treatment, and his prognosis has been modified in accordance with the strength of the evidence thus furnished. But in the common form a careful examination will discover the condensation of lung-tissue, or a cavity in the organ, or some other physical change there. Post-mortem Post-mortcm examiuatioDS of fatal cases Examinations, prove that Tubercular Phthisis is not a mere disease of the lungs, and afford evidence that these organs only furnish a specially suitable nidus for tuber- cular exudations; for, at the same time, various other organs of the body exhibit proof of the action of this destructive agent. In short, scarcely any organ escapes, and at last the patient succumbs not to one, but to many local affections.