DISEASES OF THE THROAT. 287 



of the labor of chronic cough consists in the disgorging and 

 throwing out this irritating and troublesome matter from the 

 4|ings and air-passages. 



Another slight benefit arising from coughing, yet only very 

 temporary at best, is effected by the rapidity with which the 

 air rushes over the dry and irritated surface, for the moment 

 cooling its fever and allaying the burning heat. A slight 

 friction of the parts is also produced, which serves very 

 much the same ends as a gentle scratching, where it itches 

 and burns. 



The sound of coughing is occasioned by the violent con- 

 cussion of the air, as it is forced from the lungs through the 

 glottis into the larynx, in which are formed the vocal into- 

 nations of man and all the higher tyipes of animals. 



Any disease that affects the respiratory organs and pas- 

 sages, whether the various parts of the throat, or" the trachea, 

 the bronchi, the lungs, or the pleura, to such an extent that 

 fever and inflammation are caused, will give rise to a cough. 

 If the disease becomes chronic, so will the cough. The latter 

 will share the fate of the other in that case ; yet cough some- *^ 

 times remains after an acute attack of disease has been pretty 

 thoroughly subdued. Among the various ailments in which 

 coughs originate, we may name the following : Soreness and 

 inflammation, of whatever sort, of tke throat and its pas- 

 sages, and of the trachea and lungs; bronchitis, pneumonia, 

 consumption, and pleurisy. 



There are other diseases that at times sympathetically af- 

 fect the lungs and throat, and are apt to be marked by more 

 or less of coughing, though this will pass away when the 

 more severe symptoms of the disorder disappear. Such are 

 indigestion, worms, derangement of the Uver, and distemper. , 



TREATMENT. ^ ' . 1 



This may prove somewhat difficult, as coughs "^e often 

 obstinate and unyielding. Usually the cough may be abated 

 in a short time, and perhaps to a very great extent; but a 

 cough stopped is, by no means, one cured. It clings in- 



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