The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1898-01-13
Consumption and Bronchitis.

We commence today = series Of extracts
! from the Lectures OF DIR. Robert Hunter-the
distinguished lung specialist-on the Progress
of Medical Sci. nee in the Treatment Of Lung
Complaints. They will be continued from
week to week, and ought to prove Of great in
terest and value to the public.
The lungs are the great vital centers OF the
body on which the health and proper action OF
all other organs depend. five cease to breathe
for but five minutes, we are dead at the end Of
that time. In rare and exceptional cases the
fame Of life can be rekindled by artificial res
piration, but, as a rule, people sound and well
when suffocsted are dead beyond restoration at
the end of five minutes. Have you ever
thought why this lei 1t is because the func-
tons Of every vital organ stop the moment we
stop breathing. Breathing makes the heart to
beat, the blood to circulate, and the brain to
send forth sensation and motion to the entire
body.
The lungs, the brain and the heart, constitute
the tripod OF life, and while they act we cannot
die. The heart depends on the lungs for its
power to circulate the blood, nd the blood de-
ponds on the lungs for It's publication. Poison
Gus carbonic acid is formed in the blood by the
healthy and natural action Of the organism, and
must be expelled by the act Of breathing. This
is Gods appointed way Of keeping our blood
pure. II we stop breathing we retain this car
cumulates enough to poison our blood and stop
the whole machinery Of life.
Hence all affections Of the lungs are serious
because they diminish the purity OF our blood
and in the same proportion injure our general
health. Take for example cold which in
flames the air passages and tubes Of the lungs,
swells their mucous lining, contracts the size
OF the tubes through which we breathe, and
obstructs them by viscid secretions of mucus.
As we cannot breathe through tubes that are
narrowed or obstructed by mucus as well as
through those that are open and free, so every
cold while it lasts lessons our breathing accord
ing to it's severity, and in the same degree di-
minishes the purity of our blood, hurts our cir
culation, clogs the action of the heart and irri-
tates the brain and nervous system.
Every disease which injuriously affects our
| lungs begins first in the mucous lining of the
air passages-nose, throat and bronchial tubes.
This membrane is exposed to every change in
the temperature Of the air and to smoke, gas,
dust, and all irritating and noxious matters
floating in it, which all act directly on the
breathing organs.
Oh-repeated and long continued irritation of
mucous membrane gradually develops into a
chronic bronchitis--a condition Of the lungs full
of interest because so often mistaken and so
liable to be mistaken for consumption, the most
dreaded of lung diseases.
(Signed) ROBERT HUNTER, NJ. D.,
Specialist of Throat and Lung Diseases,
III West Forty fifth Street, New York.
NOTE Readers of THE SOMERSET Re-
PORTER who desire to know more about the
treatment of lung complaints will receive DR..
Hunters books, giving all particulars, free, by
applying to him at III West Forty-f street,
/ New York.