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WHEN, in cases of peripneumonia, the patients survive, though the inflammation be not discussed, those who escape the acute stage of the affection have suppurations. The symptoms, then, of an incipient and of a formed abscess have been stated by me under Empyema. If formed, then, there is no necessity for the same harsh measures and pains to procure the rupture and discharge of it as in the solid parts of the body, as it is readily brought up; for the distension of its pores is required rather than of the solid texture of its parts; for the lungs being a porous body and full of perforations like a sponge, it is not injured by the humour, but transmits it from pore to pore, until it reach the trachea. Thus the fluid finds a ready outlet, the pus being a flexible and slippery substance, and the respiration blows the breath (pneuma) upwards. For the most part they recover, unless at any time one be suffocated by the copious influx of the fluid, when, owing to the quantity of the pus, the trachea does not admit the air. Others die a protracted death, after the manner of those labouring under phthisis and empyema. The pus is white and frothy, being mixed with saliva, but sometimes ash-coloured or blackish. And sometimes one of the bronchia has been spit up in a case of large ulceration, if the abscess is deep, when portions of the viscus are also brought up. Hoarse, breathing short, voice heavy-toned, their chest becomes broad, and yet they stand in need of its being still broader, owing to the collection of fluid; the dark parts of the eyes glancing, the whites are very white and fatty; cheeks ruddy; veins in the forehead protuberant. There is a marvel in connection with these cases, how the strength is greater than the condition of the body, and the buoyancy of spirits surpasses the strength.
CHAPTER XI. ON ASTHMA.
