COLLAPSE OF THE LUNG. 133 



she pulse becomes small, the complexion pale, the urine scanty. In 

 severe compression of the lung, the sufferers usually die of dropsy. 

 Compression of a large section of a lung has an important influence 

 upon the distribution of the blood in the uncompressed parts. If all 

 the blood from the right heart be directed to one lung alone, the pres- 

 sure in that lung is considerably increased. The greatest danger often 

 threatens from oedema of the uncompressed lung, which may even de- 

 mand venesection, etc. Should the lower parts of the lung be com- 

 pressed by effusions in the peritoneum, the hypersemia thus arising of 

 the upper lobes (collateral fluxion) may produce danger and call for 

 tapping. In the same way deformed persons, when a part of their 

 thorax is contracted and the lung in the narrowed spot compressed, suf- 

 fer from hyperaemia, catarrh, and oedema of the uncompressed portion. 



It is a curious fact that humpbacked persons can breathe without 

 difficulty, show no irregularity of the circulation, and do not evince 

 spmptoms of dyspnoea or of cyanosis until the period of puberty. This 

 fact is easily accounted for, if we reflect that bones deformed by rachitis 

 are retarded in their growth, even after the original disease has become 

 extinct. Where the thorax and the thoracic vertebrae have been the 

 principal seat of the disease, the crookedness and deformity of these 

 parts at the time of its establishment may not, perhaps, have caused any 

 loss of room in the chest ; but if the rest of the body grow in the nor- 

 mal manner, the development of the chest being retarded, a dispropor- 

 tion must arise between the space, which, though sufficient for the lungs 

 of a child, is insufficient for those of an adult, and for the dimensions of 

 the remainder of the body and of the mass of blood belonging to it. De- 

 formed persons then acquire the appearance and complexion with which 

 we have become familiar in the emphysematous. They seem very short 

 of breath, and usually die early in consequence of this respiratory and 

 circulatory derangement, although it is exceptional for them also to be- 

 come consumptive. 



TREATMENT. Take care that newly-born children be made to cry 

 properly, and that their mouths be freed from mucus ; and should there 

 be any accumulation of mucus in the bronchi, give them an emetic of 

 ipecac and oxymel of squills. Should the respiration still remain imper- 

 fect, then, placing the child from time to time in a warm bath, apply a 

 cold douche to the breast with a clyster-pipe. Do not let such children 

 sleep too long and continuously, force them even to cry periodically if 

 they do not cry of their own accord, by brushing the soles of their feet, 

 etc. If they do not take the breast, see that they receive nourishment 

 from the spoon, the mother's milk being the best. Finally, give a few 

 drops of wine occasionally, and, if the child shows a tendency to become 

 cool, do not let it sleep in a cradle, but rather in the arms of its nurse 



