Lungs and Bronchial Tubes

Occurring in Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Consumption or Tuberculosis, Asthma, and Influenza or Grippe. Cough is a symptom of many disorders. It may be caused by irritation of any part of the breathing apparatus, as the nose, throat, windpipe, bronchial tubes, and (in pleurisy and pneumonia) covering membrane of the lung. The irritation which produces cough is commonly due either to congestion of the mucous membrane lining the air passages (in early stage of inflammation of these tissues), or to secretion of mucus or pus blocking them, which occurs in the later stages.

Cough is caused by a sudden, violent expulsion of air from the chest following the drawing in of a deep breath. A loose cough is to be encouraged, as by its means mucus and other discharge is expelled from the air passages.

Influenza is an acute, highly contagious disease due to a special germ, and tending to spread with amazing rapidity over vast areas. It has occurred as a world wide epidemic at various times in history, and during four periods in the last century. A pandemic of influenza began in the winter of 1889 90, and continued in the form of local epidemics till 1904, the disease suddenly appearing in a community and, after a prevalence of about six weeks, disappearing again. One attack, it is, perhaps, unnecessary to state, does not protect against another. The mortality is about 1 death to 400 cases. The feeble and aged are those who are apt to succumb. Fatalities usually result from complications or sequels, such as pneumonia or tuberculosis; neurasthenia or insanity may follow.

This is a disorder caused by sudden narrowing of the smaller air tubes in the lungs. This narrowing is produced by swelling of the mucous membrane lining them, or is due to contraction of the tubes through reflex nervous influences. It may accompany bronchitis, or may be uncomplicated. It may be a manifestation of gout.

This disease demands especial attention, not only because it is above all others the great destroyer of human life, causing one seventh of all deaths, but because, so far from being a surely fatal disease as popularly believed, it is an eminently curable disorder if recognized in its earliest stage. The most careful laboratory examinations of bodies dead from other causes, show that very many people have had tuberculosis at some time, and to some extent, during life. The reason why the disease fails to progress in most persons is that the system is strong enough to resist the inroads of the disease. The process becomes arrested by the germs being surrounded by a barrier of healthy tissue, and so perishing in their walled in position. These facts prove that so far from being incurable, recovery from consumption frequently occurs without even our knowledge of the disease. It is only those cases which become so far advanced as to be easily recognized that are likely to result fatally. Many more cases of consumption are now cured than formerly, because exact methods have been discovered which enable us to determine the existence of the disease at an early stage of its development.