PNEUMONIA. 99 



and diuretic medicine. ' What I call the Plummer^s ball 

 (composed of — Hj^d. Chlorid. gr. x; Ant. Oxy- Sulphur et. 9j ; 

 Guaiac. 3ij ; Far. Avense, 5iij ; Terebinth.Vulg. q. s. ut f. Bol.) 

 will prove of the greatest service^ not by only very gradually, 

 in the course of time, affecting slightly the mouth, and so 

 promoting absorption to a great degree; but, at the same 

 time, by producing copious diuresis, and in that way carrying 

 off that which might otherwise be deposited within the parts 

 immediately diseased, or into the cavities. 



PNEUMONIA. 



By PNEUMONIA — from the Latin — we wish to be under- 

 stood to express, either the condition of congestion or that of 

 inflammation of the lungs. 



Pathology. — The lungs being organs at once sui generis 

 and extremely varied structure, will be found to be subject to 

 diseases numerous as compared with those of other viscera, 

 and more diversified in their character. The bronchial tubes 

 constitute one division of their composition ; the air-cells, in 

 which the tubes terminate, another portion; their blood- 

 vessels, a third division ; the inter-connecting parenchyma- 

 tous substance, a fourth ; which four integral and principal 

 fabrics are again distinct from the cellular and pleural 

 membranes. Having already described one prevalent disease 

 of the pulmonary system — b7'onchitis ; we come to one exclu- 

 sively belonging to the pulmonary organ* itself — pneumonia; 

 which will be found to differ from the former, in being less 

 painful and irksome to the animal, in consequence of the tissue 

 in which it is principally seated being known to be possessed, 

 either in health or disease, but of comparatively little sensibility. 



On this account, so obscure are often the symptoms of 

 pneumonia, whenever the parenchyma is exclusively affected, 

 or principally so, that it not unfrequently becomes au affair of 

 doubt in the mind of the attendant practitioner whether the 

 lungs be actually suffering from disease or not : hence such 

 cases have obtained the appellation of the insidious or obscure 

 form of pneumonia. Should the bronchi, however, parti- 



/ 



