2 
ON ROARING. 
From this experiment we learn that a certain diminution of the 
caliber of the air-tube produces roaring; that further diminution or 
contraction of its area causes whistling ; and that a degree of con¬ 
striction beyond this occasions signs of suffocation, which, if not 
relieved, end in the extinction of vitality. A whistler, therefore, 
I should call an intense roarer; a wheezer, I should say, is some¬ 
thing short of an actual roarer. Be it remembered, however, that, 
although I am attempting such nominal distinctions, in a patholo¬ 
gical view they must all come under one general heading, which, 
by common consent, at present, we denote by the appellation of 
“ roaring.” 
What is the Cause of the Sound? —The experiment just 
detailed shew’s, as far as it goes, that the roaring is to be ascribed 
to a diminished area of the passage for the air to and from the 
lungs; and, in truth, this will be found to be the essence of the 
etiology of roaring. The various collected reports that have been 
made from time to time on the states of the air-passages of roarers, 
have shewn that all of them have produced the effect in one of 
three ways, viz. either by contraction of the passage or its orifice; 
by distortion, or deformity of it; or by obstruction within it: and 
this difference of causation, together with the part or place in which 
it exists, will serve still further to account for the various kinds 
of—or, rather, sounds emitted in—roaring. 
The Kind or Nature of the Sound, therefore, will be found 
to be referrible—first, to the nature of the impediment or obstruction; 
secondly, to the degree or extent to which it exists; thirdly, to 
the situation of it. To illustrate this by example, we may expect 
a different sound from thickening of the membrane, or general 
diminished caliber of the passage, from what either ulceration, or 
ossification, or partial diminution or impediment, would produce; 
this sound will vary again, according to the degree of thickening, 
or contraction, or ulceration, or ossification; and, thirdly, it will 
undergo modification, according to the part whose lining membrane 
is thickened, or ulcerated, or ossified; according, in fact, as its 
seat happens to be the nasal chambers, the larynx, the windpipe, 
or the bronchial tubes. I do not mean to assert that all this can 
be realized in practice. Unfortunately for us, I am afraid we shall 
find our art not sufficiently advanced to connect the sound, in many 
cases, with the seat and nature of the cause; but I mean to con¬ 
tend that, if we would set about the investigation as men of sci¬ 
ence, all these considerations must enter into our theorification. 
When is the Sound emitted? — Whenever any sudden 
effort or exertion is made, or any hard or fast work performed— 
whenever, in fact, the breathing is so disturbed that the current of 
air through the windpipe is rendered rapid and voluminous. So 
