On consumption and on certain diseases of the lungs and pleuræ / by R. Douglas Powell.

  • Powell, R. Douglas (Richard Douglas), Sir, 1842-1925.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On consumption and on certain diseases of the lungs and pleuræ / by R. Douglas Powell. 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.

    139/324 (page 117)
    cough mixtures are directly contra-indicated save at bed-time and then solely for the purpose of procuring rest. It is in these cases that inhalations are most useful, for,—firstly, there being- no actively spreading disease present, they are not con- tra-indicated : secondly, we can, by their use, render less no- cuous the pus that bathes the surfaces of the cavity and is apt to become inhaled into distant parts of the lung: thirdly, there can be little doubt that appropriate inhalations sometimes have a healing or alterative effect upon the internal surface of the cavity. The best substances for inhalation in these cases are, Iodine, (vapour iodi BP.) occasionally and for a short time : Carbolic acid, (glycerine of carbolic acid 3 i.— 3 ii. to half-a pint of hot water): Tar water (Liq. carbonis detergens 3 i. or 3 ii. to half-a-pint of hot water.) They may be taken very well from a deep jug or a Nelson's inhaler with the sponge removed. Perchloride of iron or other astringents may some- times be used with Siegle's spray apparatus, but I have myself hitherto been disappointed with the effects of atomised astrin- gents in pulmonary diseases, and doubt it they penetrate so far as vapours ordinarily inhaled. In favourable cases the secretion dries up and the cavity becomes quiescent. Unfavourable cases slowly lose ground from albuminoid disease of other organs, or from recurrent diarrhoea. Also, besides the tendency in all cases of phthisis for fresh lung to become involved from a distinct attack, there is in these cases a danger, not commonly recognised, of some of the abundant secretion becoming inhaled during cough into lower parts of the same, or of the opposite, lung, and thus setting up fresh centres of disease. The infra mammary region on the opposite side is a favourite seat for this secondary disease to appear. Haemoptysis is not common from either the quiescent or the secreting cavity, but it sometimes occurs in a dangerous and unexpected manner from the rupture of an ectasia or aneu-