636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



ducted with more regularity, made shorter, and done up more effectu- 

 ally " ("Medical Reform," p. 312). 



After the paroxysm of the disease has subsided, the pectoral fever 

 can be alleviated by the free use of cold water and strict abstinence 

 from solid food. Avoid over- warm bedclothing. By a load of warm 

 covers alone a common catarrh can be aggravated into a hot fever 

 till the blanket-smothered patient is awakened by the throbbing of a 

 galloping pulse. Exercise would promote the discharge of the ac- 

 cumulated serum, but, while the patient is too sore to turn over in his 

 bed, gymnastics are out of the question, and their effect must be ac- 

 complished by " passive exercise," manipulation of the thorax, and a 

 swinging motion in a hammock or a rocking easy-chair. With the 

 aid of fresh air and abstinence the remedies of the movement-cure 

 might be entirely dispensed with, if the accumulation of purulent 

 matter were the only risk, but in acute pleurisy there is a greater 

 danger from another cause, namely, that the inflamed surface of the 

 visceral pleura has a tendency to adhere to the lining of the thorax 

 and thus obliterate the pleural cavity. The consequences of that re- 

 sult would be a permanent embarrassment of breathing, or even the 

 total paralysis of the affected lung. Passive exercise and friction 

 (rubbing the less affected parts of the chest with a bathing -brush) 

 will, however, not fail to obviate that danger. As soon as Nature 

 finds relief in a copious expectoration, the crisis of the disease is 

 weathered, and further precautions may be limited to rest and a sparse 

 but emulsive diet — a modicum of sweet cream, with oatmeal-gruel 

 and stewed raisins. That pleurisy was formerly considered a most 

 fatal disease can be more than sufficiently explained by the fatal 

 measures of treatment which were then in vogue. Dr. Bucban's 

 " Family Medical Library," not more than thirty years ago about the 

 most popular pathological compend, contains the following directions : 

 " In the beginning of a pleurisy the only efficient course is to make 

 the patient stand up on the floor, while blood is drawn from a large 

 orifice until he faints or is about falling. ... If, after the first bleed- 

 ing, the pain, with the other violent symptoms, should still continue, 

 it will be necessary to take eight or nine ounces more. If the symp- 

 toms do not then abate, and the blood shows a strong buffy-coat, a 

 third or even a fourth bleeding may be requisite. . . . Topical bleeding 

 has also a good effect in this disease. It may be performed by apply- 

 ing a number of leeches to the parts affected, or by cupping, which is 

 both a more certain and expeditious method than the other, . . . Then, 

 take : Solution of acetated ammonia, three drachms ; mint-water, one 

 ounce ; tincture of opium, twenty-five drops ; sirup of tolu, two 

 drachms ; antimonial wine, thirty drops. Nothing is so certain to 

 give speedy and permanent relief as a combination of ipecac, calomel, 

 and opium." And in that form of the disease known as "bilious 

 pleurisy," " emetics and mercurial cathartics are of the utmost im- 



