The physical diagnosis of diseases of the lungs / By Walter Hayle Walshe.

  • Walshe, Walter Hayle, 1812-1892.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physical diagnosis of diseases of the lungs / By Walter Hayle Walshe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/328 (page 10)
    are of importance in a clinical point of view, are general and partial. a. The general motions, or those in which the entire thorax is concerned, are of expansion and of elevation. In health these two kinds of motion are so intimately associated and agree so closely in proportional amount, that it is unnecessary to consider them separately; in certain states of dis- ease, however, they are observed to be very dif- ferently affected. During inspiration the walls of the chest move outwards from their central axis (expansion) and at the same time rise upwards (elevation). These motions are regular in rhythm, more marked at the lower than the upper parts of the chest [§ 18. |, per- fectly similar on both sides, and correspond to the enlargement of the lungs. The rapidity, the energy, and the extent of these movements bear a direct proportion to each other under all circumstances of health ; but the absolute amount of all three varies within certain limits in different individuals. During expiration the walls of the chest are restored to their previous condition by the converse movements of retraction and depression. In each act of respiration the motions of expir- ation follow those of inspiration so closely, that no distinct pause is perceptible between them; when expansion and elevation cease, retraction and de- pression appear to begin, precisely as the audible pulmonary sounds by which they are accompanied. [ Vide p. 48. and § 61.] If the entire time occupied by a respiratory act, — that is, from the beginning of one inspiration to the