But if there be a shadow of truth in Mr. Abernethy's views, and still more in those extensions of them to which they have naturally led, we may learn how necessary is that discrimination which traces disease to _primarily_ affected organs; and how little success we may expect by treating the lungs, as the integral seat of disease, by specifics, or such remedies as tar, naphtha, cod-liver oil, various gases, &c. which come in and go out of fashion in a manner sufficiently significant of the claims they can have in a scientific point of view.
Mr. Abernethy also remarks on the comparatively restricted influence of scrofula in constituting consumption. "At one time," he observes, "I examined the bodies of many people who died of consumption." After describing other appearances which he found, he says, "the greater number were bestudded with larger or smaller tubercles, or _made uniformly dense_ (consolidated)." He says, this disease (consolidation) is _very insidious_, that it is often established beyond the possibility of removal before it is suspected; but, he says, he thinks it might be known, for the capacity of the lungs is diminished; and suggests that this should be tested, by allowing a suspected case to _breathe into a glass vessel over water_, by which the quantity of air they can receive is rendered perceptible.
His remarks, too, on the treatment are highly interesting and discriminative, and will not only well repay attentive perusal, but that study which is necessary to the perception of their full force and beauty. When we have to sum up the various influences of the views of Abernethy, we may probably find space for a few facts on that which they exert on the treatment of the lungs and skin; and this not merely as affecting the health in general, but also complexion, and other conditions of these curious and important organs.
We are unwilling to dismiss this paper without directing attention to the illustration it affords of the erroneous views of those who imagine that Abernethy's investigations were confined to the digestive organs, and still less, of course, to one of them (the stomach). It would, on the contrary, be difficult to find any paper on physiology so comprehensive in its views, so simple and clear as to its object, so cautious and logical in its reasonings, so free from any bias, or with so little reference, either directly or indirectly, to what are usually understood by the digestive organs. On the other hand, it is an investigation which (as regards the relation which exists between two organs having a common function) is an exact type of what physiological investigation should be. For we have only to extend the idea of a relation which exists between _two_ organs, to those which exist between _all_ organs; to regard as their _combined_ functions, the sustentation of the life and health of the individual, just as we have been regarding respiration, the common function of the skin and lungs; and we thus arrive at what must be the basis of any sound or comprehensive inquiry into the true relations of the various parts of the economy; by which alone we can interpret the phenomena of health and disease.