The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 214 of 653Pneumonia. 247impossible to stand erect. We will now first describe the courseof pneumonia in the case of a robust and sound individual, andwill append to it the description of various deviations.As soon as the chill which almost always lasts several hours andscarcely ever only a few minutes, is over, a violent, dry feversets in, and the pulse becomes more or less accelerated, fuller amore tense, but very seldom exceeds the number of 100 beats. Thetemperature is always raised a few degrees. The face which duringthe chill has an almost cadaverous appearance, now becomes flushesometimes only on one side ; the cheeks are bright-red, the eyesinjected, and very commonly some headache is felt, and the patiengenerally feels thirsty, but is very seldom disposed to vomit. Thappetite is at once gone, and owing to the intense fever, all thesecretions are suspended. The patient feels more exhausted thanhe really is. This condition which is as yet free from all localsymptoms, may last longer than twenty-four hours, but in such acase the local symptoms appear at an earlier period; in rare casethey precede the chill. The patient complains of unceasing stitching pains which he generally points out with tolerable accuracy aexisting at the affected spot, very seldom far removed from it ;are aggravated by every unusual exertion of the respiratory organespecially by coughing, and they sometimes increase to a highdegree of intensity The pain usually sets in associated with ashort and at first dry cough, the respiratory movements are muchless full and more frequent in number. The breathing is not onlypainful and accelerated on this account, but the violent fever liwise occasions an increased desire for breath which cannot be grafied and causes great restlessness and anxiety and a marked activity of all the other respiratory muscles which are not usually veseriously taxed in performing the respiratory movements. Theseexertions are generally so striking that pneumonia can be recognifrom this very fact, more especially from the flapping of the alnosi during an inspiration. Vocalization is of course altered, feand shorter, and frequently interrupted.Soon after the cough has begun to set in, the patient begins toexpectorate ; this expectoration is important as a diagnostic sigIt is scanty, very tenacious, and usually intimately mixed withblood from the commencement, which imparts to it the color ofrust, or brick-dust ; this color is scarcely ever absent in the cyoung, robust individuals. At this stage the physical symptomshave so far advanced that they render the diagnosis perfectly248 Diseases of the Lungs.certain. During the first daj^s the fever gradually increases, shing but slight morning-remissions. Considering the high degreeof temperature, the pulse is not so very frequent, scarcely everexceeding 120 beats , however, in proportion as the parenchymabecomes more infiltrated, the fulness of the pulse decreases considerably.The end of the inflammatory infiltration generally designateshttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt