The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-10-03

In its immediate rear was a passage
leading from the back of the mouth
upward into the nasal cavity already
uescrlped. On the rear wall of this
passage, Just above the "uvula," there
OFTEN occurs, in children, a peculiar
fungus-lil1e growth, which chokes il
up and interferes with, or in bad cases
entirely stops, breathing through the
nose.
The growth in question is what ply
slclans call "adenoids''-a trouble about
which good deal has been said of
late. careful look out for cases of il
Is kept incidentally to the medical in
spect1on of schools 1t is liable to in
terfere with the mental development of
children, gives them a peculiar devel-
opment of children, gives them a pecu-
liar expression, and sometimes makes
them semi-idiotic. Yet the remedy is
simple. The growth may frequently be
removed with the nail of a finger
thrust back into the mouth. but the
surgical instrument ordinarily en-
ployed for the purpose is shaped like
a miniature hoe.
While it is true that the nose is the
organ of SMELL thus function is only
Incidental. More important, it is the
orifice themselves behind the mucous
lining of the enclosed space. Certain
substances produce upon these nerves
agreeable effects, and we say that they
smell good" Certain other substances
! produce unpleasant effects, and we de-
scribe their characteristic effluvia as
| ''stenches." In the latter class noto-
riously are included various COM
pounds of sulphur, such as the sui
phureted hydrogen of a bag egg.
But there are smells vastly worse
| than tleSn-fhnSa Of Selani11ro oor,1-
pounds for example. 1t is related that
Berzelius the discovered of selenium,
tried on one occasion the experiment of
permitting q bubble of pure hydrogen
! selenide gas to enter his nostril or
days afterwards he was not able to
smell strong ammonia, his olfaltory
nerves being temporarily paralyzed,
Worse yet-wOrst of all, indeed, it is
sald-are compounds Of tellurium. Sc
lenium smell like putrid horseradish,
but nothing has ever been found bad
enough to compare with tellurium. II
happened once upon time that ply
sfcian having tried in vain to persuade
fashionable lady patient to take
much-needed rest, gave her, as a last
resort, tellurium pill. II was just
one pill, but its effect upon her breath
was so awful that she was unable to
appear in society for a month The
object of the prescription was gained.
but it is painful to think of the conse-
quences to that doctor if the victim
had suspected his responsibility for the
mischief.
Nature intends that we shall breathe
through our noses, and an immense
amount of michief is caused by the
habit, adopted by too many people, of
breathing through the mouth.
Nature wishes, on this account, to
keep the passage always entirely clear
and open. Hence the Sneeze, the OBJ
ject of which is to get rid of any OBJ
struction in the breathoing passage
Anything that strongly irritates the
nerve ends in the living Of the nose is
liable to produce one of these spasms,
which begins with a sudden intake of
breath, as a preparation for the imme-
diate closing of all passages by which
air may be expelled from the lungs
Then, following a violent contraction
of the diaphragm and other muscles, |
the nose and throat are opened, and an
extremely vigorous expulsion Of air
winds up the performance.
That is what a sneeze is The next |
time you are overtaken by one, notice |
how the mechanism of it works. 1t is
rather interesting.
Not long ago the SneeZe germ, as it |
might be called, was discovered by an |
American scientist, DIR. Durand, who |
is director of the Hygienic Institute at
Hamburg. To speak with literalness, ii |
was not miCrobe that he found, but a |
poison, which is the cause of hay fever. |
1t appears that this poison is con-
tanned in the pollen Of various grains I
and grasses. as we'll as in that of GER
tain othe" plants.