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
Haemoptysis is the coughing up of blood, sometimes produced by fulness of the blood-vessels of the lungs or throat, or by the rupture of blood-vessels as a consequence of ulceration. It is distinguished from blood coming from the stomach by the comparative smallness of its quantity, and by its usually florid colour. It occurs in heart disease, in pneumonia, and tubercular disease. It is sometimes a case of vicarious menstruation. Research Haemoptysis
The decorated style is a name given by some writers to the perfected English Gothicarchitecture also known as the second style of pointed architecture, which flourished from about 1300 to 1375 when it passed into the Perpendicular. Rickman used the term to describe the period between Early English and Perpendicular, occupying most of the 14th century, and based his definition mainly upon window designs, many of which made use of the then new art of bar tracery.
The decorated style is distinguished from the Early English, from which it was developed, by the more flowing or wavy lines of its tracery, especially of its windows, by the more graceful combinationsof its foliage, by the greater richness of the decorations of the capitals of its columns, and of the mouldings of its doorways and niches, finials, etc, and generally by a style of ornamentation more profuse and naturalistic, though perhaps somewhat florid. The most distinctive ornament of the style is the ball-flower, which is usually inserted in a hollow moulding.
The Decorated style has been divided into two periods: the Early or Geometrical Decorated period, in which geometrical figures are largely introduced in the ornamentation; and the Decorated style proper, in which the peculiar characteristics of the style are exhibited. To this latter period belong some of the finest monuments of British architecture. Research Decorated Style
Tudor architecture (also known as florid architecture or glorid Gothic) is a style of architecture characterized by the buildings of a Gothic variety erected in Britain under the Tudor dynasty, that is, from the accession of Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 - the later Tudor period being known as the Elizabethan. This period encompasses the final flowering of the Perpendicular style at the earlier end of the time-scale and the great series of houses by Smythson at the other end. However, in some contexts Tudor architecture indicates the specific style of building associated chiefly with the first half of the 16th century. It is a style expressed mainly in secular architecture (collegiate as well as domestic), for church building in Britain had virtually ended by the Reformation. The most characteristic building material was brick, often patterned by the use of contrasting colours or used to create splendid decorative chimney stacks. Forms to a large extent followed those of the Perpendicular period, but windows and doors were either flat-topped or had a very shallow arch known as a 'Tudorarch'.
Outstanding examples of Tudor architecture include Hampton Court Palace, begun by CardinalThomas Wolsey in 1515 and continued by Henry VIII; Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire, one of the most idyllically beautiful of English country houses, built by Sir William Compton, one of Henry VIII's courtiers; and the Great Gate of Trinity College, Cambridge, completed in 1533. Although there is no firm dividing line, it is usual to distinguish architecture of the Tudor period into three sub-periods: the early period of Henry VIIIths reign is characterised by large, inward-looking courtyard houses; the middle period of Edward VI introduced more restrained classicism and carefully designed facades and more outward-looking houses the last period, or 'Elizabethan' covers the reign of Elizabeth I from 1558 to 1603, and this period sees stone used more often for major buildings, houses become more grandiose in design and there is greater foreign influence, both in the use of the classical Orders and in rich, often Flemish-inspired, surface ornamentation and the introduction of grand fireplaces, large and richly decorated. Research Tudor Architecture
In music, a bravura is a florid, brilliant style of music, written for effect, to show the range and flexibility of a singer's voice, or the technical force and skill of a performer. A form of virtuoso music. Research Bravura
Canto Figurato is a term applied by the old ecclesiastics to the chant in its more florid forms, in which more than one note was sung to a syllable. Research Canto Figurato
In music, figurate describes a florid piece involving passing discords by the freer melodic movement of one or more parts or voices in the harmony. Research Figurate
Abbreviations
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