Outline of an inquiry on the pathology of consumptive diseases. Part 2 / by John Abercrombie.

Date:
[1822?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outline of an inquiry on the pathology of consumptive diseases. Part 2 / by John Abercrombie. 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.

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    OUTLINE OF AN INQUIRY INTO THE PATHOLOGY OF CONSUMPTIVE DISEASES, PART II. CpROM the facts which were stated in the former part of this Inquiry, it appears that cough, purulent expectoration, hectic fever and wasting, do not necessarily constitute the true consumption of the lungs. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that all these symptoms may proceed from va- rious other morbid affections; some of them as untractable as the true consumption, but others affording a much more favour- able prognosis; and that all of them may be fatal with the usual symptoms of consumption, and yet the substance of the lungs be found entirely free from disease. Farther, it is in the high- est degree probable that suppuration may take place in the substance of the lungs themselves; that the matter may be spit up, and the abscess heal as favourably as a healthy abscess in any other part of the body. This favourable termination does not, indeed, take place in every case of this kind; for the dis- ease may be so extensive, and the strength of the patient so re- duced, that he may sink under the most healthy suppuration of