Miss ----, a delicate young lady, of a consumptive family, when she was about eighteen, had frequent cough, with quick pulse, a pain of her side, and the general appearances of a beginning consumption. She took about five drops of laudanum twice a day in a saline draught, which was increased gradually to ten. In a few weeks she recovered, was afterwards married, bore three or four children, and then became consumptive and died.
The following case of hereditary consumption is related by a physician of great ability and very extensive practice; and, as it is his own case, abounds with much nice observation and useful knowledge; and, as it has been attended with a favourable event, may give consolation to many, who are in a similar situation; and shews that Sydenham's recommendation of riding as a cure for consumption is not so totally ineffectual, as is now commonly believed.
"J. C. aged 27, with black hair, and a ruddy complexion, was subject to cough from the age of puberty, and occasionally to spitting of blood. His maternal grandfather died of consumption under thirty years of age, and his mother fell a victim to this disease, with which she had long been threatened, in her 43d year, and immediately after she ceased to have children. In the severe winter of 1783-4, he was much afflicted with cough; and being exposed to intense cold, in the month of February he was seized with peripneumony. The disease was violent and dangerous, and after repeated bleedings as well as blisterings, which he supported with difficulty, in about six weeks he was able to leave his bed. At this time the cough was severe, and the expectoration difficult. A fixed pain remained on the left side, where an issue was inserted; regular hectic came on every day about an hour after noon, and every night heat and restlessness took place, succeeded towards morning by general perspiration.
The patient, having formerly been subject to ague, was struck with the resemblance of the febrile paroxysm, with what he had experienced under that disease, and was willing to flatter himself it might be of the same nature. He therefore took bark in the interval of fever, but with an increase of his cough, and this requiring venesection, the blood was found highly inflammatory. The vast quantity of blood which he had lost from time to time, produced a disposition to fainting, when he resumed the upright posture, and he was therefore obliged to remain almost constantly in a recumbent position. Attempting to ride out in a carriage, he was surprised to find that he could sit upright for a considerable time, while in motion, without inconvenience, though, on stopping the carriage, the disposition to fainting returned.