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DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF RESPIRATION. 371
still better, take packs, may be cured. But it is of little
use to try the water, if the diet is not attended to. In
one case, I was able to give only blanket packs, followed
by a full cold bath, and much rubbing. Every sweat
acted like a charm.
Consumption is a name which applies to any wasting
disease, but it is specially confined to diseases of the
lungs. Considering chronic bronchitis as a separate
disease, we may restrict the designation to pulmonary
or tubercle. The latter is
abscess, from pneumonia
called phthisis, or scrofulous consumption ; though
scrofula may be as clearly the cause of abscess from
inflammation as tubercle. In every case, there is a
destruction of the lungs from the gathering of morbid
matter.
Consumption is a disease of hereditary taint and pre
disposition. The very infinitesimal germ or zoosperm,
is tainted, diseased, scrofulous, and consumptive. Na
ture, in all cases, makes an effort to protect her new
beings, and this effort is often successful. The child
may be saved from its parents' diseases. The placenta
may protect the foetus from the morbid matters in the
blood of the mother. She may be wise enough not to
allow it to nurse. The scrofulous matter may be ex
pelled by the diseases of infancy. These things take
place under favorable circumstances, and where nature
works with a certain degree of energy ; but they are
not to be depended upon.
Abscess, from inflammation of the lungs, may be
cured. It may break into the pleural cavity, and the
pus be absorbed, or find an outward opening, or it may
open into the air passages, and be thrown off by expec-