Delta chief., 1884-05-21
The Philosophy Of Coughing.

The following remarks on the ration
ale of coughing, from the journal Of
Chemistry, are appropriate and in
structive: Everybody coughs some
times. and judging by the quantity of
patent cough medicines sold. many peo-
pie must be coughing all the time
Most persons suppose that cough is q
cough the world over, and that what
will cure one will cure another; and so
they prescribe for themselves and their
friends all sorts of syrups, home made
or proprietary. with the consoling as
sertion tnat ..it cant do any hurt il it
don't do any good How do you
know il can't do any hurt? Do YOU
know its ingredients. and, if so. have
YOU studied their effects upon the sys-
tenn in health and in disease? Do YOU
know the condition of the patient YOU
are prescribing this for-his constitu-
ton. his HABITS of life, his past his
tory2
Let us see what a cough is. 1t is a
sudden and forcible expulsion of the
air from the lungs, preceded by a tenn
porary closure Of the wind-pipe TO give
additional impulse to the current of
air. The effect of these spasmodic cS-
pirations is the removal OF whatever
may have accumulated in the air-tuoes,
whether foreign body from without.
as when particle Of food finds its way
into the windpipc. or an accumulation
of mucus secrctcd in the air passages
themselves.
Coughing is in part a voluntary act.
We can cough whenever we wish to,
but frequently we are compelled to
cough when we don't wish to. Nerves
are divided into two classes, sensory
and motor nerves. The former carry
intelligence to the brain; they report TO
headquarters any disturbance on the
frontier. The motor nerves then carry
back the commands Of the general TO
act. You tickle a friends ear with n
straw. and his hand automatically pro-
ceeds to scratch the itching member
A tickling sensation is produced in the
throat by any cause whatever; the
brain then sends back orders to the
muscles concerned to act so as to eN.
pei the intruder; in other words, 10
cough. And that is how we cough.
The source Of the impression may be
various. Frequently II is due to an ir-
rita,ion Of the respiratory organs by
foreign bodies. dust and acrid vapors,
admitted with the air in health. or to
damp, cold air itself, II the organs are
particularly sensitive, or to the pres
encc Of mucus, pus. or blood, in dis
ease. Inflammation. from whatever
cause, acts as source of uncasi-
ness
There are. as we all know. many
different kinds of cough. Thus we
have the dry cough. without expcctora-
ton, and the moist cough. with cNpcc-
toration. We have the short. hacking
cough. resulting from slight irritation,
and the violent. spasmodic. and con-
vulsivc cough, caused by a greater de-
gree of irritation. or some peculiar
modification thereof. Then there are
the occasional, the inccssant. and the
paroNysmal cough, terms that explain
themselves. Hoarsc. Wheeling. bark
ing and shrill coughs are due to the
tension or capacity of the rim of the
windpipc. or other portion of the tube.
The hollow cough owes its peculiar
sound to resonance in the enlarged
tubes or the cavities in the lungs, II
such exist. Sometimes the exciting
cause of n cough lies not in the lungs
and respiratory organs. but in the
stomach, liver or intcstincs. In other
cases there seems to be no real cause:
il is purely nervous or hystcrical.