The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-11-14

cautions are taken, many promising
child may be saved to grow up ana the
lives of many a loved parent or grand
parent may be prolonged for years.
If there was ever any virtue in the ola
saying: San ounce of prevention IS
worth pound of cure" it surely applies
very forcibly to inflammation of the
lungs and windpipe.
The windpipe which is nearly an inch
in diameter in grown person, divides
up like the branches of a tree. The
branches grow smaller and smaller at
each division, and each one finally ends
in a pocket that is less than one-hun-
dredth of an inch in diameter. The walls
of these pockets are a network of minute
blood vessels, and here it is that the i'm
pure dark blood and almost black blood
of the veins is changed to the bright red
blood of the arteries, and the deadly
carbonic acid is changed for the life-giv-
ing oxygen. If by any means the air is
prevented from reaching these terminal
pockets the carbonc acid will be retained
in the blood, and the patient will smoth-
er to death just as surely as if he had a
rope about his neck.
The lungs and windpipe are the weak
points or many persons. and ii they get
their shoes saturated with the cold
rains of the late fall or the melting
SHOWS of the early winter the cold they
get settles in this region. Or if they go
out on a cold Gay with their backs,
shoulders and arms we'll protected and
with but little covering on the upper
part of the chest the cold strikes in
through It's thin walls and bronchitls or
pneumonia results. Or they may be
well wrapped up and go out of doors
hood OF zero and breathe IN the cold air
till their windpipe and lungs are thor
oughly chilled aud inflammation results.
The windpipe is lined with a mucous
mem brane in which secretes just enough
liquid to keep the surface moist and iexi-
BILE. In bronchitis this secretion is dried
up, and the patient coughs and coughs
for several days without bringing any
thing up. In from one to three days,
however, the lining mem brane generally
begins to throw out a stringy mucus
which is coughed up in larger or smaller
quaint ties.
When the larger tubes only are affected
the danger is slight, but if the intlam-
nation extends to the smaller ones the
danger increases as the tubes grow small
Ter. For, if these small tubs become
plugged up with this mucous, SO that
the air cannot pass through to the termi-
ual pockets the patient will surely smoth-
er to death. Gases of chronic bronchitis
in the aged that have lasted for years
may suddenly terminate fatally by a
fresh cold causing the disease to extend
to these small tubes. This condition is
called capillary bronchitis.
When the pockets at the end of the
tubes are affected they are filed up solid
SO that no air can get into them, and
we then have pneumonia. If only one
lobe of one lung is in6amed the rest of
that lung, with the unaffected lung will
furnish enough breathing surface to tide
the patient over, but if whole lung is
affected the situation is grave, and ii it
extends to both lungs it becomes desper-
ate indeed. Ii the disease takes a favor
able course the deposit in these pockets
is absorbed in few days, and they are
again free to perform their usual func-
tion. II, however, the deposit is not abb
sorbed, the pressure on the blood vessels
strangles them, portions of the lung
tissue die, one or more cavities are
formed, and we have well developed
case of consumption.
10 prevent either bronchitis or pneu-
monia the feet should he well shod and
The 0vershoes should be removed i'm
mediately on entering the house, lest
the shoes become damp from the moist
ure absorbed from the feet. Wet shoes
should be changed FOR dry ones at the
very earliest moment. The front of the
chest should be as we'll protected as the
back. In cold and windy weather a
ing (for most wooden goods are like a
sieyel will prevent the wind blowing
through them and chilling the body.
Young children, feeble persons and the
aged, no matter how well wrapped up,
should never go into the open air when
the temperature is near zero. Don't
breath through your mouth. Your nose
was made for that purpose. By passing
through the nose the air becomes some
what warmed before it reaches the lungs
and is not so apt to shock them.
In the treatment of pneumonia, and
bronchitis the fact that cold air irritates
the inflamed air passages and aggravates
both diseases, cauDnt be too strongly
emphasized. Breathing very cold air
may change a simple case of bronchitis
to capillary bronchitis, or cause pneu-
monia to spread from ore lobe to the
whole lung. Therefore, it is very i'm
portant that the sick room should be
kept warm, not lower than so degrees
day and night. This is more important
than medicine. 1t is mistake to sup
pose that warm air is not fresh ARIA
mistake that has cost many life. A
child with bronchitis should never be
taken out of doors to give it fresh air.
The patient should be kept quiet, as all
exertion increases the frequency OF the
breathing. No one but the nurse and
the patient should be allowed in the
room. The more people there are in a
room the quicker the air becomes foul
and the faster the patient must breathe.
1t is better to offend Aunt Jane, Uncle
other fussy people than to, kill the
patient. A lighted lamp Or gasburner
will poison the air as much as one per-
son, and should, therefore, be turned
very low.