Theses medicae de dyspnoea

A simple triangular decorative initial 'A' at the start of the first thesis.Dyspnoea is a symptom of faulty respiration; although its causes as well as its modes or species are many, my intention at this time is to discuss only that which follows solely from a narrowing of the lungs or the thorax.

Furthermore, there are two species of this narrowing: obstruction and constriction, unless one wishes to posit a faulty constitution as a third species.

Moreover, the proximate causes of obstruction are the abundance or the quality of humors and flatulence, which consists either in thickness or in viscosity.

Although all humors can sometimes generate this obstruction, it most frequently arises from thick and viscous phlegm, or even watery phlegm; it is rarely caused by blood, more rarely by melancholic juice, and most rarely by yellow bile.

And they obstruct either of themselves or through the intervention of something else, as occurs when they generate a crude tubercle, or when a concretion or calculus is born from a viscous humor that has been dried out and hardened.

The proximate causes of constriction, however, are a humor or copious flatulence enclosed within the thoracic space, which impede the dilation of the lungs either by compressing them or by filling the space of the thorax. And the compressions of the diaphragm also pertain to this.

Sometimes, too, dryness alone, or in combination with a bilious, salty, or melancholic juice, by absorbing the natural moisture of the lungs, causes them to contract or at least to harden. Coldness also [causes] the same