Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-14
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Pneumonia pays attention specifically
to the lungs. The lungs together are
the essential parts of an apparatus for
erecting certain changes in the condi-
ton OF the blood. AS a chemist passes
q fluid through some given medium to
free it from one element or charge il
with another, 81 the blood must be con-
stantly put in contact with the air in
order that it may free itself from car
Donlc acid and acquire oxygen, and the
lungs are the apparatus in which the
blood is thus brought into relation with
the air. They constitute an apparatus
of indescribable delicacy. In its connt-
less myriads of microscopic sacs or mir
cells, in the infinite intricacy of the can.
Hilary blood vessels by which the blood
is brought in blue and carried out red,
and in its system of vasomotor nerves,
o readily to be comprehended logic
ally than to be observed even micro
scopically, there is a d~elicacy and
accuracy of structure in the various
parts of this machinery by comparison
with which the most highly perfected
pieces of metallic machinery are as so
many cartwheels compared with the
wheels of the daintiest watches. Through
this extremely delicate apparatus all
the blood in a human body is passed
about once every five minutes, more or
less, for the whole of a 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 o%xygenation of the
fluid nearly three hundred times in
q day, say for eighty years in the case
of one who lives till q good old age. If
we suppose that in the case of q man of
sixty years the whole current of the
blood has passed through this appa-
ratus for about. sixty million times, and
remember how absolutely impossible it
would be to make any piece of ma
chinery that would go on for such a
period, and if we reflect upon the many
facts in life that may and constantly do
derange this delicate apparatus-facts
of mere temperature or facts of varia-
ton in the quality of the
fluid that passes through-it can
not be difficult to understand why
at about that time in life when use
goes on and repair begins to fail the
susceptibility to arrangement beyond
remedy is very great. But in all the
delicacy of this structure there is one
part more delicate than the rest. This
is a set of nerves capable of dilating or
reducing the caliber of the blood ves-
sells they are modifers of the current.
While they are in easy and healthy OPP
Grafton all goes well, but a change in
their condition changes all else. They
may be stimulated or depressed OR alb
solutely overwhelmed, so that their ac-
ton fails altogether, and as their action
fails the whole operation of the appa-
ratus goes desperately wrong. These
nerves are peculiarly sensitive to- very
many influences relating to the condi-
ton 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 effect
them in n person paralyzes them in
another; and when they are paralyzed
then the current of the blood through
the lungs is interrupted: the modifier is
out of office, and the dilated vessels
become gorged with blood and can not
free themselves, and this arrested blood
undergoes a change of disintegration
and the victim has a '.hepatized" lung
or lungs.
Now, q hepatized lung is practically a
solidified lung. If a man has two of
them he a not breathe and speedily
dies. If he has only one he is still in a
very bad way. But this account of the
genesis and modus faciendi of pneumo-
MIA may show that it is In effect an acct
dent-much us a broken leg is; for
though the causes which paralyze the
modifying nerves may be consecutive to
other diseases, yet ordinarily in acute
pneumonia this cause is atmospheric
the victim has exposed himself to
weather too severe in itself or compare
lively too severe because of the dimin-
ishod resistance OF the system through
debility. Consequently it is in a great
many cases q ma!ady that the thought
full man may escape. One may go out
on a March night to como home with
pneumonia, or stay at home and be
| without tn. y. Mcrukd.