Discussion on the varieties and treatment of asthma / by G. A. Gibson.

  • Gibson George Alexander, 1854-1913.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Discussion on the varieties and treatment of asthma / by G. A. Gibson. 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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    Jieirrinted from the Dnmsn Mkdicai, Jouhnal, Octoher 7th, 1011. DISCUSSION ON THE VARIETIES AND TREATMENT OF ASTHMA. Ill the Section of Medicine at the Animal Meeting of the Jiiitish Medical Association, Jlirmiiigham, 1911. OPENING PAPER. By G. A. Gibson, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P.Ed., Physician, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh. Its dramatic symptoms, its elusive pathology, its uncer- tain therapeutics may well be said to invest the subject of asthma with a cloud of mystery. As the mind of man has at all times delighted in attempts to look behind the veil which screens the unknown, there can be little wonder that the affection has exercised a fascination for the medical inquirer, and no more interesting topic could have been chosen for a discussion in this Section. It would obviously be out of place on such an occasion to submit a treatise on asthma. It will only be possible for me to lay before you some of the principal points con- nected with those iiarticular aspects of the subject with which you have asked me to deal. But, inasmuch as certain of these matters cannot be effectively grasped without clear conceptions of the physiological and patho- logical foundations on which our present knowledge and beliefs are built, it will be necessary for me, with your permission, to spend two or three minutes on a few inti’oductory considerations of this nature. The facts which furni.sh a physiological basis for the classification of the causes of asthma naturally fall into two groups. There are, first, certain mechanical arrange- ments for the aeration of the blood. The upper air passages are obviously intended to warm and purify the air as it is inspired, and these regions arc highly vascular, containing at the same time, in association with the blood supply, a considerable amount of erectile tissue. There is, therefore, in the arrangement of the structures, what may be looked upon as a defensive or protective mechanism. The lower air passages form practically two distinct categories —the larger tubes, with almost rigid walls, containing very little muscular tissue, and the smaller tubes, endowed with a considerable degree of contractility, and possessed [421/11]