HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 68

HEALTH COLUMN.

Air in the Chest.

The lungs lie against the clie-st walls. When the ch^st expands, fresh air rushes into the lungs, and, expanding them also, still keeps them in closest contaH with the chest. A thin, lubricating fluid 1 , secreted by tlie membrane which linos tho chest cavity, prevents all friction from the constant motion of the two on each other.

Sometimes this membrane, becoming 1 inflamed), secretes in large quantities a watery fluid, which sometimes changes to p\:s. This secretion, crowding ag-ainst the lungs, interferes with their propei expansion. This is pleurisy.

Sometimes the space- becomes filled with air, which presses against the lungs and impedes their actioi?. This is pneumothorax, which means simply air in the chest.

The air is from the lungs. It may issue from them through some minute opening in their walls, an aperture, perhaps, not larger than a pinliolg, made by the bursting of a

small vesicle near their surface. Thd bursting may be caused by unusual exertion, or by tho softening of the vesicle, as a pimple or boil softens and breaks. The opening ence made, the air is constantly forcc-d through by every expiration. Tho accumulator! air, compressing the lungs, may cause- the opening to close and heal up, in which case tho air is gradually absorbed Sometimes a bit of matter, as a bloodclot, is swept into the lungs, where it lodges in a minute artery near th© surface, and there, causing inflammation and suppuration, opens out an exit for- the air. In all cases the difficulty is that Ihe lunga cannot properly expand, and tlie patient's breathing .is interfered with— y-sometimes fatally. Often it is relieved without medical aid; ofteoi, again, only by tapping; in some cares th© tapping needs to be repeated. The relief is immediate. The air rushes out with great force from the elasticity of tho lungs and the distended chest. If, however, the tapping in severe cas&s is delayed 1 too long, the collapsed lungs lose their elasticity, and fail to expand.