CONSUMPTION OF THE LUNGS. 



great efforts in running, singing, dancing, or to drink hot or spirituous 

 beverages. Chilling of the skin is to be guarded against with the ut- 

 most care, and the patient should be made to wear flannel next the 

 skin. What we have already said regarding the prophylaxis against 

 pulmonary hypaeremia and bronchial catarrh is equally applicable in 

 the present instance. 



Finally, whenever there is the slightest suspicion of a predispo- 

 sition to consumption, every catarrh, no matter how slight, is to be 

 treated with the utmost care, which is not to be relaxed until the 

 catarrh is entirely well. This rule, so obvious from our point of view, 

 is very frequently violated. Many patients fall a victim to the deeply- 

 rooted prejudice, that a neglected catarrh never leads to consumption. 



The rules which we have laid down for the prevention of phthisis 

 must be carried out with equal strictness, whether the disease have 

 merely just commenced, or whether it already have made some prog- 

 ress. It is, therefore, superfluous to make separate mention of the 

 indications derived from the cause, as they are identical with those of 

 prophylaxis. 



When the air-vesicles of the lung become involved in the bronchia] 

 catarrh, the indicatio morbi calls for the usual remedies applicable to 

 chronic inflammation. Above all, the affected lung, like any other in- 

 flamed organ, is to be shielded from the action of any new irritation. 

 It is incredible how much this simple rule (so obvious where the nature 

 of phthisis is rightly understood) is disregarded by many physicians. 

 It is a matter of daily occurrence that patients from the better class, 

 Buffering from advanced consumption, are not sufficiently urged by 

 their physician to withdraw from their occupation, to throw up their 

 position at the counting-house or office, and to keep away from club- 

 rooms, with their over-heated and tobacco-laden atmosphere. It is 

 often by exposure to irritants like the above, whose effect is so very 

 injurious to the inflamed lung, that the extension of the inflammatory 

 product is aggravated and made to terminate in disorganization, while, 

 by their careful avoidance, the disease is often promptly arrested and 

 brought to a favorable issue. The beneficial effect obtained in con- 

 sumption, by protecting the affected lung from further detriment, is 

 still more marked among the poorer classes, who seek aid at the hos- 

 pitals. Many patients are received in a condition so wretched that a 

 speedy death seems imminent, and yet they leave the institution, in 

 the course of a few weeks or months, in much stronger and better con- 

 dition, and often with a material increase in weight. Soon, however, 

 they return, seeking readmission, their condition having grown rapidly 

 worse again, owing to inclemency of the weather, and to other noxious 

 influences, to which they have been exposed. 



