Volume 1

The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others].

Date:
1908-1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    320/430 (page 294)
    The most frecjnent causes of bronchial catarrh are colds (caused by sudden cooling of the heated body, by drenching, or by the breathing of cold, damp air), and the inhalation of dust, smoke, or gas. Noxious gases are especially dangerous. The fumes of nitric and sulphuric acids, the vapours of bromine and chlorine, and the dust of vegetable detritus are all injurious. Mineral and metallic dusts, including those .which, owing to their sharp points and rough surfaces, greatly irritate the mucous membrane, and in jiart even directly injure it, are even more to be avoided. Certain trades, such as the stone-cutter’s, carpenter’s, miller’s, baker’s, paperhanger’s, turner’s, and file-cutter’s, are dangerous because of the contact with dust. Experience also shows that children, the aged, and persons affected with scrofula or with diseases of the heart or lungs, are much more liable to be attacked than thoroughly healthy persons in the prime of life. Acute bronchitis occasionally sets in with a sudden rise of the tempera- ture of the body, even with a violent chill. In many cases, however, it is entirely free from fever. If the affection is very severe, the general condi- tion is also impaired. The most essential symptoms are cough and expec- toration. The patients continually have the sensation of tickling in the throat and of soreness behind the upper part of the breast-bone, sometimes along the entire breast-bone ; they are tormented by an annoying irritation to cough, without, however, being able to expectorate much, at least not in the beginning. A so-called dry cough is present. The accumulation of viscid mucus in the bronchi causes, upon the passage of the respired air, the occurrence of humming sounds in the chest, which are often noted by the ])atient, and even some distance from him. So long as the cough is painful, and the sputum can be expectorated only with difficulty, the sleep of the patient is impaired. Solely as a result of the exertions to cough, and the consequent rush of blood to the head, there arise headache, a sensation of vertigo, nausea, and even vomiting. After a few days the sputum, which at the onset was viscid, mucous, and thread-like, usually becomes more fluid, mucopurulent, and sometimes altogether purulent. This causes the cough to become easier—more moist ; the catarrh is looser. Pains in the chest, which generally are present only in the more severe cases of bronchial catarrh, are not caused by the affected mucous membrane of the bronchi ; they are due to over-exertion of the diaphragm and of the muscles situated between the ribs, in consequence of violent paroxysms of cough. If the catarrh becomes localised in the finer branches of the bronchi, it is followed almost regularly by fever, and the respiratory disturbances may be marked. In children and old persons the affection may implicate the lungs [bronchopneumonia], where it will form scattered areas of inflamma- tion, thereby endangering life, especially in small children. The milder forms of an acute bronchial catarrh generally take a favourable course, and