Connecticut western news., 1875-03-26
4 DISEASE OF THE 4rsssFllirt5p. sli5
Y AAC CWtHEUWAtL -.k5VAEIEIHHICtLAAy 9D1SEW3Sptt
 State Medical Association.

rneur, onia scientlneaIly Dl-eu.ssa by n
 State Medical Association.
 Never before has pneumonia ragged so severely as this season. It and diphtheria | have attracted the attention of the medi- cal faculty everywhere At a late meet ing of the New York Medical Society Dr. Peters read n paper, from which we I make the following extracts,
 Pneumonia signifies inflammation of l the air-cells and intercelllllar passage, without any necessary complications with bronchitis or pleurisy.z The air cells are lined with @ very thin mem brane, without mucous follicles, and are
 covered with sq1amous epithelium, in
 stead of the cylindrical and ciliated variety which lines the air-tubes.a This
 sharp .demarkation, frequently prevents
 disease of the air cells from extending to
 the air-tubes, and, keeps, bronchitis from
 developing into pneumonia except under
 unusual circumstances. Exposure to.
 cold, raw air is the most common cause
 of pneumonia; hence it is more prevalent, during the winter months Individuals
 of all ages and conditions of life are
 liable to pneunonia after sudden changes
 in the temperature, and some compara- lively robust persons have been attacked
 by this malady after exposure to extreme
 temporarily. debilitated by overwork,
 proper changes in their clothing. .Indi-
 been suffering previously from disorder
 of the liver, skin and kidneys, termed by
 Murchison lithsemia, or hthic condition of the system and blood, which may be regarded as @ modified form of rremia. A number of cases also arise from the
 chilling of the body, commonly called
 'scatehing cold, and an equal number.
 of attacks are developed spontaneously
 without any special exposure. to cold. Every physician has had occasion to
 observe that in certain persons, who habitually have an excess of hthates in
 their excretions, these will cease to be eliminated on the event of a local in fammation, or an, ordinary febrilez cold
 or catarrh, but they will be discharged | in abundance on the subsistence of the
 fever. In such cases the retention of
 the lithates in the, system. has probably l determined the local inflammation, and
 when nature casts them out again the
 disease subsidies. If 9 person however
 robust be subject to the disarran cement
 of his liver and kidneys. with its conse l quent tithamic condition of the blood,
 he will take cold easily, and if he be-
 comes exposed to cold and wet weather, ] or to a draught of cold air, he will readi- l ly receive g. check, of precipitation or Q l suppression of the functions of the skin. ! The latter event is a much more, import !. ant disorder than retention of Q certain quantity of watery fluid which, should
 be cast out through the pores of the
 skin, although it is calculated that from twenty four to thirty ounces of insensi jble perspnation is afuraH exhaled per
 day, or.about one ounce per hour, which
 is about one-half the quantity of the
 visible secretion of the kidneys, which
 should amount to about forty y-eight Il ounces per day, or two ounces per hour.
 It is calculated that one hundred and
 fifty grains of urea are cast out by the
 healthy skin in twenty-four hours; while
 the kidneys, whose principal office is to
 do this, only excrete five hundred grains.
 Besides this, there are tactic, formac,
 butyric, and 5sudorics acids in the nor
 nal perspiration, the excretion of all ot
 which is prevented by chill of the sur
 face. Hence slight form of ur@mic
 contamination of the blood will be added
 to pfe-existing tith@mia.
 Poverty, with low living, residence in the foul air of large towns and close rooms, when varied by occupations in
 volving exposure to the inelemencies soi
 the weather, especially if complicated with intemperance, are justly regarded f as among the principal causes of pneu monia in those cold seasonsswhich arc |, marked by very low range oftempera 5 ture, interrupted byssudde1is and great a changes of weather. Yet extremes vii g meet, and the votaries of pleasure anc
 fashion who are too delicately fed an6
 thinly clad, who become overheated il
 crowded rooms, will also suffer, as vel as the robust, plethoric, and good liver a Therefore, it is fair to assume that { u very large number of cases of pneumonia . occurring in persons of good 7circum z stances might have been avoided by thu ' exercise of little more care in thei e manner of dressing and living. A time : ly resort to some bilious or renal medi il cine would promptly remove the ithi " or other contamination of the system ant , blood, But when pneumonia has al : ready commenced it becomes necessar, . . to deal with an inflammation of the air ,. - cells and of the so-called intercellula - spaces, which pass between them an' l.~ form the terminations of the air-tubes 2 The largest of these are only one=seven {, tieth part of an inch in diameter, but 1 is estimated that there are 600, ,00O,O ,O00o V V them in the two lungs. The approximat lf weight of the lungs in the adult is abou n 1o two and one-haf pounds, and they hay ~ capacity for containing about thre v hundred cubic inches of air, with pow ', CT of expansion of 132 square feet, c 's as more than eight times that possessed b 'I the skin. The inside of the air-cells $ exposed to all the injuries which can b 7, inflicted upon them by the very colo a and often very foul air which individual 70 , are occasionally obliged to breathe, an !. ,e sometimes they are thus forced into ~ condition remotely resembling a fros ,, bite, and at other times are absolutel Y, .b crowded and poisoned by the inhalatio 1a ~. of foul air.
 as The outside of the air cells is almo of equally exposed to danger, being su oa rounded by five meshes of the exceed :" ingly small capillary blood vessels whic M u. intervene between the terminal branche $ of the pulmonary arteries and the con ;,, mencing ones of the pulmonary vein as The pulmonary veins convey all u '; G' venous and impure blood of the body r; the lungs just outside the air cells, m ama order to be revivified by contact with u os os oxygen of the air, which comes to u ,"' through the air tubes. Thus the air eel III are always in close contact with vel o,. c. impure blood, for the space betwee I .l, them and the pulmonary capillary bloc !; vessels is only one two hundred al te te fortieth part of an inch. If the syste eo and blood of the patient be healthy ar .v as pure, favorable form of infammatie Sy ~ will arise, which is dangerous only fro o9 ag it's extent. But if the blood be prev 7u ouslY contaminated from any cause.