An inaugural dissertation on pulmonary consumption

by Edward Delafield

Nor is the place assigned by him to Phthisis Pulmonalis, in his Nosological Arrangement, more correct than his definition of it. He places it in the order Hæmorrhagiæ, and considers it merely as a consequence of Hæmoptysis. Even if it were always excited by hæmorrhage from the lungs, it would be improperly thus placed; but as that, even by Dr. Cullen, is considered merely as one among many exciting causes, the arrangement is altogether inadmissible. But if it be admitted, according to the view which will be hereafter taken of Hæmoptysis in this treatise, that it is rather a symptom than a cause of Consumption, the propriety of another arrangement will be evident. Accordingly Phthisis Pulmonalis is placed by Dr. Hosack, as one of the Phlegmasiæ. This disposition appears to be the most proper that has hitherto been suggested, and as such I shall adopt it. But before we can ascertain the character and treatment of any diseases, it is necessary minutely to examine their causes and symptoms.

Primary Phthisis Pulmonalis first claims our attention. Its predisposing causes may be mostly arranged into five classes, as they depend on organization, age, sex, occupation and climate.

Organization predisposes to Consumption, by mal-conformation of the chest, which may be either natural or accidental; and an hereditary internal structure not depending on the external form of the thorax. For it is observed, that in some instances, those who have every part of the external configuration, such as is generally attributed to persons predisposed to Consumption, yet shall be free from this disease; while on the other hand, some whose chests are externally perfectly well formed, have been subject to catarrhal and inflammatory complaints of the lungs, terminating in Phthisis. The form of chest peculiar to many Phthisical patients, “is occasioned by the sternal or breast-bone being pressed too much in upon the substance of the lungs: thus the clavicles and shoulder-blades are thrust out of their proper position, and made to assume, in some measure, the form of wings, to which indeed they have been with propriety compared, just raised from the body and about to expand for flight. By this internal direction of the sternum, the full expansion and proper sweep of the ribs is likewise prevented, and an unnatural curvature or prominence is occasioned on either side of the breast, with a corresponding central depression.”[4] This is the peculiar form to which the term narrow chest is generally applied. A flattened or any other unnatural figure of the chest may produce the same injury.

The thorax may become accidentally malformed from any violence done to it, particularly during infancy. A frequent source of it is the mode of fashionable dress adopted by females. The corset, to which I allude, when worn only with moderate firmness, and by those not otherwise predisposed to Phthisis, serves but to add elegance and beauty to the female figure; but when applied with the object of converting into a delicate and slender waist, one naturally otherwise, it cannot but do injury. By immoderate pressure, it converts a well formed chest into the deformed and narrow one, or at least an approximation to it, which has just been described. In our own city and time, too many fatal examples of the deleterious effects of this fashion have occurred, to permit us to retain any doubts on the subject.

The internal constitution of the body predisposing to Phthisis, independent of external form, has been generally attributed to scrophula. English authors are particularly fond of making Consumption another form of that Protæan disease. We are much disinclined to concur in this opinion from the fact, that the mass of those who labour under the disease in question, and cases too, which, after death show that tuberculated state of the lungs, generally ascribed to scrophula, evince no other of the numerous symptoms of that disorder. The supposition that tubercles were scrophulous, probably originated from the opinion that they are diseased glands; an idea now sufficiently exploded. This hereditary predisposition we know to exist, but of its mode of action we are totally ignorant. In this city there are many melancholy examples of whole families successively falling victims to Consumption, and sufficiently proving its hereditary nature. But an hereditary predisposition does not necessarily produce Consumption. It is not uncommon for parents who inherit this taint, to remain free from disease of the lungs, by the pursuit of laborious occupations. Nor is it more uncommon that the children of these very parents, whose active industry had preserved their lives, and amassed them wealth, should by being enabled to indulge in ease and luxury, fall victims to an inherited Consumption.

So the females of a family are sometimes all consumptive, while the males are free from pulmonary disease, in consequence of the more sedentary mode of life of the former.

Although no period of life, from infancy to old age, is exempt from Consumption, but all are liable to its attack, yet at a particular age, it is observed to appear more frequently than at any other. This period commences about, or soon after the age of puberty, and terminates at thirty-six; the period at which inflammatory diseases most generally occur.

Sex also gives a predisposition to Consumption. Females are more frequently affected by it than males. This may be attributed to their greater delicacy of constitution, and nervous temperament. Their comparatively sedentary habits of life add to this peculiar constitution. But improper compliance with the requisitions of fashion and taste constitutes not a small part of the greater susceptibility of females to Phthisis. Independent of the use of corsets, the small quantity of clothing frequently worn by them, under circumstances when it is most necessary, is a fruitful source of mischief to their health. In the coldest of our winter nights, will these fair devotees of fashion issue from rooms, heated to a degree never experienced in our hottest weather, into the chilling air of midnight, with less clothing than they use at noon, when the sun exerts his greatest power. The next day brings with it “a violent cold,” and this cold is too frequently the foundation of the Consumption which destroys them.

Occupation in life is another source of the ravages of this disease. Particular occupations subject those engaged in them to the respiration of air impregnated with foreign materials, irritating the lungs, either by their chemical or mechanical action. Substances acting mechanically upon the lungs, are inhaled by stone-cutters, millers, hair-dressers, bolters, coal-heavers, scythe-grinders, persons engaged in pointing needles, chimney-sweepers, dressers of flax and feathers, spinners in wool, and others employed in similar occupations. Chemical agents are taken into the lungs by manufacturers of acids, and all other volatile corroding substances. These materials constantly acting upon the lungs, produce irritation and slight inflammation, terminating in Phthisis. The operation of any of these causes is favoured when the occupation requires a stooping or other awkward posture of the body to be maintained. This cause may act independently of the former also, and hence, students, and clerks writing at their desks, taylors, shoemakers, &c. are liable to this disease. To the same causes are frequently added, a sedentary life, and confinement in hot rooms; hence “a surgeon of London whose opportunities of observation are very extensive, relates of the gilders of that city, who work in heated rooms, that six out of seven are said to die consumptive in their apprenticeship.” Sedentary habits of life, accompanied with hard study, and too intense application of mind, predispose literary men to Consumption. Loud public speaking, blowing on wind instruments, glass blowing and other circumstances requiring a laborious and continued action of the lungs, produce the same effect. Any one of these causes may frequently exist without injury, but their combined action seldom fails to produce pulmonary disease.

Climate was enumerated under the predisposing causes of Phthisis. That of our own latitude affords an example. Its variableness, increased by contiguity to the ocean, together with the prevalence of the moist and chilling north-east winds, is probably the agent which produces this effect. The climate of Great Britain is not less unfavourable to health, from similar causes, with the addition of its greater moisture; for it is observed that cold combined with moisture is peculiarly dangerous to the consumptive. On the other hand, inland countries, not exposed to the moist winds from the ocean, are free from this disease. Hence, the inhabitants of Russia and other parts of the north of Europe, notwithstanding the severity of their climate, are very little affected by Consumption. The habits of the people, probably assist in producing this immunity from pulmonary disease. Sir John Sinclair, in a communication to Dr. Reid, attributes it in a great measure to the employment of furs, cloaks and other modes of clothing, which preserve an uniformity of warmth throughout the body; to the great care taken by all classes of people to preserve their feet from cold and damp; to the different modes of communicating heat to their apartments; and to the constant use of the vapour bath. Similar observations were made by Dr. Cogan, who in a letter to Dr. Beddoes, remarks that the people of Holland are exempt in a great degree from this disease, so prevalent among the English, and ascribes the difference to the contrast observable between the two countries, in the construction of their habitations, and in the peculiarities of dress.