Six lectures on the functions of the lungs : and causes, prevention, and cure of pulmonary consumption, asthma, and diseases of the heart : on the laws of life : and on the mode of preserving male and female health to a hundred years : also a treatise on medicated inhalation / by Samuel Sheldon Fitch.
- Fitch, Samuel Sheldon, 1801-1876
- Date:
- 1859
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Six lectures on the functions of the lungs : and causes, prevention, and cure of pulmonary consumption, asthma, and diseases of the heart : on the laws of life : and on the mode of preserving male and female health to a hundred years : also a treatise on medicated inhalation / by Samuel Sheldon Fitch. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![the air does not fill them well when we breathe ; and that when every air cell is freely open, at each inspiration, no consumption can evei exist. The first cause of consumption I will notice, is, any external cause that contract the basket of the chest upon the lungs, by any external pressure. This is produced by the weight of the. shoulders, arms, am] shoulder blades being brought forward on the chest. (See Plate F.) The collar bones are shoulder braces, and occur only in man, and are intended to keep the shoulders off the chest; but if long pressed upon they yield and bend. Pressure upon them depresses the breast bone at its lower end, breaks it down towards the back bone, causes the breast bone to press upon the heart, and allows the ribs to press upon the lung«, thus causing an artificial collapse of the lungs by external pres- sure. The structure of the lungs is so elastic, that they yield to the slightest external pressure, and allow the capacity or size of the chest to be diminished daily ; in fact, the substance of the lungs ofters no re- sistance to a shrinking of the chest, as the largest lung, when perfectly collapsed, is not larger than an ordinary fist, if so large. The weight of the arms, shoulders, &c, thrown forward upon the chest, causes it to collapse daily, unless resisted by most forcible and constant strong breaths, or inspirations of air. To delicate persons, the least inclined to chest diseases, this position of the shoulders is one grand cause of consumption. In fact, any position of the shoulders, by which the weight of the arms is made to bear across the chest, or upon it, instead of hanging down, so as to draw the chest backwards, will contribute powerfully to diminish the size of the chest—press upon the lungs, and close the air cells—to prevent a free circulation of blood through the lungs, and thus tend to produce imperfect breathing, bleeding at the tunes, deposit of tubercles, and all the horrors and realities of consumption. (See Plate F.) It is for this reason that all mechani- cal employments that cause us to stoop forward will tend to injure the chest; in truth, every position forward of the erect is a producing cause of consumption. Who are those that contract these bad posi- tions? I might at once say, all Americans over three years old, and vast numbers of Europeans. If there is any characteristic that would apply to the Americans, as a nation, it is round-shouldered. The habit](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21119478_0046.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
