Rhinology, laryngology and otology and their significance in general medicine.

  • Friedrich, Ernst Paul.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rhinology, laryngology and otology and their significance in general medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    warmed only half a degree less in mouth-breathing than in nasal respiration, and that after tracheotomy the trachea and bronchi are quite capable of warming the air to 30° C.—the average temperature imparted to it in the nose —without injury to the lungs. Gaule suggests that the abundant supply of blood-vessels in the nose, and the property possessed by them of changing their volume, enable them to adapt themselves more easily to the ther- mic changes of the outside air. A far more important function of the nose is to supply the necessary moisture to the inspired air—a function which the mouth is unable to perform. The nose thus relieves the bronchi and lungs of an onerous duty, which falls on them to a much greater degree if respiration is performed through the mouth. To enable it to supply the required amount of moisture the nose is endowed with unusual secretory activity. The latter is derived in part from the abundant supply of serous and mucous glands and from an extensive system of lym- phatics ; also in part from an irrigation-system, which keeps the epithelium constantly supplied with the necessary amount of moisture. The source of this special system is to be sought, according to Schieffendecker, not in the lymphatic vessels, but in the lymph-spaces of the tissues, the moisture making its way to the surface through the basal canaliculi, which pierce the basal membrane and emerge between the epithelial cells. 4. In addition to these functions of the nose, there are other protective contrivances of less importance in the upper air=passages, which prevent the entrance of deleteri- ous substances into the lungs. Thus, the sense of smell serves to protect the organism by testing the inspired air and guarding the lungs against the entrance of substances which can be recognized by their odor. This protection is, after all, a faulty one, as there are many odorless gases which are injurious to the lungs and can not be detected in the inspired air by the sense of smell. In the physiologic reflexes the body possesses another means of ridding itself of coarse particles of matter that have gained entrance to the nose with the inspiratory air- current, the mucous membrane bringing the sneezing reflex into action.