Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry.

  • Jamieson Boyd Hurry
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    II.—DEATHS ASSOCIATED WITH THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM Asphyxia. Asphyxia, due to the interruption of respiration, is a frequent cause of death, and great interest attaches to the mechanism of the Circle involved in the fatal issue. For example, when a goitre compresses the trachea and narrows the lumen, any casual effort that calls the supplementary respiratory muscles into action may lead to a most alarming dyspnoea. For unfortunately these muscles, as they contract, press the hypertrophied thyroid against the trachea and thus further diminish the lumen. They thus increase, instead of relieving, the dyspnoea, which often ends in strangulation. In other words such a degree of stenosis as is perfectly compatible with life, may prove rapidly fatal, through the intermediary of a Circle. But we can pursue our analysis further and point out other Circles concerned in the mechanism of death from asphyxia. In consequence of the ob¬ structed respiratory exchange the venosity of the blood increases, respiratory movements grow more vigorous, blood-pressure rises, and the heart is slowed by the cardio-inhibitory centres in the medulla. Owing to the increased pulmonary obstruction a fronte and the increased supply of blood a tevgo (due