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DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF RESPIRATION. 367
ulcers or abscess. When large quantities of pus are
thrown off suddenly, we know it comes from abscess.
Bakers, stone-cutters, and others engaged in dusty
and unhealthy employments are subject to this dis
ease. It also arises from any of the causes above enu
merated.
Treatment the same as in the acute form, modified
to suit the strength and reactive power of the patient.
The wet jacket may be worn all the time with great ad
vantage. Any action of the skin relieves, if relief is pos
sible. But some cases resist all our efforts. Where
there is extensive thickening of the mucous membrane,
the result
or hardening of the substance of the lung,
must be ftital.
Pleurisy and Pneumonia—the inflammation of the
lining membrane of the lungs, and of their substance—
are so connected in their nature, causes, and treatment,
that we need not consider them apart. In the first the
pain is acute, hindering the action of the chest ; in the
latter it is deeper and duller, accompanied by a difficult
respiration.
In inflammation of the lungs,
we have several
stages ; congestion, marked by oppression ; inflamma
tion, with dull pain and a reddish expectoration ; hepa
tization, or hardening, with little expectoration ; soften
ing, with increased and reddish expectoration; resolu
tion, with mucous expectoration. There is much fever
and great distress.
Acute pneumonia may terminate in sudden death by
loss of function, in abscess, or in the chronic form of
the disease, when it is often mistaken for phthisis.
Pleurisy may end in effusion of water in the chest,