Breech Extraction

BREECH EXTRACTION, see Obstetric extraction. BREHMER, Hermann (1826-89), German physician, the first to begin propagating the ideas about the curability of tuberculosis and to develop a new method of treatment in accordance with his views on the causes of tbc. B. attached particular importance to the underdevelopment of the heart in tuberculosis patients, their thinness and poor nutrition due to lack of appetite and congenital general weakness of the body (children of numerous families, starting from the fifth child, often suffer from tbc - "Brehmer's predisposition"). B. therefore based the treatment of tbc on strengthening metabolism and the general strengthening of the body, especially the heart. He believed he could achieve this goal through enhanced nutrition, hardening of patients by their constant stay in fresh air in a strengthening mountain climate, and training of the heart through proper alternation of rest and measured walking in hilly terrain. For the systematic implementation of such a regime and hygienic education of patients, B. established the first sanatorium as a closed medical institution. B. strongly opposed the enthusiasm of "infectionists" for the significance of the tubercle bacilli discovered at that time and for a long time unsuccessfully tried to scientifically prove his correctness. Treatment according to B.'s system gave good practical results and created fame for the author. B. did not live to see the passion for sanatoriums that followed in Germany shortly after his death, the so-called sanatorium movement, of which he should rightfully be considered the founder. Among B.'s works, we name: "De legibus ad initium atque progressum tuberculosis pulmonum spectantibus", diss., Berolini, 1853; "Die chronische Lungenschwindsucht, ihre Ursachen u. ihre Heilung usw.", Berlin, 1857; "Die Therapie der chronischen Lungenschwindsucht", Wiesbaden, 1887.