Travels through France and Italy by Tobias George Smollett
page 35 of 476 (07%)
page 35 of 476 (07%)
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several passages in his travels and in the statement which he
drew up for Professor 'F.' at Montpellier. "Smollett speaks of his pulmonic disorder, his 'asthmatical disorder,' and uses other expressions which show that his lungs were affected. In his statement he mentions that he has cough, shortness of breath, wasting, a purulent expectoration, loss of appetite at times, loss of strength, fever, a rapid pulse, intervals of slight improvement and subsequent exacerbations. "This shortness of breath, he says, has steadily increased. This group of symptoms makes it certain that he had tuberculosis of the lungs, in other words, was slowly progressing in consumption. "His darting pains in his side were due to the pleurisy which always occurs in such an illness. "His account shows also the absence of hopelessness which is a characteristic state of mind in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. "I do not think that the opinion of the Montpellier professor deserves Smollett's condemnation. It seems to me both careful and sensible and contains all the knowledge of its time. Smollett, with an inconsistency not uncommon in patients who feel that they have a serious disease, would not go in person to the Professor, for he felt that from his appearance the Professor would be sure to tell him he had consumption. He half hoped for some other view of the written case in spite of its explicit statements, and when Professor F-- wrote that the patient had tubercles in his lungs, |
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