38G THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



though the hoarseness may afterwards return in a slight degree. Improvement of 

 the voice in the hot chamber may be taken as an indication that the bath has done 

 good, even though after the bath the hoarseness returns to a great extent. In 

 chronic cases several baths may be necessary to effect a cure. 



An inhalation of sulphurous acid often proves beneficial. A few drops of the 

 Pharmacopoeia solution are added to a jug of boiling water, and the steam is gently 

 inhaled. If carefully used, it excites hardly any irritation or annoyance. The 

 application of the sulphurous acid may be conducted as follows : Put a few hot 

 cinders into a kitchen shovel, and sprinkle them from time to time with flowers of 

 sulphur, till the room is not inconveniently filled with the smoke. The fumes of the 

 acid are likely to act injuriously on steel or on gilt. The treatment is best conducted 

 in an empty room. 



A solution of alum, ten grains to the ounce, often proves of use when employed 

 in the form of spray. 



It has been found that a piece of borax, the size of a pea, allowed to dissolve in 

 the mouth, restores the voice sometimes like magic, in cases of sudden hoarseness 

 brought on by cold, and frequently, for an hour or so, renders the voice quite clear. 



LUMBAGO. (See RHEUMATISM, MUSCULAR.) 



LUNGS DISEASES OF THE LUNGS. 



The diseases of the lungs most frequently met with are consumption, bronchitis, 

 pleurisy, pneumonia, and asthma. Strictly speaking, asthma should not be regarded as a 

 chest complaint, but as an affection of the nervous system, it being obviously more closely 

 allied to such paroxysmal complaints as epilepsy, megrim, and angina pectoris than 

 to bronchitis, pleurisy, and consumption. The great bulk of the patients who apply 

 for relief at our chest hospitals are suffering either from consumption or chronic 

 bronchitis. The form of chronic bronchitis, known as winter cough, is especially 

 prevalent among the London poor who are much exposed to hardship and privation, 

 and the same patients come under observation year after year, always obtaining 

 relief, but never a cure. Only the other day an old woman informed us that for 

 twenty-nine consecutive winters she had been an out-patient at the same hospital for 

 her cough and breathing. 



The symptoms of which patients with lung mischief most frequently complain are 

 cough, accompanied by expectoration, shortness of breath, spitting of blood, night 

 sweats, and loss of flesh. Sharp cutting pains in the side are of common occurrence 

 in pleurisy and inflammation of the lungs, whilst dull aching pains under the collar- 

 bones are not uncommon in consumption. The mere appearance of a patient will, 

 in many instances, enable us to form some idea of the nature of his complaint. For 

 instance, a tall, thin young man enters the room, and as he walks up to the table 

 and we notice his want of muscular development and general feebleness, we have 

 no difficulty in deciding that in all probability he is the subject of consumption. 

 Following him comes a great big burly fellow, evidently a navvy, and as we mark his 



