Braxton Hicks Version and Hermann Brehmer

BRAXTON HICKS VERSION, see Obstetric version. BREHMER, Hermann (1826–1889), a German physician who was the first to advocate for the idea that tuberculosis is curable and who developed a new method of treatment in accordance with his views on the causes of tuberculosis. Brehmer attached particular importance to the insufficient development of the heart in tuberculosis patients, their thinness, and poor nutrition resulting from a lack of appetite and a congenital general weakness of the organism (children in large families, starting with the fifth child, often suffer from tuberculosis—the "Brehmer predisposition").

Brehmer therefore based his treatment of tuberculosis on strengthening the metabolism and the general organism, especially the heart. He intended to achieve this goal through forced feeding, hardening the patients by keeping them constantly in the fresh air in a strengthening mountain climate, and training the heart through a proper alternation of rest and dosed walking in hilly terrain. For the systematic implementation of such a regimen and the hygienic education of patients, Brehmer established the first sanatorium as a closed medical institution. Brehmer vehemently opposed the enthusiasm of the "infectionists" regarding the significance of the tubercle bacilli discovered at that time and for a long time unsuccessfully tried to scientifically prove his point. Treatment according to the Brehmer system yielded good practical results and brought fame to the author. Brehmer did not live to see the enthusiasm 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 Brehmer's works, we cite: "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.