Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/215

Rh conditions were not maintained long enough to ensure the complete arrest of the disease.

Instead of the tuberculous focus becoming arrested, it may continue to spread. The original focus and the secondary ones are at first patches of consolidated lung. Later, their central parts soften and burst into a bronchus; then the softened portion is coughed up, and a small cavity is left, which tends gradually to increase in size by peripheric extension and by merging with other cavities. This process is repeated again and again, and sooner or later the other lung becomes similarly affected. At any stage of the softening process the blood vessels may become involved and give rise by rupture to a large or a small hemorrhage (haemoptysis). It not infrequently happens that such haemoptysis may be the first symptom that seriously attracts attention. At a later period hemorrhage frequently takes place in large or small amounts from the rupture of vessels, which frequently are dilated and form small aneurysms in the walls of cavities. A fatal termination may be hastened by the absorption by means of the blood vessels and lymphatics of the tuberculous virus from some of the foci of disease, and the occurrence therefrom of a local miliary tuberculosis of the lungs or a general tuberculosis of other organs. The rapidity with which the destructive process spreads throughout the lung varies considerably. We therefore recognize acute phthisis, or galloping consumption, and chronic phthisis. In the acute cases the softening progresses rapidly and is associated with the development of very little fibrous tissue; probably various forms of microorganisms other than the tubercle bacilli assist in the rapid softening. In the more chronic cases there is development of much fibroid tissue, and the disease is associated with periods of temporary arrest of the tubercular process. The expectoration from cases of pulmona phthisis contains tubercle bacilli, and is a source of danger torfiealthy individuals, in whom it may produce the disease. Attendance on persons suffering from pulmonary phthisis involves very little risk of infection if prqper care is taken to prevent the expectoration becoming dry an disseminated as dust; perfect cleanliness is therefore to be insisted upon in the rooms inhabited by a phthisical person. The tubercle bacilli soon lose their virulence in the presence of fresh air and sunshine, and therefore these agents are not only desirable for the direct benefit of the phthisical patient, but also are agents in preventing the development of fresh disease in healthy individuals.

Although the tubercle bacilli are the essential agents in the development of pulmonary tuberculosis, there are other conditions which must be present before they will roduce the disease. It is probable that large numbers of individiials are exposed to the action of tubercle bacilli which gain entrance to the pulmonary tract, and yet do not give rise to the disease, because the conditions of their growth and multiplication do not exist. In such cases we may consider that the seed is present, but that the soil is unsuitable for its growth. Certain families appear more predisposed to tuberculosis than others.

The most important circulatory disturbances met with in the lungs are those seen in cases of dilated heart, with or without disease of the mitral valve, when engorgement g;°;;, m of the pulmonary vessels sets up a condition of venous engorgement of the lungs. This may lead to various changes. After it has lasted a. variable time, and if it is very intense, serous transudation occurs into the substance of the lung and the alveoli, and thus a condition of pulmonary dropsy or oedema is established. The venous engorgement also predisposes the subjects of such heart affections to bronchitis and pneumonia. In disease of the mitral valve, in cardiac dilatation and in simple feebleness of the heart, such as is seen in old age and after debilitating fevers, especially typhoid, there is commonly developed a venous congestion of the bases of the lungs, forming the so-called hypo static congestion of those organs, and to this is frequently added pneumonia. In long-standing cases of pulmonary congestion brought about by disease of the mitral valve and dilatation of the heart, a certain amount of fibrous tissue may be found in the interstitial tissue of the lungs, and from transudation of certain elements of the blood we get the formation in the newly formed fibrous tissue of blood pigment. In these cases blood pigment is found in the cells, in the pulmonary alveoli, and such cells also carry the pigment into the interstitial tissue. This condition constitutes the state known as brown induration of the lungs. Acute congestion of the lungs occurs as part of the first stage of pneumonia. It also probably exists during violent exertion, and may possibly be brought about by excitement.

Another circulatory disturbance of great importance is that arising from blocking of the pulmonary artery. or its branches by an embolus or a thrombus. Where the Embousm obstruction takes place in the main vessel, death and rapidly ensues. Where, however, a small branch of Thromthe vessel is occluded, as frequently occurs from a "sl" coagulum forming in the right side of the heart, or in the pulmonary vessels in cases of disease of the mitral valve, or in dilatation of the heart, or from the detachment of a small veget.ation from disease of the tricuspid or pulmonary valves, a hemorrhagic exudation takes place, forming a patch of consolidation in the lung (hemorrhagic infarct). As this hemorrhagic exudation takes place not only into the substance of the lung, but also into the bronchial tubes, such lesions are usually associated with spitting of blood (haemoptysis), The increased tension produced in the pulmonary vessels in cases of mitral disease may also probably lead to the formation of hemorrhagic exudation's into the lungs, apart from the occurrence of embolism or thrombosis. Usually the occurrence of pulmonary embolism and the formation of hemorrhagic infarcts in the lungs mark an important epoch in the course of a case of heart disease. It usually occurs at a late stage of the affection, " and not infrequently contributes materially to a fatal termination. It is probable that many of the cases of pneumonia and pleuritic effusion, coming on in cases of valvular heart disease and of cardiac dilatation, owe their origin to an embolus and to the formation of a hemorrhagic infarct.

The term asthma is commonly applied to a paroxysmal dyspnoea of a special type which is associated with a variety of conditions. In true spasmodic asthma there A th may be no detectable organic disease, and the par- S ma oxysms are generally believed to be due to a nervous influence Which, acting upon the bronchial muscles, produces a spasm of the tubes, or, acting through the vaso-motor branches of the sympathetic, produces a congestion of the bronchial mucous membrane. The most probable theory is that lately advanced, that it is caused by a profound toxaemia. An'organism has been isolated, which is said to be the cause of certain cases of asthma, and the fact that benefit has been said to follow treatment by a vaccine is in favour of this view. The 'exciting cause may not be at all apparent, even on the most careful observation and examination of the sufferer, but in other cases the attacks may be brought about by some reflex irritation. Nasal polypi and other diseases of nasal mucous membrane have been shown in some cases to be a cause of asthma. Irritation of the bronchial mucous membrane appears to be one of the most common, but it is usually difficult to say exactly in what the irritation consists. .

The sputum in true asthma is typical, consisting of white translucent pellets like boiled tapioca. These pellets consist of mucus arranged in a twisted manner and known as Curschmann spirals; they also contain Charcot-Leyden crystals, degenerated epithelium and leukocytes, of which the majority are eosinophiles. The spirals consist of a central solid thread round which the mucus is arranged in spiral form. The twisting has been attributed to a rotatory motion of the cilia, helped by the spasm of the bronchial muscles. Allied to true asthma is the bronchial asthma frequently met with in the subjects of bronchitis and emphysema. In such cases the irritation evidently proceeds from the inflamed bronchial mucous membrane. Hay asthma is the variety in which the pollen of certain plants, especially grasses, is the exciting cause of the paroxysms. In cardiac feebleness, in valvular disease of the heart, and in cardiac dilatation, we may get dyspnoeic attacks of a more or less