The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 212 of 653cold is such a frequent cause of pneumonia ; it unfortunately isconvenient to attribute pneumonia to it. In the absence of otherconstitutional predispositions it is only a very violent cold thacapable of causing pneumonia; even in such a case we would notregard the cold as a cause of the disease, unless it had taken plno later than eighteen hours before the commencement of the disease. Mechanical injuries, more especially a violent blow or kickmay likewise give rise to pneumonia ; noxious agents acting direcupon the lungs, such as irritating gases, excessive cold or heat,likewise excite the disease. A real predisposition to pneumoniawill very seldom be met with; but it cannot be denied that thetreatment of pneilmonia with debilitating drugs, more especiallysanguineous depletions, always leaves an increased disposition tosimilar attacks. • In the case of tuberculous patients a dispositcannot well be shown, they are more easily attacked with bronchitis. It likewise seems an established fact that individuals wia preeminently arterial habit are more liable than others, and thPneumonia. 245for instance, emphysematous individuals with venous constitutionsare not often attacked with pneumonia.Secondary pneumonia is frequently an exclusively consecutiveaffection, originating in the spread of inflammatory affections tlungs. It is particularly met with among children, much less frequently among adults, and occurs as a complication of all possiblacute diseases, particularly exanthems. Pyaemia is one of the mosfrequent causes of secondary pneumonia. In chrdnic affections italways a very dubious undertaking to show their connection withintercurrent pneumonia.Pathologico^anatomical Changes* We give a descriptionof these changes, because they facilitate a comprehension of theapparent symptoms.For the sake of facilitating a methodical arrangement of thepathological changes, the pathological process has been divided ithree different stages which, however, are not so rigidly distinguished from each other in reality, and often run a parallel courThe first stage is that of bloody infiltration. On opening thethorax the affected part of the lungs does not collapse ; the plecovering this part is usually opaque, the elasticity ^-t this parmore or less completely lost, and the color is sometimes muchdarker. Otf cutting into the lungs, only a feeble or no crepitatiis heard. The cut surface is of a strikingly dark redness, usuallin sharp contrast with the sound portion ; on pressing upon it adark-red or brownish, viscid, tenacious fluid is squeezed out. Thtissue is dense. The weight of the affected portion is much moreconsiderable than its normal weight, and in water this portionimmediately sinks to the bottom of the vessel.The second stage comprehends the period when the process ofexudation is completed, and is generally designated as the stagered hepatization. The affected portion feels dense and hard ; thepleura over it has almost always lost its lustre and is thinly cowith exudation. It exhibits all the signs of the first stage poinhttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt