He remarks, justly enough, on the determination to the lungs consequent on the repression of the surface, and the necessary _additional duty thrown on those_ important organs engaged in a common function with the skin, where the duty of the latter is not performed; and on the elements thus supplied for disease, _especially_ in persons of restricted chest; relations, _be it remembered_, which exist between the various other organs of the economy, and which exemplify in a single case truly, what has been, we trust, since shown in regard to organs generally; how the organ, which may be the seat of the _disease_, _may not be_ the seat of the original _cause_, but really a secondarily affected organ—a hint which, when followed out, is of _immense practical importance_.
The skin is by no means the only organ which has a community of function with the lungs, or through which these important parts become affected; but if this be so, and diseases of the lungs be treated as an _integral thing_, it requires no great penetration to see how diseases so handled must be incurable; since the real cause may never be ministered to.
Again, if a case should be successfully treated, by means which afford all possible relief to the _lungs_, whilst the _primarily affected_ organ is also properly treated, it by no means follows that the treatment should be the same in _every case_; for the primarily affected organ may be different in different cases. There is, in fact, no organ of the body which, when subjected to disordering influences, may not _secondarily_ affect the lungs.
The liver is especially apt to affect them. It is engaged, like the lungs, in throwing off large quantities of carbon or charcoal from the system, and has been not very improperly termed the "abdominal lung." It is constantly also sending through the medium of the heart a large quantity of blood to the lungs. Now, if this blood have not the proper quantity of carbon extracted from it by the liver, or if even the blood be excessive in quantity, why the lungs must have more to do; and many diseased lungs have been produced in this manner in cases where the chest has been well formed.
There are, however, many intimate relations between organs which do not depend on mere community of function. It is very important that the public should have clear views on this subject; and if they would only give a little of that attention which they so often bestow on things infinitely more difficult, there is no doubt many lives would be saved that are irremediably damaged, as Abernethy says, sometimes even before any symptoms have suggested that there is anything the matter.