On cough: its causes, varieties, and treatment : with some practical remarks on the use of the stethoscope as an aid to diagnosis / by Robert Hunter Semple.

  • Robert Hunter Semple
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On cough: its causes, varieties, and treatment : with some practical remarks on the use of the stethoscope as an aid to diagnosis / by Robert Hunter Semple. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PARTS CONCERNED IN COUGH. After the description which has just been given of the anatomy of the parts concerned in coughing, the nature of that act will be readily explained. It consists of a series of violent and sonorous discharges of air from the lungs, accompanied with, or rather, followed by, deep and quick inspiration. The air is first drawn in and fills the lungs, then the glottis or aperture in the larynx is closed, just as expiration commences, but is burst open again by the rapid expulsive efforts of the expiratory apparatus. These efforts drive up a strong current of air from the lungs through the windpipe, and any irritating matter is thrown out of the system together with the air. Thus when mucus, or pus, or blood, is thrown out into the bronchial tubes or cells, it excites so much irritation that it requires to be expelled, and this is accomplished hy the act of coughing. The parts concerned in coughing, therefore, are precisely the same as those concerned in breathing, and the mechanism of both processes is exactly the same; bui in
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