Exhalation

“ In sleep the muscles of inhalation and exhalation are relaxed, inhalation becomes long and deep, exhalation short and exhaustive, and the rhythmic intervals of respiration much lengthened. Now degrees of relative wakefulness are indicated with surprising delicacy by the slight respiration sounds given forth by the sleeper. Professional nurses learn to interpret these indications with great skill. This exaltation of hearing became very pronounced in my operations with the child. ”

“ But in the ordinary state of the system, the skin is constantly giving out a large quantity of waste materials by what is called insensible perspiration; a process which is of great importance to the preservation of health, and which is called insensible, because the exhalation, being in the form of vapor, and carried off by the surrounding air, is invisible to the eye. ”

“ We must study to begin inhaling gently, to change to the exhalation with equal delicacy, and to keep the same gentle, delicate pressure throughout, each time trying to make the breath a little longer. ”

“ Cutaneous exhalation is active from violent running, or a paroxysm of fever, as I have said, from the action of caloric upon the body, hard work, &c.; the skin is then more expanded and deeper coloured; more blood enters it, &c. This excitement of the skin makes it more fit to be influenced by external agents, and to influence in its turn all the other organs. It is the suppression of these transpirations which causes so many accidents in the animal economy. ”

“ So long as life continues, a copious exhalation from the skin, the lungs, the bowels, and the kidneys, goes on without a moment’s intermission; and not a movement can be performed which does not at least partially increase the velocity of the circulation, and add something to the general waste. In this way, during violent exertion several ounces of the fluids of the body are sometimes thrown out by perspiration in a very few minutes; whereas, after life is extinguished, all the excretions cease, and waste is limited to that which results from ordinary chemical decomposition. ”

“ The construction of respirators is extraordinarily varied. One form is illustrated. They must be light, and in order not to obstruct breathing seriously they are often provided with valves—closing during inspiration and opening during exhalation. ”

“ When the air is received into the lungs, the oxygen is extracted from it, eaten up, as it were, and distributed through the system; and, on the exhalation, the carbonic gas and organic matter is carried out. If a person is confined within a limited space, and little air permitted to enter, he will soon consume most of the oxygen contained therein, poison the atmosphere with the carbonic gas which he throws off, [p. 123] and die for the want of the life-giving property—oxygen. It is estimated that almost half the deaths are caused through improper breathing and the inhalation of vitiated air. ”

“ Few systems in the living economy are furnished with a greater number of exhalants; I do not speak of those that contribute to its nutrition and that are consequently found there as in all other organs. The superabundance of these vessels is owing to the continual exhalation that is going on there. It is this superabundance which renders, as we shall see, inflammation so much more frequent in a part where the cellular texture is in the greatest abundance ”

“ Many attempts have been made to estimate accurately the amount of exhaled matter carried off through the skin; but many difficulties stand in the way of obtaining precise results. There is a great difference in different constitutions, and even in the same person at different times, in consequence of which we must be satisfied with an approximation to the truth.
Although the precise amount of perspiration can not be ascertained, it is generally agreed that the cutaneous exhalation is greater than the united excretions of both bowels and kidneys. ”

“ Solution is merely accessory, it is always subsequent to exhalation, and has no relation with it. In the same day, in which the temperature has remained the same, the skin is often dry, moist, humid and even wet with sweat. If the air acts upon transpiration, it is by contracting or relaxing the exhalants, and not by dissolving what they throw out. If the skin formed a sac without an opening, like the serous surfaces, transpiration would go on though it was removed from the contact of the air, the same as if in contact with it. ”

“ Breathing.—The proper management of the breath is of the greatest importance in speaking and reading. Inhalation and exhalation should be gradual and natural, not spasmodic. The reader should never allow his supply of breath to be wholly exhausted, but should replenish it at regular intervals. Inhalation should be through the nostrils, not the mouth. This prevents gasping, and promotes and preserves a healthy condition of the vocal organs. It is not necessary to keep the mouth closed in order that the breath be inhaled through the nostrils. ”

“ Those which are produced by the insensible qualities of the air, or by putrid exhalations, are intermitting, remitting, inflammatory, and malignant, according as the exhalations are combined with more or less heat or cold. ”

“ Then, too, there are exhaled from the surface of the body and from the lungs, such quantities of waste organic matter, which tend to immediate putridity, that it, together with the carbonic acid, would keep the human body immersed in a deadly vapor of these exhalations, were not fresh air supplied. ”

“ Preparatory to a descent they do not take a deep breath and hold it until the surface is reached again. They fill their lungs with a normal amount of air, which lasts them about a minute and a half; the other minute and a half is occupied in its exhalation. ”

“ I allude to the fact that our skins, by perspiration and by other means, are a source of much impurity to the atmosphere; a fact which will be more fully explained and illustrated in the chapter on Bathing and Cleanliness. It is only necessary to say, in this place, that it is not the matter of perspiration alone which, issuing from the skin, renders the air impure; there are other exhalations more or less constantly going off from every living body, especially from the lungs; and carbonic acid gas is even formed all over the surface of the skin, as well as by means of the lungs. ”

“ This increase of oxygen in the blood can save life in cases where through poisoning a deficiency of oxygen has resulted.
The introduction of oxygen is done by special apparatus which acts essentially on the principle that during inhalation oxygen is pressed into the lungs which are below normal physiological pressure, while exhalation is effected by a deflating arrangement when the poisoned individual no longer breathes of his own accord. When natural breathing begins, the introduction of oxygen without special apparatus generally suffices. ”

“ The exhalations arising from dead bodies interred in the vaults of churches, and in church-yards, are also so much diluted with the air of the atmosphere, that they do not commonly affect the health in so immediate and direct a manner as plainly to indicate the source of these noxious influences. It is only when some accidental circumstances have favoured their accumulation or concentration in an unusual degree, that the effects become so sensible as obviously to declare their cause. ”

“ Therefore, if the supply of fresh air comes from above, it can only reach the nose and mouth by driving down with it and mixing with these foul exhalations, and there is unquestionably nothing to breathe except this polluted mixture. ”

“ Many there are, who sleep with their heads covered; this is highly destructive to health, and cases of scrofula may be directly traced to this custom. The poisonous exhalations from the body, together with the constant exhaustion of the oxygen from breathing, renders this confined air foul to the last degree. ”

“ Every sympathetic phenomenon has its seat essentially and necessarily inherent in the solids. In fine, the solids alone act upon each other and correspond together by means yet unknown. All sympathetic vomiting, febrile agitation of the heart, exhalation, secretion, and absorption, arise from a change effected, by the influence of a part more or less remote, in the solids of those which are the seats of these phenomena. When cold acts upon the skin covered with sweat, immediately the pleura becomes affected. ”

“ The best description of the effects of this gas on man has been given by M. Hallé, [2032] in his account of the nature and effects of the exhalations from the pits of the Parisian necessaries; which exhalations appear, from the experiments of Thenard and Dupuytren, to be mixtures chiefly of ammonia and sulphuretted-hydrogen. The symptoms, in cases where the vapours are breathed in a state of concentration, are sudden weakness and all the signs of ordinary asphyxia. The individual becomes suddenly weak and insensible; falls down ”

“ The child, ignorant of the wrong he is made to suffer, and incapable of providing better conditions, breathes the poisonous exhalations from fifty pairs [15] of lungs, day after day, and thus has sown in his system the seeds of disease.
Illuminating Gas.—Many persons die every year by inhaling illuminating gas. People unacquainted with the use of gas fixtures often blow out the light instead of turning the key. A prevailing custom in some families is to keep the light burning low during the night. ”

“ Masculine exhalations are as a rule stronger, more vivid, more widely differentiated than those of women. In [89] the odour of young men there is something elemental, as of fire, storm, and salt sea. It pulsates with buoyancy and desire. It suggests all things strong and beautiful and joyous, and gives me a sense of physical happiness. ”

“ The air, however, may be modified in composition or in temperature. Inhalation is the most common and successful method of applying it—when modified in composition—to the human body. The methods in use are as follows: (1) Inhalation of gases, as oxygen and nitrous oxide. The dyspnoea and cyanosis of pneumonia, capillary bronchitis, heart failure, &c., are much relieved by the inhalation of oxygen; and nitrous oxide is largely used as an anaesthetic in minor operations; (2) Certain liquids are used as anaesthetics, which volatilize at low temperatures, as chloroform and ether. ”

“ INHALATION OF CHLOROFORM, ETC. GENERAL REMARKS ON INHALATION. Inhalation is simply the act of breathing, or at least so much of it as consists of inspiring, or drawing the air into the lungs. The term is usually applied when any medicinal substance is added to the air which the patient breathes, and the process is altogether different from that called “smoking,” as practised by the nations of western Europe and of America, where the fumes of tobacco are merely drawn into the mouth and puffed out again. ”

“ By removing the debility of the Exhalants. It not unfrequently occurs in persons either debilitated by age or disease, that the exhalant vessels of the lungs lose their tone, and pour out a larger quantity of fluid than is necessary for the lubrication of these organs; this is particularly observable in the disease called humoral asthma, and in the catarrh of old persons: if this excess be restrained by strengthening the tone of the system generally, or by astringing these vessels in particular, the expectoration of the remainder will be rendered much more easy. ”

“ Symptoms.—Headache and giddiness, foaming at mouth, vomiting, convulsions, tetanic spasms, stertorous breathing, dilated pupil. The breath smells of gas; there is profound stupor; the patient, if alive, exhales gas from the lungs when removed into a fresh room or into the air. Smell of gas in the room and in patient's breath.
Post-Mortem Appearances.—Pallor of skin and internal [122] tissues; florid colour of neck, back, and muscles, if much CO present in the coal gas; fluid florid blood; infiltration of lungs.
Treatment.—Fresh air, artificial respiration, cold affusion, diffusible stimulants ”

“ Let me take up the first factor--diversion of will--and show that nature invariably resorts to a sudden inhalation to prevent severe infliction of pain being felt. It is the panacea to childhood's frequent bruises and cuts, and every one will remember how when a finger has been hurt it is thrust into the mouth and a violent number of efforts at rapid inhalation is effected until ease comes. By others it is subdued by a fit of crying, which if you will but imitate the sobs, will find how frequently the respirations are made.
One is startled, and the heart would seem to jump out of the chest ”

“ It is, however, known by experiments on animals that if the inhalation be prolonged beyond the period necessary to produce these effects, the respiratory functions are interfered with by the insensibility extending to the nerves on which they depend. The breathing of an animal thus treated becomes irregular, feeble, or laborious, and death ensues. However nearly dead from inhalation of ether vapour the animal may be, provided respiration has not actually ceased, it always recovers when allowed to breathe fresh air. ”

“ Ether Vapour.—The vapour of ether has caused death. Entering the blood through the lungs, it acts with great rapidity, a state of lethargy being quickly induced.
The early symptoms are noticed in a modification of respiration, the breathing becoming slow, prolonged, and stertorous. The face is pale, the lips bluish, and the surface of the body cold and exsanguine. The pulse, at first quickened, becomes slower, as the inhalation of the vapour is continued. The pupils are dilated, and the eyes glassy and fixed. ”