Flue

“ Great care must be taken in expanding flues not to expand them so hard as to stretch or enlarge the hole containing flue in the flue sheet, thereby loosening the adjoining flue. After all the loose flues have been carefully expanded, take the beading tool and place the long or guide end within the flue, then with the aid of a light hammer the ends of flues can be gradually beaded or calked against the flue sheet, rendering them perfectly tight. ”

“ A careful search fails to discover any flues at all, but a mechanical examination shows that the coping-stone has been put on them, making all the flues as thoroughly air-tight as the solid wall—more perfectly capped than that chimney. ”

“ The hot air in the smoke flues will warm the separating brick partition, and consequently rarefy the air in the ventilating flue. Communication from every room in a house should be had to such flues. The draught of air can be regulated by well-adjusted registers, which in large rooms should be placed near the floor as well as near the ceiling. ”

“ If exposure to a draught of air while in a state of perspiration is followed by chills, dry cough, influenza, congestive symptoms in the lungs, or hints of inflammatory rheumatism, your Mind-remedy is safe and sure. ”

“ By way of illustration and with reference to atmospheric influence—the grand exciting cause of disease,—every practitioner is familiar with certain conditions which are favourable to the production of certain disorders, such as common catarrh or cold, and its more aggravated form termed influenza,—hooping-cough, bowel affections, gastric fevers, &c. ”

“ But, from what the woman said, it’s clearly influenza. Sudden fever, and all the rest of it.”
“Bad type?” I asked.
“Yes; there have been several deaths already among the old people from pneumonia following it.” ”

“ In influenza, as it is known to medical men of the present from the descriptions of the old and personal experience of the few recent and milder epidemics, bloodletting, either general or local, is clearly uncalled for. ”

“ They were attended with a most inodorous effluvia, and caused such a general concert of sneezing and coughing, by night as well as by day, that one would have thought influenza, in its most fearful shape and with giant power, had seized every man by the throat. ”

“ What we call a cold (refroidissement, Erkältung) is caused by the. influence of impure air, or dust, on the sensitive tissue of our respiratory organs; subsequent exposure to the open air merely initiates the crisis of the disorder, the discharge of the accumulated mucus through the nose or throat. Fresh air is here only the proximate cause, as in toothache, or in those paroxysms of retching following upon the first respiration of a half-drowned person. ”

“ Alterations.—The chief alteration of influenza occurs in the digestive tract, and consists in hyperemia, infiltration, and swelling of the mucous membrane, and especially of the Peyer's patches near the ileocecal valve. The tissues throughout the body are found stained, and of a more or less yellowish hue. There is always found a congested condition of all the organs, muscles, and interstitial tissues of the body. ”

“ Breathing in certain germs which float in the air. In this way one may catch pneumonia, consumption, influenza, diphtheria, whooping cough, tonsilitis, spinal meningitis, measles, and certain other diseases. ”

“ Blood-poisoning, as surely; with aches, pains, feverish spells, with influenza (popularly called “a cold”) , which, as can not be too much emphasized, is, strictly speaking, instead of a disease, the effort of Nature to “cure” a disease which otherwise would become so deep-seated as to demand a “run of fever” to eliminate it, and all manner of physical ailments.
I am often asked, What constitutes the scrofulous diathesis, so called, or the scrofulous “taint” supposed to be the inheritance of so many of the children of our times? ”

“ Just now every one is anxious about her, for she is daily expecting a small addition to her family, and is exceedingly ill with influenza—a very violent form of which has recently broken out, severely affecting lungs and throat. It is a real epidemic. ”

“ HOARSENESS. Inflammation of the Larynx. (Acute Laryngitis) Causes.—Due to taking cold or over using the voice; hot liquids, poisons. It may occur in influenza and measles; from irritating gases; some are subject to it.
Symptoms.—Tickling in the larynx; cold air irritates, and breathing may cause some pain; dry cough; the voice may be altered. At first it may be only husky. In children breathing may be very difficult, after a day or two there may be a light expectoration and finally there may be a loose cough and a slight fever. ”

“ An individual in bed two days, but sick for three weeks might be recorded as average. A mother, with a family of sick children and who spent no time in bed may have been a severe case of influenza. In fact, we have allowed ourselves a certain latitude in individual cases in classifying both the diagnosis and the severity of the disease. ”

“ Occasionally the stomach and bowels are attacked so that violent vomiting and diarrhea occur, while other members of the same family present the ordinary form of influenza. There is a form that attacks principally the nervous system, the nasal and bronchial tracts escaping altogether. Continual fever is the only symptom in some cases. ”

“ B. LESIONS OF THE LUNG In the prosecution of the scientific study of any disease, the great temptation is to differentiate its various manifestations with the intention of elaborating a classification. While there may be more or less distinct types of pulmonary involvement in influenza, so many intermediary forms appear in an extensive series of cases, that any classification must necessarily be arbitrary. ”

“ If the boiler is to be of the form most effectual in saving fuel, the flame and gases from the fire should play under and round every part of it; the water should be kept at something under 212°, so that the gases, after leaving the boiler, may not enter the flue much above that temperature, and, inasmuch as that is a higher temperature than is necessary for the purpose of producing a sufficient draught in an ordinary chimney, the heat in these gases should be still further utilized. ”

“ The baker's oven, of fire-brick, in which the fire is made inside the oven, and the whole heat retained in and reflected back from the sides and top and bottom, is a very economical instrument when in continual use. With iron ovens, attached to a kitchen range, the case is different. An oven which roasts requires a temperature of from 400° to 450° at least. Therefore, to maintain this temperature, the gases must pass off into the flue at a temperature even higher ”

“ In common cases, it is seated primarily in the blood-vessels, and particularly in the arteries. These pervade every part of the body. They terminate upon its whole surface, in which I include the lungs and alimentary canal, as well as the skin. They are the outposts of the system, in consequence of which they are most exposed to cold, heat, intemperance, and all the other external and internal, remote and exciting causes of fever, and are first roused into resistance by them. ”

“ There are dull and bright, sacred and profane, coarse and fine egotists. 'Tis a disease that, like influenza, falls on all constitutions. ”

“ The most important are inflammatory affections of the respiratory organs, such as bronchitis, pleurisy or pneumonia, diphtheritic conditions of the throat, and swelling of the mucous membrane of the larynx and trachea. ”

“ Kinds of colds.—A person takes most of the germs of colds through his nose and mouth. If they grow only in his nose, we say that he has a cold in his head. If they grow in his throat, he has a sore throat, or tonsillitis. If they reach as far as the upper part of his windpipe, he is hoarse, or has a cough, or the croup. If the germs are planted in his lungs, he may have bronchitis or pneumonia. All these kinds of sickness often spread from one person to another. If one person in a family has a cold, others in the family often catch cold from him. ”

“ Numerous maladies arising from various degrees and complications of disease in the lungs, heart, pleura, viscera of the abdomen and investing membrane, not belonging to fever, but adding to its evils, are found on examination after death, which often fully account for anomalous symptoms that aggravated the case during life. ”

“ When time, and more attention to that index of the state of the system in fevers, shall have brought to light all the knowledge that the pulse is capable of imparting, the appearances of the blood, in fevers, will be regarded as little as the appearances of the urine. ”

“ VII. All ordinary fever being seated in the blood-vessels, it follows, of course, that all those local affections we call pleurisy, angina, phrenitis, internal dropsy of the brain, pulmonary consumption, and inflammation of the liver, stomach, bowels, and limbs, are symptoms only of an original and primary disease in the sanguiferous system. ”

“ If, for example, a drop of a fluid that produces no special effect when on the tongue gets into the larynx, trachea, or lungs, the most violent coughing follows. This is one illustration of the protective character of many reflexes. This violent action of [Pg 59] the respiratory apparatus is not in itself a desirable thing, because it disturbs if it does not exhaust, but it is preferable to the inflammation that might result if the fluid, a bread-crumb, etc., were to pass into the lungs. ”

“ Small blood-lettings of from six to eight ounces may be used in extreme cases, more especially of double pneumonia or of broncho-pneumonia, as a palliative to relieve tension of the bloodvessels and congestion of the right heart and lungs.
7. Local pain is best relieved by large warm poultices.
8. The true disease, that is, the exudation which has infiltrated itself through the pulmonary tissues and been coagulated, constituting hepatization, can only be removed, first, by its transformation into pus cells ”

“ Hunger reduces one to an utterly spineless, brainless condition, more like the after-effects of influenza than anything else. It is as though one had been turned into a jellyfish, or as though all one’s blood had been pumped out and lukewarm water substituted. ”

“ II. The pulmonary consumption is a primary disease of the whole system. This I infer,
1. From the causes which produce it, acting upon the whole system.
2. From the symptoms of general debility which always precede the affection of the lungs. These symptoms are a quick pulse, especially towards evening; a heat and burning in the palms of the hands; faintness, head-ach, sickness at stomach, and an occasional diarrhœa. I have frequently observed each of these symptoms for several months before I have heard of a single complaint in the breast. ”

“ In pneumonia, pleurisy, and in all the affections about the lungs and trachea, the disease is held to be of a dry nature when there is no expectoration from the parts affected; and in any complaints about the liver, the mesentery, the stomach, the small or great intestines, or spleen, when the belly is either entirely constipated, or when the discharges brought away by artificial means are dry and scybalous; and diseases of the arteries and veins are known to be dry by the dryness of the tongue, and the parched appearance of the whole body. ”

“ Sometimes the breathing becomes quick, hurried and loud “panting.” This condition may continue half an hour, or even two hours or more, when the patient will become more quiet, the breathing softer, more tranquil, the skin and extremities warmer, and the pulse rises to fifty or even sixty beats to the minute. From this condition the attack may, under judicious treatment, pass off, and speedy recovery ensue; or, it may pass into a Catarrhal Fever, or Pneumonia, or Bronchitis, or Lymphitis, or Laminitis, or Inflammation of the bowels, or what is quite common, a bad, obstinate cough. ”

“ This is inflammation of the Pleura of one or both lungs, generally confined to one side. It is known by sharp pain in the side of the chest, increased by taking a long breath, or coughing, or by pressing between the ribs. The cough is dry and painful, the patient makes an effort to suppress it, from the pain it gives him; the fever is of a high grade, the pulse full, hard and frequent, with more or less pain in the head. ”

“ On the other hand, we resort to places of assembly, and draw into our mouths air loaded with effluvia from the lungs, skin, and clothing of every individual in the promiscuous crowd—exhalations offensive, to a certain extent, from the most healthy individuals; but when arising from a living mass of skin and lungs, in all stages of evaporation, disease, and putridity,—prevented by the walls and ceiling from escaping—they are, when thus concentrated, in the highest degree deleterious and loathsome. ”

“ The SYNOCHA, or common inflammatory state; attacking suddenly with chills, succeeded by a quick, frequent and tense pulse, great heat, thirst, and pains in the bones, joints, breast or sides.
3. The BILIOUS state of fever; known by a full, quick and tense pulse, or by a quick, full and round pulse without tension, and by a discharge of green, dark coloured or black bile from the stomach and bowels. This state sometimes assumes the form of an hectic; the patient feels no pain in his head, has a tolerable appetite, and is even able to sit up and do business. ”

“ A white, yellowish or greenish-coloured discharge flows from the nostrils. In a few days the fever and other symptoms subside, and convalescence rapidly sets in. In unfavourable cases the fever increases, as well as the prostration, the breathing becomes laboured, the cough more painful and deep, and auscultation and percussion indicate that the lungs are seriously involved, with perhaps the pleura or the heart. Clots sometimes form in the latter organ, and quickly bring about a fatal termination. ”