A demonstration of the curability of pulmonary consumption : in all its stages. Comprising an inquiry into the nature, causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention of tuberculous diseases in general / By Wm. A. M'Dowell, M.D.

  • M'Dowell, William A. (William Adair), 1795-1853.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A demonstration of the curability of pulmonary consumption : in all its stages. Comprising an inquiry into the nature, causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention of tuberculous diseases in general / By Wm. A. M'Dowell, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    472. The well-known benefit which is derived from long voyages should admonish us that violent or harsh exercise, is not demanded: no exercise is more gentle than that of sailing. 473. Exercise never should be to a degree that materially hurries the circulation through the lungs, choked up, as they are, with deposits of solid matter; their respiratory functions are at all times impeded, and when hurried, by determining the impure blood too rapidly upon them, it is liable to pass insufficiently decarbonized, and to irritate and disorder other organs of the system. Excessive exercise, I am disposed to believe is one of the most injurious and most common errors in the treatment of phthisis. SUMMARY. 474. In treatment of consumption, I have en- deavored to prove that our views should be directed mainly to correct the degeneration of the blood. 475. I have also endeavored to establish the fact that this potent, vital stimulant, when in its purity, and constituted of its natural principles in due propor- tions, is competent to excite the natural functions to the removal of all ordinary obstacles to regular and healthy action. 476. Evidences have been adduced to prove that changes may be effected in the blood, by which the important functions of absorption and nutrition, the functions by which the system is made and unmade, can be so modified that on one hand solid deposits from the blood may come to be made in the tissues of the body, (tubercles,) and there remain unabsorbed