Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1882-06-08
RsHtpttatitEsrtRmsst.
DIR. WOLFE'S
Common Sense.
LETTER XIV.


is called Emphysema. Fortunately the
part Of the lung affected in this way d
usually small, though sometimes the
whole Of a lung becomes permanently
diste2ded or disorganized. Persons suffer-
ing from Emphysema can not lie down
with ease, because the breathing isalmost
wholly abdominal, and in the recumbent
position the stomach, spleen, and liver
press against the diaphragm or floor of
the chest, and restrain the freedom Of its
movements. For the same reason full
stomach, either from a hearty meal or
wind. always adds greatly to the difficult.
ty OF breathing. The expectoration is
frothy and when collected in cup looks
like gum-water or slippery-elm tea COW
cred with foam. The most common cause
Of Emphysema is dry bronchitis. The
viscid mucus secreted in that disease is
often found adhering to the sides of the
air-tubes In such O manner as to form a
kind of valve, which offers less resistance
to the entrance of the air than to its ex-
pulsion. The air rushes in and finds its
way to the air-cells with but little dif-
ficulty, but when il Is TO be expelled the
obstruction is so great as to require a
forced effort to effect it. This labored
expiration would c itself gradually bring
about the dilatiou of the air-cell; but it is
probable that this effect is greatly hast
ened by part of the air remaining impris-
oned after each expifatioh, till the air
cells are blown up and ruptured or re-
mainpermanentlyd distended. That you
may Understand this, we have six little
India .rnn nber bags attached by shorttub.
ular stems to larger tube that six cubic
nches of air will just fill. Now, when
filled they bear some resemblance to a
cluster of air-cells in the lungs. If we
force six cubic inches of air into them
and expel five, and continue to do this,
in short time they will have swelled up
to two or three times their former size,
and in the end will burst and be de-
stroyed. This is mechanical illustra-
tion of what takes place in the lungs in
most cases of Emphysema. This form
OF asthma often ends in consumption.
y Humoral Asthma is another form of
this disease, arising from the very oppo-
site condition to what / have described |
under the head of Dry Asthma. Instead
OF the secretion being small in amount,
thick, and sticky. it is thin and watery
and flows in large quantities. The at
tacks come on as common cold, with
stufing in the nose, followed by great
want of breath, wheeling in the chest
and expectorations, amounting often to
one or two pints of thin, n,lglairy secre.
tion, which looks like the white Of raw
eggs when beaten into froths ,Humoral
! Asthma bears the same relation to Humid
Bronchitis that Dry Asthma does to Dry
Bronchitis. Both forms of asthma are
caused by corresponding varieties of |
hrnnnhSfic HhnnnroI Aot - -
common in old people; but it occurs at |
every age of life. In the intervals be-
tween the attacks there issusually some
cough and expectoration, with strong liza
bility to become wheezy from every
slight exertion and exposure. t&
In addition to these there are several
other forms of.asthma which we weintended
TO describe, but find that our limits will
not permit. Still there are a few facts
we have overlooked, to which we will
briefly refer before proceeding to speak
of treatment. The occurrences of parox-
ysmsSof asthma are.extremely various. In
some we have single fit. and, when this
is over, the disease ceases indefinitely.
Sometimes two or three attacks will oc-
cur night after night, and then pass off
for weeks and months. Again, they oc-
cur with the regularity OF intermitting
fever.
The paroxysms OF Hay Asthma occur
only once year, but the regularity of
their return is accomplished with almost
the precision of clock work. Many suf-
ferers can not only tell the day in July, |
August, or September when their aff1ic- |
tion will begin, but the very hour, and
make their preparations accordingly. |
They can not tell, however, with like
precision, when their suffering will cease;
though they hope for relief when the
first hoar frost appears.
There are three conditions of the at
mosphere which induce asthma: /. Its
electrical state: 2. Foreign matter, and |
8. The thermal condition. The immeoi-
ate cause of asthma, as already stated, is
a morbid sensibility of the pulmonary
nerves permeating the membrane lining
the ari-tubes and air-cells There is.a
great deal of difference in the influence
produced upon different persons by the
same cause. Hence it is that some asth-
matics breath best in the smoky atmos-
phere of city, while others can not pass
single night in it without the unwel-
come companionship Of paroxysm.
Some are comfortable only on grounds
surrounding marsh, while others sleep
pl8cidiy Id the pure air on a mountain
ranga. Some persons can sleep in one
street 6f.atown, bnt not in another; and
on one side of street, but not on the
opposite; and even in the back room Of a
house but not in the front.
Treatment hitherto abortive ef-
forts to treat asthma successfully have
produced profound public conviction
that the malady is incurable. Physicians
almost universally regard it in that
light, ana patients have long since ceased
tolexpect more than palliation of their
sufferings. This state OF the popular
mind is, in itself, the strongest testimo-
ny that can be offered against the truth
of those principles of practice which have
hitherto directed the administration of
medicine. If any good is really to be efs
fected by medicines, it must be some rad
ical change in the manner of using them.
The treatment'pursued for ages has been
one continuous round of experiments
through the same channel-the stomach
There is scarce any article in the Materia
Medica which has not, at one time or
another, been tried as remedy for asth-
ma and yet, from each and all, failure and
disappointment have been the only re-
turns.
Why is this? We can find no sufficient
reason in either the cause, the patholO-
gy. or the progress of asthma. a disease
may spring from 90 deeply rooted a vice
in the system, or depend on such exten, /,
sive disorganizations, or be so rapid in its
as to place at defiance tho most
efficient remedies. But we have here a
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