Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-02-10

OF q rubber tip to the ordinary stethoscope
whereby the instrument can be fitted so
exactly to the subjects head that the sound
OF this brain respiration cannot escape, bat
nay be uudeniallly heard That it differs
N sane and inHane pcrsons the doctor is
convinced, and by means of the stethoscope
lac feels sure that he can distinguish, as a
rule, between healthy Drained people and
those who are insane or idiots.
The little rubber tip which is DR.. Nc
Cahey's discovery, is n novelty, and it's
| story was unfolded by DIR. McCahey him
self
my general theory" declared DIR. Nc.
Cahey, 'is that the great mechanical agent
employed by all the animate world, animal
or vegetable, to permit of growth against
the continual resistance of the atmosphere
is heated air. Within the interstices of the
tissue of the body is air, and this air, be-
coming heated by the processes of life, ex-
ercises greater expansive force than the
outer atmosphere, and thereby enables the
animal to grow against it. You can squeeze
this air out of tomato and pepper under
water and see it come up in large bubbles.
In the tissue and hollow organs of men this
air is used as the direct mechanical func.
ton. The eXpulsive force in splitting,
coughing and sneezing we know to be air.
"A free supply of air to the brain is just
as necessary as free supply to the lungs,
and any interference with this brain res
piration will cause serious disturbance of
the cerebral functions, even insanity. In
sanity may be caused by tumor or by
congestiye blow, but post mortems almost
invariably disclose no resident cause of in
sanity. That people become insane and
are permanently restored and that there is
a recurrent insanity points to functional
arrangement.
"This disturbed function l claim to be
the cranial respiration. Air taken into the
lungs passes to and from the brain through
minute pores at the base of the skull. The
normal circulation of blood through the
brain depends upon this normal air cur
rent. If from any cause these tiny pores
become closed or stopped to an abnormal
degree, the current is impeded or destroyed
The air that is shut in becomes overheated
and cOngests the brain"
BY means of the DOCTORS rubber tipped
stethoscope wonderful things come to light.
In the head of Il healthy person two dis
tinct sounds can be heard, coincident with
the inhalation and eXhalation of air by the
lungs. These sounds are practically of the
same tone in all healthy heads, but are al
tered or absent in all classes of insane or
idiots. The sounds of the heart and voice
in these mentally weak and deranged I'M
fortunates are also different from those in
sane persons. AS these are grades of in
sanity so there are degrees of sound.
As rule the noise of the wind current
of an insane or idiotic brain is more marked
ly perceptible than that of a sane organ,
and in big headed idiots it whistles loudly.
The major portion of insanity is caused by
arrangement of the cranial wind apparatus.
Where it is not due to tumor, blow or
some kindred direct injury to the brain or
its covering, insanity is traceable to this
ill wind, and the rubber tipped stetho-
scope may yet become the champion insane
expert in the world. Newark Journal