The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-12-21
Drops
 As Cause Of Death
Dr James Hennessy in WATR Address Points Out Posi-
 ton at Fifth on Iist-Formerly Third Deadliest

be sure, that is what we mean. Throughout the years since the es- tablishment of the first sanatorium by Dr Trudeau, bed-rest for the tuberculous sick has been, and still is, the greatest single factor in regaining health. Gradually, however. other methods have been developed which are additional weapons in our hands and every method aims for still more rest. Long ago, 1t was recognized that Q
 broken leg, in order to heal, had
 to be placed at rest 50 that nature
 could unite the broken fragments into useful member again. Splints and plaster casts were de- vised to this end. It would be re- diculous to expect a broken leg to heal while we were walking on it. The situation is exactly the
 same with the broken, diseased
 lunfi. Since we cannot place splints and casts on the lung to
 keep it quiet for healing, the pa tient is placed in bed where he
 uses his lungs as little as possible.
 This is common sense. Rappily
 during the past few years, there
 has been brought into use the
 nearest approach to a splint for
 the dioseased lung as one could
 ever imagine. In addition to glv-
 ing both lungs rest by placing the patient in bed, we are now able to rest an entire lung separately by
 what is known as the "collapse treatment" We have three outstanding
 means of accomplishing the col- lapse of the lung and wish to
 speak of them briefly in the order of the ones most used.
 By far the most widely known and practiced method is pneumo- thorax. The word pneumothorax
 means literally, lair in the chest" and that is exactly what the treat- ment consists of. By injecting air or gas into the chest, we can squeeze down, or collapse, the dis eased lung with a cushion of air. This cushion of air, acting as a splint, keeps the lung at real rest, allowing nature to do its healing work much more rapidly and ef- fectively than is possible with bed rest alone. This treatment is not new, yet only in recent years has 1t been so widely and so successfully employed. The healing in the sick lung is quickened so that the pa tient's stay in bed is greatly short ened and his return to wrk hast
 ened. Many patients in this very city and throughout this country
 are to-day carrying out their daily
 duties just as well as their more fortunate associates. They have no
 cough or expectoration, or fever,
 or flushed cheeks, or any other signs commonly attributed to tu-
 berculosis. They are not danger ous to their families or to their fellow workers. To all intents and 1 purposes, they have their full
 with me when I say these cases il-
 over the white plague. Further,
 sion that this treatment perma-
 nently affects the lung, I wish to
 state emphatically that the col- lapse of the lung is temporary.
 The lung expands to its normal limits as soon as the 'gas treat
 ments' are stopped. Tn other
 words, when nature has healed the lung, we can allow the lung to
 "come out" and resume it's work.
 Nor, during the time that the dis eased lung is laid up for repairs,
 is the patient short of breath. The
 good lung easily craries the load
 imposed by any average activity.
 The second lung at our disposal for use in collapsing the lung Is
 one in which a nerve controlling
 the great breathing muscle, the
 diaphramg, is crushed or cut. It
 may be we'll to explain that run-
 ming from our brain, down each
 side of the neck, through the
 chest, and to this great muscle
 which makes Q floor for the lungs
 to rest upon, is q nerve known
 to the doctors as the phrenic
 nerve. The phrenic nerve, by sup-
 plying power to this muscle, caug-
 Ing it to rise and fall, controls
 our breathing; the lung is made to
 squeeze out and then suck in the
 air, and this muscle, which we know as the diaphragm, is the
 greatest single factor in our re-
 splratory machine. Now, when
 this power line 10 cut or crushed, the muscle on that particular side
 stops working. It is paralyxed.
 Tho paralysis results In tho dia.
 phragm on thls side rising several
 Inches, squeezing the lung tissue
 together. and the muscle no iongeF moves up end down. This opera. ton gives lie c partial collapse and allows tho lung te do less work in breathing. fn theory, this moths or Of collapse docs not seem as
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