Ulcers in the lungs and chest, which include consumption

Such ulcers occur either in the chest, or in the abdominal barrier, or in the lungs; This last type, that is, an ulcer in the lungs, is consumption. Or there are ulcers in the tube, but we have already mentioned them. The most favorable of such ulcers are ulcers in the chest, and this is because the vessels in the chest are smaller and parts of them are denser, so that the cracks in them are not very large, and also because the pus does not linger in the vessels and flows into the chest cavity, whereas the condition of the lungs is not. In addition, the movements of the chest are not strong and not as noticeable as the movements of the lungs; on the contrary, the chest is almost motionless, and it is fleshy, and the fleshy organs are more capable of healing. It often happens that ulcers in the chest, resulting from rotting abscesses, spoil the bones, so that the rotten parts of the bones have to be cut out in order for the adjacent parts to survive; Often rotting spreads to the membrane adjacent to the bones. As for ulcers in the barrier, ulcers that go through never heal, and non-through ones occur either in parts rich in nerves, and then they also do not heal, or they form in the fleshy parts and heal if they are captured at the beginning and prevent tumor formation. If they swell or become chronic, they do not heal.

Regarding lung ulcers, doctors do not agree on whether they are curable or not curable. Some say that they are completely incurable, because healing requires immobility, and there is no immobility there. However, Galen disputes them and argues that movement in itself does not prevent healing unless other obstacles are added. This is also proven by the fact that the barrier also moves, but ulcers on it are sometimes curable. As for Galen himself, his opinion about ulcers in the lungs is that if these ulcers arise as a result of the disintegration of a single one, which did not occur from a tumor or corroding by caustic juice, but from another cause, then they can be cured while the wound is not yet rotted and not swollen; The same is true for ulcers that cause perforation in the lungs, but do not fester. And ulcers in the lungs from a tumor or from corrosion cannot be cured, because a festering ulcer can in this case be healed only by clearing the pus by coughing, but coughing expands the ulcer and ruptures it, and the tickling from coughing increases the pain, and pain helps to attract matter in this direction. Drying medications prevent expectoration, and expectorants moisturize and soften ulcers. Ulcers from corrosive juice do not heal unless it is corrected, and this can only be done within such a period of time during which the ulcer will either rupture and turn into a completely non-healing fistula, or will expand so much that it will eat away part of the lung. And in an ulcer formed after a tumor, sometimes all these properties are combined.

Reasons that increase the difficulty of healing include movement, as well as the fact that the vessels in the lungs are large, wide and dense; This is also one of the circumstances that makes it difficult for the gap to heal. And one more thing: the distance from the point of entry of the drug taken to the lungs and the obligatory weakening of its strength until it reaches the ulcer also increases the difficulty of healing. Medicines that are cold move lazily and do not penetrate deeply, and those that are hot increase the fever that accompanies ulcers in the lungs. Drying medications are harmful because they invariably cause thinness, while moisturizing medications interfere with the healing of the ulcer. The method of treating all ulcers is to dry them out, and especially such as ulcers in the lungs, to which fluids are directed from above and below. Sometimes the corrosion can be quickly cured if it has just begun and the ulcer has formed in the membrane covering the inside of the tube, and not in the fleshy substance of the lungs; As for the ulcer in the cartilage of the tube itself, it cannot be treated. Children are most accessible to treatment for consumption due to their age, and the most successful lung ulcers are those that belong to the type of ulcers with a scab, unless the cause of the ulcer is in the nature of the patient and not in the juice itself, which makes the dry ulcer lichen-like. Sometimes it happens to a consumptive person that the consumption lasts a long time, letting him go for a while; It also happens that it lasts from youth to adulthood. I saw a woman who lived in consumption for almost twenty-three years or even a little more. People with ulcers in the lungs suffer greatly in the fall; if the presence of consumption is doubtful, it is detected in the patient with the onset of autumn.

Sometimes the name “consumption” is given to another disease in which there is no fever, but the lungs accept thick, viscous juices that are constantly pouring out there due to catarrh. The ducts in the lungs become narrow, and patients experience shortness of breath and a persistent cough; this leads to exhaustion of strength and makes their body melt, but in reality they follow the path of asthma sufferers. If at the same time there is a slight fever, then it is necessary to add some measures to the treatment of asthma sufferers.

Causes of ulcers in the lungs. As for the causes of ulcers in the lungs, it is either catarrh, burning, corroding or causing putrefaction due to the proximity, and the lung does not become prosperous until the catarrh is ripe, or matter of the same kind flowing into the lung from another organ, or previous inflammation lungs, which gave suppuration after a ruptured pleuritic tumor. An ulcer in the lungs also occurs as a result of any of the above-mentioned causes, causing hemoptysis, which opens, ruptures or splits a vessel, whether the cause is internal, such as boiling blood or anything else of the above, or the external cause is a fall or blow. Sometimes the cause of ulcers is putrefaction or corrosion that occurs in the substance of the lungs by itself, as happens in other organs. Diseases of consumption sometimes become more frequent if a “northern” and dry summer is followed by a “southern”, rainy autumn.