The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-03-26
Means Of Checking Coughing, Sneez-
ing, Etc.


DIR. Brown-Sequard, the eminent physi-
clan and surgeon, in a recent lecture in
New York City said:
There are many facts which show that
morbid phenomena of respiration can also
be stopped by the influence of arrest.
Coughing. for instance, can be stopped by
pressing on the nerves of the lip in the
Deighborhood of the nose. A pressure
there may prevent a cough when it is be-
ginning. SneeZing may be stopped by
the same mechanism. Pressing also in the
neighborhoOd Of the ear, right in front of
the ear, may stop coughing. 1t is so also
OF hiccough. but much less so than for
sneeZing or coughing. Pressing very
hard on the top of the mouth inside is
also means of stopping coughing. And
| may say that the will has an immense
power there. There was French soldier
who used TO say, whenever he entered the
wards of his hospital. 1.-The first patient
who coughs here will be deprived OF food
to-day 1t was exceedingly rare that a
patient cOughed then.
There are many other affections asso-
ciated with breathing which can be stop
ped by the same mechanism that stops the
hearts action. In spasms of the CLOTHS.
which is a terrible thing in children, as
NDA well hllON. is IL SOultiliilts tdlScS
death. and also in whoOping-cOugh. it is
possible to afford relief by throwing cold
water on the face, or by tickling the soles
Of the feet, which produces laughter and
at the same time goes to the gray matter
that is producing The spasm, and arrests it
almost at once. | would not say that
these means are always successful. |
would not say that we can always prevent
cough by our will but in many instances
these things are possible, and if you re-
member that i'm bronchitis or pneumonia,
or any other acute affection of the lungs,
hacking or coughing greatly increases the
trouble at times, you can easily see how
important it is for the patient to try to
avoid coughing as best he can.
There is also series of other cOnvulsive
movements more or less associated with
breathing, and it is very important in those
cases to counteract the influence
of action on certain parts. There isa form
Of epilepsy which consists almost eXclu-
sively in what Basil Hall has called laryn-
gismus. He had an idea that it was essen
tial to open the trachea and let the patient
breathe through an opening there. But
this is not at all necessary, even if it did
good. Touching the larynX with sponge
charged with a solution of nitrate of silver
when it has just begun and it has very lit
tie power. But in those cases of larvn-
geal epilepsy, in which the commissions
come from affections caused by spaSm of
the larynX, there is no doubt that this de-
vice or eXpedient changes the activity in
the muscles. and that activity is enough to
produce cure.
There are a good many other phenOme-
ma of arrest. The most interesting are
those relating to the brain. | cannot in
this lecture speak of more than one of
them, and that is arrest of the cerebral ac-
tivity, of thought, of consciousness. 1t is
well known that in epilepsy cerebral ac-
tivity is lost. 1t is well known also, that
in certain cases of syncope it is lost. In
cases of sleep also, it is lost, except of
course in great dreamers, and then there is
hardly any consciousness, and in any case
the condition is quite different from that of
waketulneSs. There is an evidence that a
theory which | advanced long ago
to explain TIE loss of activity in
the br in is only partially true.
1t was that a contraction or spasm
takes place in the blood vessels of the brain,
that blood does not circulate there any
more, and that, as | then supposed, the |
Of the circulation causes a cessa- |
is another cause in these cases in which !
there cannot be a contraction of the blood |
vessels, because the principal nerve which |
produces these cOntractiOns has been di- |
vided; and even III those cases a loss of |
can take place suddenly. |
Pricking the base OF the brain may cause |
loss Of consciousness in an animal |
after the division of the nerves that 90 to |
the base of the brain. We cannot attribute |
that loss of consciousness to want of circu- |
latiOn, for the blood may be circulating |
there. But there is another fact. If we |
galvanize the par vagum so as to arrest the |
hearts action, there then is no circulation
1t all in the brain and if we have galvan-
Zed only the part of the nerve
which goes to the heart after having divid-
ed it, so that there is no circulation at all
n the brain, the animal remains conscious
or eight or ten seconds. Therefore, when
we find in some cases that certain irritation
Will produce loss of consciousness i'm
we cannot look upon the loss of
as being due to the cessation
If circulation in the brain, as that cessation
loes nOtimmediately cause the loss of con-
ciOusnes. In cholera, too. the brain re-
mains active sometimes, although there is
10 circulation in the brain, although the
blood there is perfectly black. 1t shows
hat the brain may remain active when de-
)rived of circulation, and even of oxygen.
We must therefore admit that there is an
lctiye cause which produces the cessation
If the activity of the brain in those cases in
which tits produced by the cessation of the
nervous system.