Tuberculosis and Other Respiratory Diseases
During the Yi Dynasty, medical knowledge of tuberculosis became more abundant and precise. The Hyangyak chipsong pang describes pulmonary tuberculosis and recognizes the contagious nature of the disease as well as the relationship between the most common form, pulmonary tuberculosis, and its other forms (Miki 1962).
The Tongui pogam also contains a good description of pulmonary tuberculosis and the symptoms of other forms of the disease. Moreover, it describes symptoms suggesting scrofula, which was considered primarily childhood tuberculosis.The Hyangyak chipsong pang discusses the symptoms of asthma clearly, and the Tongui pogam has a discussion of asthma under the heading of “coughing.” Asthma was divided into eight different forms; asthmatic attacks were attributed to excess eating, fear, and shock. Further, under the column dealing with symptoms of “lung swelling,” there is a discussion of a condition that may be related to emphysema.
Ailments that appear to correspond to modern pleurisy and hydrothorax also appear in the medical literature of this period in discussions of “heart pain” and “waist pain.” The Hyangyak chipsong pang and the Tonqui pogam describe symptoms that suggest hydrothorax in a discussion of conditions attributed to the accumulation of “chest water,” which indicate observations of both the accumulation of water in the chest and swelling of the whole body.
Lobar pneumonia is probably one of the illnesses included in the “harm caused by cold” category of fever diseases. Within this category, the Hyangyak chipsong pang and the Tongui pogam discuss diseases marked by high fever, coughing, and bloody mucus.