Consumption curable : the manner in which nature and remedial art operate in effecting a healing process in cases of consumption, and by which the development of tubercles may be prevented / by Francis Hopkins Ramadge.

  • Ramadge, Francis Hopkins, 1793-1867.
Date:
[1839?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Consumption curable : the manner in which nature and remedial art operate in effecting a healing process in cases of consumption, and by which the development of tubercles may be prevented / by Francis Hopkins Ramadge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    tained by individuals of the highest rank, and that Dr. R. is now, and has been for several years past, the Senior Physician. Another friend has just sent me a letter, from which I extract the following statement, copied from a foreign paper, confirmatory of Dr. Ramadge's views : When we breathe, we take into the chest or inhale, and give out a certain quantity of air, which can be measured by breathing through a curved tube, into a bell glass of water, inverted over a pneumatic tub. Dr. Herbst, of Gottingen, has lately baen performing some curious experiments in relation to the quantity of air that is breathed. Now, a person of any understanding will appreciate from them the comfort of full and unrestrained breathing. Dr. Herbst says, that a middle-sized man, twenty years old, after a natural expiration, or omis- sion of air, inspired or took in eighty cubic inches, when dressed, and one hundred and sixty when his tight dress was loosened. After a full dilation of the chest, he inhaled one hundred and twenty-six cubic inches when dressed, and one hundred and eighty-six when undressed. Another young man, aged twenty-one, after a natural expiration, took in fifty while dressed, and ninety-six when undressed. Had Dr. Herbst made his observations on some of the ladies, who carry the use of cor- sets to extremes, we apprehend that he would have obtained results of a nature really alarming. At the Hotel Dieu, the great hospital at Paris, a young girl of eighteen, lately presented herself to Breschet, for his advice. On the right side of her throat she had a tumor of variable size, but never larger than one's fist. It reached from the collar bone as high as the thysoid cartilage, (called, in common language, Adam's apple ;) when pressed downward, it wholly disappeared; but returned as soon as the pressure was removed : it was indolent, soft, and elastic. It was observed to be the largest when the chest was tightly laced in corsets. In short, by placing the ear on it, the murmur of respiration can be heard in the tumor, which proves that a protrusion of the lungs has taken place, or in other words, that the poor girl had been laced so tightly, that her lungs, having no longer sufficient space in their natu- ral position, are squeezed out of it, and are forcing their way up along the neck.