Consumption; its early and remediable stages.

  • Smith, Edward, 1818?-1874.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Consumption; its early and remediable stages. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    the results of individual cases with those obtained from large averages; and by this source of error we explain so much of that which all persons who practise spirometry have found fallacious in the system. Regarding the cases under discussion absolutely, we find a small vital capacity, and a smaller one than occurs in health, but what value must we attach to this fact ? It is too much the habit to regard lessened vital capacity as a permanent condition, whilst we venture to assert that it is often a temporary one, and one existing wherever there is long-continued lessening of the vital powers. We must not infer from the fact that the patient inspires only a given quantity, that the lungs could not admit a larger amount of air, for we have shown that the capability to inspire as fully as the lungs would admit depends upon important causes, apart from the structure of the lungs, some of which are irremediable for the moment, but remediable subsequently, whilst others show an improvement even during the examination. The power to inhale belongs to the former, and whilst it may be increased, it must increase by slow degrees. The appreciation of the right method of inspiring or expiring air, or, as it may be termed, the knack of respiring, maybe acquired more and more perfectly during each examination; and so much is this the case, that no one would take the first attempt as indicating the true vital capacity. It is constantly found that the result will vary 10 to 40 cubic inches at different efforts, and as we teach the patient, and he clearly apprehends what is required, we find evidence of larger vital capacity. The same observation will