Volume 1
A manual of medical treatment or clinical therapeutics / by I. Burney Yeo.
- Isaac Burney Yeo
- Date:
- 1902
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 University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![means of prophylaxis, but 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 prefers 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 former 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 quantit}^ 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 i)u]monary 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, sec the author's translation of Oertel's Respira- tory Therapeutics (Smith and Elder).](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21509311_0001_0715.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
