478 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[August 



AUSCULTATION AND PERCUSSION. 



On applying the ear to the sides of the 

 chest, if any uncommon sound be heard, 

 such as a bellows murmur, or a strong tubu- 

 lar murmur, or a crackling sound, we may 

 conclude that the lungs or their respiratory 

 passages are diseased ) also should the res- 

 piratory murmur be absent, and on striking 

 the sides of the chest a dense, almost solid 

 Bound be heard, then Wc may infer that the 

 lung or lungs, as the case may be, are un- 

 dergoing solidification. Let it be borne in 

 mind however, that the natural and healthy 

 .sound should resemble that of the air enter- 

 ing into a vast number of minute cells — hav- 

 ing, as each cell becomes gradually dilated, 

 a soft, smooth, grating or crepitating sound; 

 the term vesicular has been applied to this 

 sound, because it is supposed to be produced 

 by the entrance of air into the pulmonary 

 vesicles, and it is very distinctly heard in 

 the case of sound lungs where the walls of 

 the chest are thinnest. 



A compressed or solidified lung gives the 

 walls of the bronchial tubes an increased 

 power of vibrating sound, hence in such 

 cases the ear of the auscultator detects what 

 is called tubular respiration. 



When a portion of lung is infiltrated or 

 compressed, or when the chest contains 

 serum, we get what is qqWqA puerile or shrill 

 respiration on the side opposite to that affect- 

 ed, in fact, whatever is capable of prevent- 

 ing the free access of air into the minute 

 air-cells of one lung imposes additional labor 

 on the other, hence the shrill sound or ex- 

 aggeration of the respiratory murmur. 

 When effusion into the chest is very great, 

 or whpn the pleura becomes coated with 

 lymph or fibrine, or the animal has a thick 

 hide, or is very fat^ then the respiratory 

 murmur is feeble. 



Percussion.— -The application of percus- 

 sion (striking various parts of the chest with 

 the joints of the fingers) is sometimes of 

 great value in detecting resonance or dull- 

 ness of any part of the chest, yet when ap- 

 plied to the region of the shoulder and 

 along the back, which are covered with 

 thick muscles, it is apt to fail in detecting 

 disease. AVhen we strike the walls of the 

 chest, supposing the subject to be free from 

 disease, we get a clear sound, but as we ap- 

 proach the liver on the right side which 

 reaches as far forward as the third or fourth 

 rib, from behind, we get dullness. In many 



of the cases which I have had the privilege 

 of inspecting at North Brookfield, I have on 

 examination after death found the lungs in 

 a state of hypertrophy (abnormally enlar- 

 ged), and in all such cases the sound eUcited 

 by percussion resembled that which would 

 arise on striking a boiled pudding contained 

 in a bag ; in fact, the lungs when in a state 

 of hypertrophy from this disease, ere they 

 have lost their integrity of structure, feel 

 almost like boiled pudding. 



In pleuro-pneumonia, the lungs are often 

 emphysematous ; this gives rise to a tym- 

 panic or windy sound, the lung is then un- 

 naturally resonant- — the extent of the reso- 

 nance corresponds to that of the dilatation 

 of the air cells; on the other hand, should 

 the lung be occupied by a tumor, such as I 

 have just described, percussion will elicit 

 diminution of clearness, and should the tu- 

 mor have an adhesive connection with the 

 inner wall of the chest, the dullness will be ^ 

 very marked, or rather the absence of son- 

 orous sound is complete. 



I have noticed that the autopsies reveal 

 little, if any, derangement of other parts or 

 organs of the body ; and I have made up 

 my mind, after conducting or assisting at 

 over one hundred autopsies, that if any other 

 organs of the body are affected the case is 

 not ^ pleuro-pneumonia exudative/' thever* 

 itable malady imported from Holland in 

 May, 1859. 



Charcoal as a Manure. 



Manures may be beneficial to plants by r 

 affording carbonic acid gas to their roots. 

 Animal and vegetable matters evolve this 

 gas while purifying; but we are not aware 

 of any manure that absorbs it from the at- 

 mosphere, so as to be for that reason bene- 

 ficial to vegetation. Lime attracts carbonic 

 acid gas from the air rapidly, but combines 

 with it so strongly, that it is useless to 

 the plant until the carbonate of lime so 

 formed is imbibed and elaborated by that 

 plant. 



It is to its power of gradually forming 

 carbonic acid gas that charcoal partly owes 

 its value as a manure. The chemical ope- 

 ration of charcoal, when employed for this 

 purpose, is by no means so well understood 

 as that of most other fertilizing additions to 

 the land. That the carbon of the charcoal 

 operates so beneficially upon plants, among 

 other modes by a gradual combination with 



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