The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1883-04-26
Mseful aud Curious.
PNEUMONIA.

Pneumonia paws attention specifically to the
lungs. The lungs together are the essential
parts of an apparatus for effecting certain
changes in the condition of the blood. As a
chemist passes fluid through some given me-
dium to free it from one element or charge it
with another so the blood must be constantly
put in contact with the air in order that it may
free itself from carbonc acid and acquire oxy
gen, and the lungs are the apparatus IN which
the blood is thus brought into relation with the
air They constitute an aparatns of indescriba-
bic delieacy. In its countless myriads OF micro
scopic sacs air cells, in the infinite intricacy
of tine capillary blood vessels by which the blood
| is brought in blue and carried ont red, and in
| its system Of vasomoter nerves, more readily to
be comprehended logically than TO be observed
even microscopically, there is a delicaey and ac
curacy of structure in the various parts of this
machinery by comparison with which the most
highly perfected pieces of metallic machinery
are as many cartwheels' compared with the
wheels of the daintiest watches Through this
extremely delicate apparatus all the blood in n
| human body is passed about once in every i've
minutes, more or less, for the whole of mans
! life: that is to say, under the influence Of the
| pumping force which determines the circulation
The whole current of the blood is driven through
| this delicate machinery for the oxygenation of
the fluid, nearly three hundred times in day.
| say for eighty years, in 1.-The case OF one who
| lives to a good old age. II we suppose that in
/ the case Of man of sixty years. the whole cur
| rent of the blood has passed through this appa
| ratus for aboat sixty million times, and remem-
| Der how absolutely impossible it would be to
| make any piece of machinery that would go
| for such period, and if reflect upon the
many facts in life that may and constantly do
derange this delicate apparatus-facts of mere
temperature or facts of variation in the quality
of the fluid that passes through-it can not be
difficult to understand why at about that time
| in life when goes on and repair begins to
! fail the susceptibility to derangsmeDt beyond
remedy is very great. But in all the deicacy
Of this structure there is one part more delicate
than the rest. This Is a set of nerves capable Of
| dilating reducing the calibre of the blood
vessels; they the modifers Of the current
| While they are in easy and healthy operation
] all goes well, but change in their condition
| changes all else. They may be stimulated
depressed or absolutely overwhelmed that
| their action fails altogether, and their action
| fails the whole operation of the appapatus goes
| desperately wrong. These nerves are peculiarly
sensitive to very many influences relating 20 the
condition of the blood, and more sensitive in
one man than IN another, wherefore it follows
that changes of temperature or degrees of cold
which would not affect them in person par
| alyze them in another; and when they are par
| alyZed then the current of the blood through the
lungs is interrupted, the modiier is out of Office,
| and the dilated vessels become gorged with
blood and cannot free themselves, and this
rested blood undergOes a change in dsintegra-
| tion, and the victim has "heptatiZed" lung or
| lungs. ~
Now beptatzed lung is practically solidi-
| fed lung If a man has two of them he cannot
breathe, and speedily dies. Ifhe has only
| he is still in very bad way. But this account
| of the genesis and mOdas fdcieHdi of pneumonia
may show that it is in effect accident-much
| as broken leg is; for though the causes which
paralyZe the modifying nerves may he conseeu-
| tive to other diseases, vet ordinarily in acute
| pneumonia, this cause is atmOspheric-the vic
| tim has exposed himself to weather too severe
because of the diminished resistance of the sys-
| TEN through Debility. Consequently il is in