II. Of the Modification of Treatment in Thoracic Affection.
Fortunately, there is a remedy nearly as powerful and efficacious in intense thoracic affection, as blood-letting and the cold dash are in the cerebral. In the severe bronchial affection of fever, blood-letting is of little avail. It seems to have scarcely any control over the peculiar affection of the lining membrane of the bronchial tubes, or even over the inflammation of the substance of the lung, which so often accompanies the intense form of thoracic disease. It weakens the patient, without making a decided impression upon the disease. Laennec states that the pathology of pneumonia could scarcely be learnt under his practice; for that he treated the disease, not by blood-letting, but by tartar emetic; and that all his patients recovered. I thought this one of the exaggerated statements in which medical writers sometimes delight to indulge; but it immediately occurred to me that this remedy might prove exceedingly efficacious in the bronchitis of fever. Its efficacy has surpassed my expectation. It seldom fails if exhibited with promptitude and decision. The mode in which it is most efficiently administered, is in doses of two grains, dissolved in an ounce of water, and repeated every second, third, fourth, or sixth hour, according to the severity of the case.
In the slight bronchial affection, which is so constantly present in fever, nothing is required but the mucilage of gum-arabic, or a little of the almond emulsion now and then, with the tincture of hyosciamus, or two or three grains of the compound powder of ipecacuanha, to allay the irritation of the cough. The inflammation of the mucous membrane, when slight, spontaneously subsides.