Volume 1

A manual of medical treatment, or, Clinical therapeutics / by I. Burney Yeo.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A manual of medical treatment, or, Clinical therapeutics / by I. Burney Yeo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    713/726 (page 695)
    means of prophylaxis, biit many Continental physicians maintain that it is efficacious also in the treatment of certain forms of chronic phthisis. Jaccoud asserts that it should be applied, either by the portable apparatus or in the pneumatic chamber, during the whole period of the initial apyretic phase of phthisis. He jjref ers the apparatus* which allows of the inspiration of compressed air, and expiration into rarefied air. He maintains that its minimum effect is to retard considerably the extension of the disease, and this effect he believes to be constant; in a certain number of cases, in from six weeks to three months, he has observed a distinct diminution in the extent of the pre-existing changes, so that they have receded to only one-half their foi'mer extent; and in a few exceptional cases, falling under the category of apex catarrhs, he has observed an entire disappearance of all physical signs of disease. Inspiration of compressed air leads to a more complete expansion and a more perfect ventilation of the lungs ; it increases the intrathoracic respiratory pressure, and quickens the pulmonary circulation. The frequency of respiration and of the pulse is lowered, while the force of the latter is increased ; an increased quantity of oxygen is absorbed into the blood, and an increased quantity of carbonic acid is expired; these conditions are favourable to the maintenance of nutritive activity, and unfavourable to the develop- ment of microbes. Expiration into rarefied air leads to more perfect expiratory contraction, and consequently to a diminu- tion in the residual air, and, therefore, to more com- plete ])ulmonary ventilation. Both processes tend to more perfect expansion and ventilation of the lungs, and more perfect aeration of the blood. Judiciously-arranged gymnastic exercises, walking * For a full description of all the apparatus used in pneu- matic treatment, see the author's translation of Oertel's Resnira- tory Therapeutics (Smith and Elder).