The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 219 of 653Pneumonia. 253be apprehended if pneumonia eontinuefl beyond the ninth day withconsiderable febrile motions, and, unless we examine the symptomsvery accurately, a progression of the pneumonia alone may deceiveus for a short time. Upon the accession of this purulent metamorphosis the fever always assumes a marked adynamic character, andthe process henceforward bears a striking resemblance to typhus.The fever increases very considerably, the number of pulsationsfrequently exceeds that of 120 beats which is the normal numberfor adults in a case of pneumonia, and at the same time becomessmall and feeble, Not unfrequently the burning heat is mingledwith short chills. The tongue which, even in a violent case ofpneumonia, seldom becomes dry previous to the stage of purulentmetamorphosis, resembles the tongue in typhus, and the supervention of delirium makes the resemblance to typhus still more striking, so that on first seeing the patient an error in diagnosis iseasy, especially if diarrhoea is present. It is only the physicalexploration of the chest, together with the previous history of tdisease that affords certainty in such a case. Percussion does noyield exclusively an empty, but likewise a tympanitic sound. Auscultation reveals beside bronchial respiration, more or less extesive, consonant rales. The air passes through a fluid,but the gencondition of the patient shows that no process of reabsorption isgoing on ; this is likewise evidenced by the expectoration whichis at times pure pus, at other times mixed with blood and has ofta very offensive odor. If the pathological process takes this turlife is always in great danger. Recovery always takes place veryslowly, with frequent variations between worse and better days,and is frequently protracted for months. Death sometimes takesplace already in the second week and at other times at a muchlater period. It sometimes sets in quite suddenly, while oedema othe lungs is supervening, and sometimes slowly in consequence ofgeneral exhaustion associated with the formation of abscess organgrene, neithe: o( which, however, can be diagnosed with reliable certainty during the lifetime of the patient; for foul sputaare no sure indication of gangrene, and an abscess cannot be recognized with positive certainty until it begins to discharge andpatient raises a quantity of purdlent matter.Another, not less important, but much lees frequent form of theexudation-metamorphosis is chronic pneumonia. That a chronic,non-tubercular process of infiltration can take place in the lungcannot well be doubted; but it is a rare occurrence, and a reliab254 Diseases of the Lungs.diagnosis cannot often be established in such cases. Hence, in thplace, we simply speak of chronic pneumonia resulting Ironi auacute attack. It exhibits essentially all the so-called metamorjiof pneumonic infiltration, except in a less acute form, and, on taccount, with less immediate danger to the nrescrvation of theorganism. Either we notice a,, simple infiltration at some particspot, which had remained after an acute attack and which eitherdoes not affect the organism or else keeps it in a long-http://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt