The retrospective address ... delivered at the thirteenth anniversary meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, held at Sheffield, on Wednesday and Thursday, July 30th & 31st, 1845 / Edward Charlton.

  • Charlton, Edward.
Date:
[1845?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The retrospective address ... delivered at the thirteenth anniversary meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, held at Sheffield, on Wednesday and Thursday, July 30th & 31st, 1845 / Edward Charlton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    M. Vierordt has ascertained that the quantity of carbonic acid expired is much less when the respiration is accelerated than when it is performed slowly. A valuable paper upon the “ Nature and Causes of Asphyxia” has been written by Mr. Erichsen,* of London. The author believes the cause of the stoppage of the circulation in asphyxia to be three- fold, and that it depends:— 1. Upon the arrest of the respiratory movements. 2. Upon the weakening of the heart’s action by the circulation through its substance of blood deprived of its stimulating qualities, and also diminished in quantity. 3. Upon the obstruction offered to the passage of venous blood through the lungs. This is caused by the refusal of the minute pulmonary veins to receive venous blood; and he considers venous blood to act in this case as a positive stimulant to the arterial system, though a sedative action has generally been attributed to it. The observations of Mr. Erichsen, excellent in every way, deserve a longer notice; and his conclusions regarding the proper treat- ment of asphyxiated individuals will, we hope, produce some important alterations in the present management of cases of apparent death by asphyxia. Although Mr. Hutchinson’s essay on “Vital Statistics”f would seem to belong to another division of this Address, still the important results he has announced are so intimately connected with respiration as to demand a place here. Mr. Hutchinson has found that the capacity of the chest for air depends upon the height of the individual, and that for every additional inch of height, from five to six feet, eight additional cubic inches of air are given out by a forced expiration. This important fact has been proved by experiments, carefully conducted, upon 1,200 different individuals; and Mr. Hutchinson has since extended his observations to the chest in the diseased state, and especially in phthisis. In all cases he found his former conclusions pleasingly corroborated, the amount of capacity for air being constantly diminished, but always in a corresponding ratio with the height of tire individual. Thus it was found that in a man of six feet, * Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, January, 1845, p. 1. f Journal of the Stalislical Society, London, August, 1844.