Observations with Hutchison's spirometer / by C. Radclyffe Hall, M.D.
- Hall, Charles Radclyffe.
- Date:
- 1851
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations with Hutchison's spirometer / by C. Radclyffe Hall, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![is to divert the average of numbers from calculations which concern numbers, and to apply it to an individual as an individual. The average concerns him only as a constituent unit of the mass of figures, whose excess covers some other unit's deficiency, or whose deficiency is covered by some other's excess. In him as a consti- tuent of the mass, the excess or the deficiency is alike unimportant ; to him as an individual, the excess or the deficiency is all- important. Still there is no other mode of obtaining a standard for reference but that which Dr. Hutchinson has adopted, nor, regard being had to the classes which furnished the subjects of his observations, can any better standard for adult males be found. But, taking the standard given, I should rate its practical importance lower, and allow a much wider departure from it to be consistent with health, than Dr. Hutchinson does. The following are stated as provisional propositions to be con- fii-med or refuted by further inquiry :— 1. The close connection between the vital capacity and the stature, which constitutes Dr. Hutchinson's greatest and very important discovery, throws into the shade its other relations, yet size of chest, as measured by its circumference, does appear to evercise an influence, when not nullified by co-existing with a small thoracic mobility. 2. Narrow chests more constantly possess a full mobility than broad ones, both being healthy. 3. Consequently, both size and mobility are to be taken into account in estimating the significance of the vital capacity; for, if a large chest with a large mobility present even a moderate vital capacity, this may virtually imply greater defect than a smaller vital capacity in a chest of the same size, but which normally possesses a smaller mobility. 4. The only exact standard for any individual being his own normal vital capacity when in health, and this being rarely ascer- tainable, we must be guided by what we can learn of departure from it, by examining the chest and its amount and kind of mobility, in connection with the vital capacity, rather than by the actual degree of deviation of the vital capacity from the standard quantity laid down. Thus, a given deficiency taken in conjunction with any other ground of sus])icion adds force to the latter; but](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21475489_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
