Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1884 — Conghing. [ARTICLE]

Conghing.

It is sometimes forgotten thatcoughs —properly so called and in their integrity—«®e convulsive, expiratory efforts intended to eject from the air cells or passages of the lungs, or from the windpipe .or larynx, either secretions or exudations, or occasionally foreign substances, which impede the act of respiration. Unfortunately, there is seldom any constant relation between the frequency and force of a cough and the physical need tor it. This is because the net being, <jsf course, performed by virtue of a special excitation of the nervous system, tihe degree of excitability of the nerves concerned in the muscular contractions producing cough determines its foree and frequency, instead of their being governed, as they ought to be, solely by the exigencies of expulsion. Moreover, owing to the sympathetic connection of nerves energizing different groups of muscies, and in relation with different centers, cough may be produced by excitations which are not local, to the breathing organs. Therefore, we find that cough, which ought to be a very simple process or function of a remedial, or, at least, physically helpful kind is. in fact, itself a cause of disturbance and disease by reason of excessive and disorderly character. Very grave mistakes are made in practice by treating cough as a pulmonary affection and in itself morbid. — London Lancet.