Instructions for the relief of the sick poor, in some diseases of frequent occurrence: addressed to a parochial clergyman, residing at a distance from professional aid / By a physician.

Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Instructions for the relief of the sick poor, in some diseases of frequent occurrence: addressed to a parochial clergyman, residing at a distance from professional aid / By a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Habitual cough and expectoration; a sense of oppression or pain in some part of the chest; languor and general debility, with a tendency to emaciation, are symptoms characteristic of the incipient stage of Pulmonary Consumption. To these symptoms are sometimes superadded spit- ting of blood. As the disease advances, the cough becomes more troublesome, and the expectoration in- creases ; and what is expectorated is of a thicker consistence, and is more or less lumpy, and more or less discoloured. The respiration becomes more difficult, and the general debility greater. At the same time, the pulse becomes quicker, with flushing of the cheeks, burning heat of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, and other symptoms of fever ; which is observed to come on twice in the day, viz. about noon, and in the early part of the evening. The feverish symptoms continue throughout a great part of the night, and are succeeded in the morning by profuse sweats. This is what is termed Hectic Fever. In this stage of the disorder, ulcera- tions and small abscesses are formed in the lungs, and the expectoration is evidently purulent. The emaciation and debility go on continually increasing, while the cough and fever deprive the patient of sleep. At length a diarrhoea,