A lecture on the importance of a knowledge of physical science to the members of all professions : being introductory to a course of lectures on the application of acoustics to the discovery of chest diseases, delivered to members of the medical profession, and of the Philosophical Institution, at Birmingham / by Peyton Blakiston.

  • Blakiston, Peyton, 1801-1878.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the importance of a knowledge of physical science to the members of all professions : being introductory to a course of lectures on the application of acoustics to the discovery of chest diseases, delivered to members of the medical profession, and of the Philosophical Institution, at Birmingham / by Peyton Blakiston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    the victims of pulmonary consumption alone, that scourge of our large manufacturing towns. How insidious but how sure are the approaches of this devastating malady, gradually entwining its victims in its meshes, until it has woven around them a net from which no earthly power can extricate them! It is not a mere sweeping blast which whirls from the stem the petals of the more than matured flower, but it is the canker in the bud which gnaws around the half-developed leaves, and causes them to drop off almost as soon as their beauties have been revealed to the light. For here Death is dainty and fastidious in the selection of the victims he dooms for sacrifice. He grasps not the aged and infirm, who in the natural order of things lie nearest to his hand, but passes on to the young and beautiful, at the very period when their minds are expanding, and opening to new and fascinating views of prospec- tive happiness. To make the sacrifice complete, the victim, decked with wreaths and garlands, is led to the altar unconscious of his im- pending fate; for how often in this disease does the eye glisten with unusual brightness, while the cheek is painted with the delicate bloom of the rose, and lighted up with the soft smile of hope that remains till the last! To all but its victim, this fatal malady tells its own tale, when it has reached an advanced period of its develoj)ment; and although even then it may be wondrously suspended or altogether restrained, yet the extreme rarity of such results forbids our calculating on them with even an approach to certainty. In its earlier stages, however, much, I had almost said every thing, may be done in the way of prevention; who would not then rejoice to learn that there were means of detecting its approaches at such a period as to afford some hopes of their being arrested ? Persons thus interested will see here how the frame of the chest and the organs contained in it, are constructed; how their functions are performed, and the nature of those physical alterations which are pro- duced in them by disease. They will learn somewhat of the laws of Physics, more especially Acoustics, most of which will be deduced from experiments performed under their eyes. They will thus under- stand in what manner physical alterations in the organs of respiration and circulation give rise to physical signs, which must be interpreted in accordance with the laws which govern matter in general; and will