The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 268 of 653an effort to overcome it, and often leads to terrible dyspnoea duwhich he strains every muscle that can aid him in performing theact of respiration. At the commencement of the attack the cervicamuscles are put upon the stretch, whereas the thorax is less callinto requisition. This is owing to the fact that the expirationsless complete than the inspirations, in consequence of which theAsthma. 813lungs gradually become filled with air to such an extent that theedge of the liver is felt considerably below its normal line. Durthe attack percussion yields a normal sound, whereas auscultationreveals before the paroxysm, and always immediately after itsaccess, in the place of the vesicular respiratory murmur, wheezinhissing, and occasionally rattling sounds, that sometimes are louenough to be heard at a distance. That the patients look pale andsometimes have a bluish or livid appearance ; that a cold perspirtion breaks out on them ; that the temperature of the skin is lowthan usual; that the beats of the heart are much feebler andincrease in frequency ; and that the urine is frequently discharginvoluntarily, is easily accounted for by the extreme dyspnoea.After the attack has lasted one to four hours, or even longer, itdecrease manifests itself by a return of the vesicular respiratormurmur, and by a diminution of the wheezing and hissing sounds.The sensation of tightness sometimes disappears quite suddenly anat other times very gradually ; a cough sets in accompanied by thexpectoration of a small quantity of mucus; or violent eructationor vomiting, with emission of flatulence, may take place, afterwhich the patients often feel well again, except a lassitude thatmay continue for days. In other cases the paroxysm does not ceasealtogether, but abates for a longer or shorter period, which remision is again succceeded by a full attack of asthma, until, afterseveral remissions and exacerbations, which may continue forweeks, a complete intermission takes place.The course of such a disease varies according as the paroxysmsset in at longer or shorter periods. In proportion as the diseaselasts longer, the intermissions become shorter, the paroxysmsincrease in intensity, and structural changes in the lungs and hetake place which, in their turn, promote the disease. Emphysema,chronic bronchial catarrh, dilatation of the heart are very commoresults of asthma, which are easily mistaken for causes of the diease. A single paroxysm, no matter how violent, is not of itselfdangerous, provided the paroxysm does not develop preexistingconditions of apoplexy into a full attack. In the long run, however, asthma always becomes dangerous in consequence of the lesions which it occasions, and whiqh are so much more certain, themore violent the single paroxysms are.The termination of this aftection cannot be determined beforeliand. In many cases the paroxysms decrease at a more advancedage and finally disappear altogether; or else, they are replaced814 Diseases of the Lungs.pulmonary emphysema and its consequences. It is difficult to prohttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt