100 B.C.- 200 A.D. Ancient physicians recognize pneumonia

Plutarch (46-120 A.D.)

After Hippocrates introduced the medical world to pneumonia around 400 B.C., little was changed regarding how it was defined and treated.

Plutarch was a Greek author who wrote over 227 works, including 60 essays on ethical, religious, physical, political and literary topics.  (1)

He recognized that while pleurisy often accompanied pneumonia and may have been responsible for the pleuritic chest pain and fever, it sometimes occurred on its own. (2) (8)

He decided that the term peripneumonia was superfluous, and therefore referred to inflammation of the lungs as pneumnonia, and inflammation of the pleural sac as pleurisy. (2) (3, page 191)

Areteaus of Cappadocia, one of the ancient authors who helped us define asthma and how it was treated by the ancient world, concurred with Hippocrates regarding peripneumony, noting that death usually ensues on the sevenths day.

He wrote about the usefulness of the lungs, and explained that certain maladies can cause havoc: (2)

But if the lungs be affected, from a slight cause there is difficulty breathing, the patient lives miserably, and death is the issue, unless someone effects a cure. But in a general affection, such as inflammation, there is a sense of suffocation, loss of speech and breathing, and a speedy death. This is what we call peripneumonia, being an inflammation of the lungs, with acute fever, when they are attended with heaviness of the chest, freedom from pain, provided the lungs alone are inflamed."

The cure Areteaus wrote about for pneumonia was similar to that of Hippocrates, although he added the following to the list of options:  (2)

• Wine
• Hysopp
• Rubafacients containing mustard applied to the chest
• Diluent drinks

Claudius Galen of Pergamum, who was perhaps the most significant medical authority of the ancient world, also differentiated pneumonia from pleurisy, although he continued to refer to them as peripneumonia. (2, page 2)

His remedies for the malady were also similar to those of Hippocrates.  So the greatest medical mind of the 2nd century, and whose works were worshiped by physicians for the next two millennium, had no desire to add to the wisdom of the ancient Greeks, at least regarding pneumonia.

References:

1. "Plutarch," britannica.com, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/465201/Plutarch, accessed 7/20/14
2. Marrie, Thomas J, "Community Acquired Pneumonia," 2001, New York, chapter one by Jock Murray, "The Captain of Men and Death: The History of Pneumonia."
3. Allbutt, Clifford, ed, A System of Medicine, 1909, Toronto, chapter on "Lobar Pneumonia,"  by P.H. Pye-Smith, pages 191-205

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1920-1980: Pneumonia is finally tackled

For most of mankind, deadly diseases like influenza and tuberculosis were the main focus of the medical profession.  It was only when these diseases were tackled were physicians able to focus on other diseases, like pneumonia.

In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming observed that colonies of the Bacterium Staphylococcus that he was growing in a colony were dissolving.  He later discovered the plates had been infested by a blue-green mold, and he determined it was this mold that was responsible for the bacteria dissolving.  He later grew the mold in its pure form and discovered that it killed many different kinds of bacteria. (5)

The mold he used was Peiciillium notatum.  The importance of this discovery was not known until 1939 when Howard Florey and Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient and developed a powdered form of it.  (5)

Several Eurpean and American scientists worked together to work on a therapeutic medicine that could be used to treat bacterial infections.

By 1941 they had succeeded, and penicillin studies were performed.  In 1944 antibiotics were made available to treat allied soldiers wounded on the battlefield.

Incidence of pneumonia started to decline in 1937 due to improved medicine. So oxygen therapy, coupled with penicillin, helped decrease the rate of pneumonia deaths.  Yet cases of pneumonia continued to be prevalent.

For example, operations weren't commonly performed in hospitals until the 1950s when effective aneasthetics and breathing machines were made available. These were exciting times among the medical profession, as for the first time in history physicians were able to hone in their surgical skills to the benefit of mankind.

This excitement was stymied somewhat during the 1960s and 1970s when physicians started observing a high incidence of post operative pneumonia, particularly among abdominal surgeries, and despite the use of antibiotics.

Similar observations were made among patients taking large amoungs of sedatives and narcotics.

It was quickly realized that further research needed to be done to determine the cause, and therefore a means of preventing these patients from developing pneumonia.

Studies soon concluded that humans were naturally inclined to action, that when a person was restricted to bed, this resulted in ill health.

That people naturally sigh 3-4 times in an hour in order to exercise the lungs and clear secretions, in an effort to keep the lungs sterile.  Sedatives, and painful surgeries, resulted in patients not taking deep breaths, and this resulted in an increase in the risk for developing pneumonia.

Preventative measures were then established, which mainly included having patients roll over, sit up, stand, and walk as soon as possible after surgery, even if the patients have to push themselves to the pain threshold.

Various devices were then invented with the intent of preventing alveoli from collapsing, and pneumonia from developing.  One device was a blowby device that encouraged patients to blow balls into jars.  Another device was called in incentive spirometer, which encouraged people to inhale and cough.

Morbidity and mortality for post operative pneumonia steadily declined.

Pneumonia in general declined when a pneumonia vaccine hit the market in 1977, and again when a pneumonia vaccine for children hit the market in 2000.

Thanks to all these innovations pneumonia is not the sixths leading cause of death, as opposed to the leading cause of death in the 1930s.

It's true that pneuomonia will continue to inflict people with diminished immune systems, such as the elderly and sick.  Yet with a growing plethera of medical knowledge, physicians have been able to greatly reduce the incidence of this disease, and in the process, prevent many deaths from the malady.

References:

1. "Leading Cause of Death, 1900-1998," http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/lead1900_98.pdf
2. Sturges, Octavius, "The Natural History and Relations of Pneumonia," London, 1876
3. "History of Pneumonia," The British Medical Journal,  Jan. 19, 1952, pages 156-158
4. Schmitt, Steven K., "Oral Therapy for Pneumonia:  Who, When, and With What?" editorial, Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management,  March, 1999, vol 6, No 3, pages 48-50
5. Bellis, Mary, "The History of Penicillin," http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Penicillin.htm
6. Marrie, Thomas J, "Community Acquired Pneumonia," 2001, New York, chapter one by Jock Murray, "The Captain of Men and Death: The History of Pneumonia."
7. Auld, A.G., "The Pathological Histology of Bronchial Affections," The Lancet, Aug. 6, 1892, page 312
8. Allbutt, Clifford, ed, A System of Medicine, 1909, Toronto, chapter on "Lobar Pneumonia,"  by P.H. Pye-Smith, pages 191-205
9. Addison, Thomas, "A Collection of the published works of Thomas Addison," 1868, 
10. Auld, A.G., "Fibroid Pneumonia," The Lancet,  June 13, 1891, page 1308-1310
11. "Nikolai Fedorovich Gamaleia, The Free Dictionary by Farlex, http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Nikolai+Fedorovich+Gamaleia
12. Osler, William, "The Principles and Practice of Medicine," 1898, 3rd ed., New York
13. *Photo compliments of sciencephotolibrary.com
14. "Plutarch," britannica.com, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/465201/Plutarch, accessed 7/20/14
15. Laennec, Rene, "Mediate Auscultation," translated by John Forbes, Notes by professor Andral, 4th edition, 1838, New York, Samuel S. and William Wood, pages 84-87 for bronchitis treatment, and 175-177 for emphysema treatment
16. Andras, author of the notes in the book, "Mediate Auscultation, by Rene Laennec," ibid

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400 B.C: Hippocrates defines pneumonia

Pneumonia is sometimes referred to as one of the oldest diseases known to mankind.  It would seem wise to presume that so long as a person, or a species, has lungs, that the possibility of them becoming infected, and inflamed, would always exist.  If this is true, then pneumonia must have been a common cause of death since the beginning of mankind.

During the rare opportunities that medicine men, or priest physicians, or later physicians, had to dissect a person who died of dyspnea or asthma, a whitish hue to the tissue of certain lobes, which may have been hardened, would have been observed.  They also would have observed colorful secretions in the airway.  In this way, it was easy for the first physicians to distinguish pneumonia from other diseases.  

Despite the disease going that far back, it wasn't described for the medical profession until Hippocrates wrote of it in 400 B.C.  However, we know that it was described long before him because he said it was "described by the ancients."

In attempting to distinguish between the two diseases, Hippocrates might try to shake the patient, a procedure called succussion.  This would allow the physician to hear the puss in the pleural cavity rattle.  He said any keen physician should be able to diagnose pleurisy by this method.

However, it must not have been that easy, as various Greek physicians, including Hippocrates himself, observed that it was difficult to differentiate between the two, and for this reason they were generally grouped together as peripneumonia, or peripneumony.  (8, page 192)

They knew pneumonia was inflammation in of one lobe of the lungs, and they knew pleurisy was inflammation in the pleural cavity.  Yet while pneumonia was accompanied by a fever and a pain in the chest, pleurisy was accompanied by a fever and a sharp pain in the side.

We now know that sometimes the two diseases appear independently of one another, although sometimes they appear together.  So its understandable that ancient physicians would have had trouble differentiating between the two, particularly lacking the ability to perform autopsies.

Of course, it was also quite common for both of these diseases to also be confused with asthma, which is our umbrella term for all causes of dyspnea other than pneumonia and phthisis.  So getting an accurate diagnosis was difficult regardless of the efforts of the physician.  (2, page 3)

Of peripneumony, Hippocrates wrote:

Peripneumonia, and pleuricic affections, are to be thus observed: If the fever be acute, and if there be pains on either side, or in both, and if expiration be if cough be present, and the sputa expectorated be of a blond or livid color, or likewise thin, frothy, and florid, or having any other character different from the common.

Dictionary.com describes pneumon as latin for lung or lung and pneuma as latin for lung.  So pneumonia refers to a condition of the lung.

Pleurisy was defined by the Ancient Greeks as inflammation of the pleural cavity, and they recognized symptoms of pleurisy and pneumonia as a sharp pain in the side.

The treatment of Hippocrates was generally the same for all diseases, and consisted of good hygiene, a good diet, rest, exercise, and plenty of sleep.  These were supposed to help nature be the remedy, or the means of returning the humours to homeostasis.

However, if those did not work, and depending on the stage of the disease of the illness, age of the patient, color of the sputum, and season of the year, any of the following may be the remedies.  (6)

• Bleeding
• If fever, the bowels were opened with clysters
• If pain, hot water in a bottle or bladder, a sponge of hot water, or cataplasm of linseed was applied to the hypochondrium
• Linctus containing galbanum and pine fruit in Attic Honey or...
• Sothernwood in oxymel
• Oppaponax (a bitter resin with a garlic taste) mixed in oxymel
• Drink of ptisan made from huskey barley and mixed with oxymel

Hippocrates was well aware of when the disease was getting better or worse, as noted in the following passage.  (6)

"When pneumonia is at its height, the case is beyond remedy if he is not purged, and it is bad if he has dyspnoea, and urine that is thin and acrid, and if sweats come out about the neck and head, for such sweats are bad, as proceeding from the suffocation, rales, and the violence of the disease which is obtaining the upper hand, unless there be a copious evacuation of thick urine, and the sputa be concocted; when either of these comes on spontaneously, that will carry off the disease."

Hippocrates noted that death from pneumonia usually occurs on the seventh day.

References:

1. "Leading Cause of Death, 1900-1998," http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/lead1900_98.pdf
2. Sturges, Octavius, "The Natural History and Relations of Pneumonia," London, 1876
3. "History of Pneumonia," The British Medical Journal,  Jan. 19, 1952, pages 156-158
4. Schmitt, Steven K., "Oral Therapy for Pneumonia:  Who, When, and With What?" editorial, Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management,  March, 1999, vol 6, No 3, pages 48-50
5. Bellis, Mary, "The History of Penicillin," http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Penicillin.htm
6. Marrie, Thomas J, "Community Acquired Pneumonia," 2001, New York, chapter one by Jock Murray, "The Captain of Men and Death: The History of Pneumonia."
7. Auld, A.G., "The Pathological Histology of Bronchial Affections," The Lancet, Aug. 6, 1892, page 312
8. Allbutt, Clifford, ed, A System of Medicine, 1909, Toronto, chapter on "Lobar Pneumonia,"  by P.H. Pye-Smith, pages 191-205

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