Consumption : what it is, and what it is not, its causation and its remediability : a lecture / by John C. Ferguson.

  • Ferguson, John Creery.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Consumption : what it is, and what it is not, its causation and its remediability : a lecture / by John C. Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    subjected. Indeed, mercurialization itself appears to me of such potency for evil in the scrofulous habit, that it should be, if possible, religiously avoided. Particular occupations and social conditions of classes, irre- spective of atmospheric influences, of insufficient ventilation, or of impurity of air, are generally admitted, if not to be ca- pable of directly engendering scrofula, at least of producing that cachexia so favourable to its occurrence—diseased or perverted nutrition, in fact, thus entailed, being the origo mali. Before leaving this part of our subject, I would briefly allude to a few circumstances which, in my mind, merit considera- tion. The neglect of out-door exercise, irregularity in the hours of sleeping and waking, that too frequent fashion of our better classes of turning night into day, inattention to the healthy functions of the skin, exposure of parts of the body to vicissitudes of temperature, and, despite all that can be said to the contrary, sleeping in too low a range of tempera- ture, appear unquestionably to favour the development of tu- bercle in the predisposed. Every circumstance that impedes the free action of the muscles of respiration, such as tight lacing, unyielding supports in stays, &nd the like, should be carefully avoided. Nor should a class of causes be overlooked uhich it is too much to be feared are of more general and fre- quent occurrence than is believed. Inordinate indulgence of the passions and affections, depressing moral emotions, anxiety of mind, hope deferred, that “ maketh the heart sick,” and I must add, the unnatural and debasing vice of self-indulgence, have all no mean influence in the production of tubercle in the lung. I have thus endeavoured to enumerate those causes which have been, up to the present day, held by our recognised au- thorities as predisposing to, or actively operative in, the pro- duction of consumption. However, very recently, an autho- rity whose experience, deep research, profound erudition, and enthusiastic philanthropy all recognise; whose acquirements, professional and literary, none can respect, none admire more than I do; such an authority has startled us by the proposal, that we are to ignore all we heretofore thought we knew, and that we are to admit but one sole and universally operative cause, to the exclusion of every other. Foul and impure air,