Definitions Illustrations of degrees—Galloping Consumption—Acute Tuberculosis-Scrofulous Pneumonia-More chronic and limited forms—Progress of the disease-Power of Medicine-Unity but not uniformity of Phthisis.
THE DISEASE, too well known to the public, as well as to the medical profession, as PULMONARY CONSUMPTION, is characterised by the symptoms, persistent cough, expectoration of opaque matter, sometimes of blood; a progressive loss of flesh, breath, and strength; often hectic fever, night sweats, and diarrhoea; and the common tendency of the disease is to a wasting of the body and a decline of its powers, down to its termination in death.
Pathologically considered, pulmonary consumption is characterised by certain changes in the textures of the lungs, consisting chiefly of consolidations, granular or diffused, which irritate their functions and clog their structures, and which proceed to further changes, of degeneration, disintegration, and excavation of some parts, and of induration and contraction of others-all tending to a disorganisation of the lungs, and a wasting away of the flesh and blood of the body.
It is this tendency to degeneration and destruction, which stamps the consuming character of the disease; and the more strongly this tendency is manifested, the