Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is a poisonous biennialherb of the family Umbelliferae supposed to be identical with the plant koneion of the Greeks.. It is a tall, erect, branching biennial, with a smooth, shining, hollow stem usually marked with purple spots. It has elegant, much divided leaves which when bruised emit a nauseous odour. The flowers are white in compound umbels of ten or more rays surrounded by a general involucre of three to seven leaflets.
Hemlock is found in Britain and throughout Europe and temperate Asia in waste places, banks, and under walls. It is said to be fatal to cows when they eat it, but that horses, goats, and sheep may feed upon it without danger. In the human subject it causes paralysis, convulsions, and death. The poison administered to Socrates is supposed to have been a decoction of it, though others are of opinion that the potion was obtained from water-hemlock (Cicuta virosa).
Hemlock is a powerful sedative, and is used medicinally. The extract is considered the best preparation. It was formerly used as a substitute for, or as an accompaniment to opium. It has been found very useful in chronic rheumatism and in hooping-cough, in allaying the pain of irritable sores and cancerous ulcers. The virtues of hemlock reside in an alkaline principle termed coma or coniine. Research Hemlock
Aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge that forms in a weakened area of the wall of an artery or vein. The most dangerous aneurysms are those that form in arteries, especially the arteries of the brain and the aorta. Most aneurysms result from atherosclerosis, a disease caused by cholesterol build-up in artery walls. Other causes of aneurysms include genetic disorders or other defects present at birth. The symptoms of an aneurysm vary with its location and size. There may be no symptoms, or pain may develop at the site of the aneurysm. Shortness of breath occurs if the aneurysm interferes with the heart's pumping ability. Some aneurysms press on nearby structures, producing a cough, hoarseness, or difficulty in swallowing. An aneurysm may worsen without the patient knowing and then suddenly rupture, causing a coma, paralysis, or death. Many strokes result from the rupture of an aneurysm in an artery of the brain.
Aneurysms can be detected with X-rays and, in many cases, can repair them surgically. Surgeons remove the diseased portion of the blood vessel. If it is a minor vessel, they tie off the loose ends. In a major artery or vein, they replace the diseased portion with a plastic tube, a fabric patch, or a piece of another blood vessel. Research Aneurysm
Balsam of tolu or tolu balsam, is a substance that exudes from incisions in the bark of the Myroxylon balsamum (formerly Myroxylon toluferum) tree grown in Central and South America. It is used in perfumery and in cough medicine as an expectorant. Research Balsam of Tolu
Chlamydial pneumonia, or psittacosis, is caused by the bacteria-like organism Chlamydia psittaci. Other common names for this disease are ornothosis or parrotfever. The microorganism is transmitted to humans from infected birds, especially parrots. The incubation period of this organism is not known, but it occurs in infants from 4 to 12 weeks. Symptoms include a dry cough, headache, high fever and anorexia. The chlamydia organisms are hard to isolate and culture, making diagnosis difficult. Research Chlamydial Pneumonia
Codeine is one of the alkaloids of opium. It is a slight analgesic and modifies tissue change and alleviates tickling cough and colic, and induces sleep. Codeine is usually combined with Paracetamol, and then called co-codamol and is used to treat moderate to severe pain. Research Codeine
Consumption, or Phthisis was a name formerly given for various diseases known by emaciation (serious loss of weight), debility, cough, hectic fever, and purulent expectoration, particularly tuberculosis which was unknown at the time. The predisposing causes were believed to be very variable, and around 1900 were reliably listed as: hereditary taint, scrofulous diathesis, syphilis, small-pox, etc; exposure to fumes and dusty air in certain trades; violent passions and excess of various kinds, sudden lowering of the temperature of the body, etc. The more immediate or occasional causes were thought to be pneumonic inflammation proceeding to suppuration, catarrh, asthma, and tubercles in the lungs, the last of which is was by far the most general.
The incipient symptoms usually varied with the cause of the disease; but when it arose from tubercles it was usually marked by a short dry cough that became habitual, but from which nothing was spat up for some time except a frothy mucus. The breathing was at the same time somewhat impeded, the body became gradually leaner, and great languor, with indolence, dejection, and loss of appetite prevailed. At a later stage the cough became more troublesome, particularly by night, and was attended with an expectoration, the matter of which assumed a greenish colour and purulent appearance, being on many occasions streaked with blood. In some cases a more severe degree of blood-spitting attended, and the patient spat up a considerable quantity of florid, frothy blood. At a more advanced period of the disease a pain was sometimes felt on one side in so high a degree as to prevent the person from lying easily on that side; but it more frequently happened that it was felt only on making a full inspiration, or coughing.
At the first commencement of the disease the pulse was often natural, but it afterwards became full, hard, and frequent. At the same time the face flushed, particularly after eating, the palms of the hands and soles of the feet were affected with burning heat; the respiration was difficult and laborious; evening exacerbations became obvious, and by degrees the fever assumed the hectic form with remittent exacerbations twice every day, at noon and evening. From the first appearance of the hectic symptoms the urine was high coloured, and deposited a copious branny red sediment. At this time the patient was usually costive; but in the more advanced stages a diarrhoea often came on, colliquative sweats likewise broke out, and these alternated with each other, and induced great debility.
Some days before death the extremities became cold. In some cases a delirium preceded that event. The morbid appearance most frequently to be met with on the dissection of those who had died of phthisis was the existence of tubercles in the cellular substance of the lungs, most usually at the upper and back part, or occupying the outer part, and forming adhesions to the pleura.
By about 1905 the tubercles were generally attributed to a special bacillus, and this was correctly being regarded as the originating cause of the disease, which could be conveyed from one person to another, that is, it was infectious. In fact, what had been discovered was Tuberculosis, but as it was not yet identified, various diseases were being blamed and the whole grouped under the popular term 'consumption'.
The treatment for consumption at the end of the Victorian era in Britain was based around healthy diet and fresh air, one source quoting: 'The diet should be nutritious, but not heating, or difficult of digestion. Milk, especially that of the ass; farinaceous vegetables; acescent fruits; animal soups; and, above all, cod-liver oil, etc, are usually given. It is also of the utmost importance to see that the digestive organs are in proper working order. As much open air as possible, combined with abundance of nutritious food, is at present the treatment in vogue. With regard to urgent symptoms requiring palliation, the cough may be allayed by demulcents, but especially mild opiates swallowed slowly; colliquative sweats by acids, particularly the mineral; diarrhoea by chalk and other astringents, or by small doses of opium.' Research Consumption
A cough is a sudden and forcible expiration immediately preceded by closure of the glottis or narrowed portion of the box of the windpipe. The force for the action is obtained by a deep breath, then follows the closure of the glottis, succeeded by the expiratory effort forcing open the glottis. The action is performed by the expiratory muscles, that is the abdominal muscles, by whose contraction the diaphragm is forced up, and the muscles of the chest, by which the ribs are pulled down. The cavity of the chest being thus diminished air is driven out of the lungs.
The object of the cough is usually to expel any foreign material in the lungs or air-tubes. The offending material may be there present as the result of inflammation, catarrh, etc. It may also have gained entrance from without. Thus the irritating material may be merely some food or drink which has slipped into the larynx, or it may be dust, etc, in the air inhaled, and the cough is the means of expelling the intruder. But a cough may also be produced when there is no irritating material present. The larnyx or windpipe may be in an inflamed and irritable condition, in which state even the entrance of cold air will excite coughing. Moreover, cough may be produced by irritation of nerves, distant from the lungs and air-passages, by what is called reflex action. Thus irritation of the stomach, irritation connected with the ear, irritation of certain nerves by pressure of growths, etc, may produce a cough, when the respiratory organs are not directly affected at all. Irritation at the back of the throat, as of the tickling of a long uvula, and so on, also produces it. Research Cough
Croup, or acute laryngotracheo-bronchitis, is an inflammation of upper and lower respiratory system, including the larynx, due to a viral infection. The inflammation causes a narrowing of the air passages. The most common causative agents are the parainfluenza viruses, especially type 1, the respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV), and influenza A and B viruses.
Croup occurs mainly in children between the ages of three months and three years. In older children and adults, the air passages are too wide and the cartilage in the wall too stiff for swelling or inflammation to cause the walls to collapse. The condition is characterised by fever, cough and breathing difficulty which is accompanied by a harsh croaking noise. Research Croup
Gees Linctus is a cough medicine comprised mainly of an alcohol solution of opium mixed with squill and benzoic acid sweetened with sugar. Gees linctus acts by suppressing the urge to cough, and also as an anti-biotic while the squill is an expectorant and as such helps to clear the bronchial passages by encouraging the mucus to be expelled as sputum. Research Gees Linctus
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Hemlock
More information about 
