The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 279 of 653justifiable to some extent at least, as acute rheumatisms occurepidemically at the same time. As a rule, primary pleuritis may,like peritonitis, be regarded as a rare disease.On the other hand, pleuritis as a complication or secondary 'aflection, is exceedingly frequent. All inflammatory pulmonaryaflfections, even hypersemia of more than ordinary extent, if occring near the surface of the lungs, develop pleuritis which isgenerally confined to a very limited space, but may likewise be vextensive and violent. Inflammatory aftections of the heart, moreparticularly of the pericardium, may lead to pleuritis. Acute326 Diseases of the Pleura.rheumatism and peritonitis, and likewise acute exanthemata, easilresult in the development of pleuritis. Among chronic affectionsthe following may occasion the disease : Pulmonary tuberculosis,pulmonary abscess, suppuration of the vertebrae and ribs, Bright'disease. The occurrence of pleuritis during the stage of convalescence in severe acute affections, in pyaemia and generally in discharacterized by marked signs of a septic condition of the blood,is a remarkable fact which does not admit of any further explanation. Like peritonitis, so pleuritis is superinduced in its worstand most extensive form by the intrusion of foreign substances inthe pleural cavity, most commonly by the effusion of pus from asuperficial cavern or from a suppurating bone.Symptoms and Course. The peculiarity of certain phenomenain a case of pleurisy can only be understood by an anatomicalanalysis of this process, on which account we premise a concisesketch of the same.By pleuritis we understand the deposition of an exudation uponthe free surface in the cavity of the pleura. As in every otherinflammation so we find here, at the outset, an hyperaemic condition of the cellular tissue situated under the pleura. This hyperaemia occurs most generally in striae or clusters, scarcely evera large extent, and very frequently exhibit-s small ecchymosicspots. It is from these hyperaemic centres that the exudation proceeds over the free surface. According to its constituent principthe exudation is generally distinguished in four different formswhich, however, cannot be rigorously separated from each other,but commingle in various ways. The fii*st form is the soplastic form, where a small quantity of a highly fibrinous exudatis deposited upon the free surface of the pleura as a pseudobrane which, by coalescing with the membrane on the opposite sideof the pleura, causes both sides of the pleural cavity to adherewithout any further complications. This process occurs very commonly in pneumonia, but likewise on other occasions with so fewsymptoms that it is placed beyond the reach of therapeutic definitions. The second form is the sero-plastic form. The exudationconsists of fibrin with which a more considerable quantity of seris commingled. This form has the exuded membranes of the firstform, but they are generally more extensive and thicker, and thepleural cavity contains an exudation of a yellow-green serum whicsometimes weighs several pounds and in which more or less copiousflocks of coagulated fibrin are seen floating. The copiousness ofhttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt