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BRONCHITIS

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 635 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRONCHITIS , the nameliven to inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes (see See also:

RESPIRATORY See also:SYSTEM: See also:Pathology). Two See also:main varieties are described, specific and non-specific bronchitis. The bronchitis which occurs in infectious or specific disorders, as See also:diphtheria, See also:influenza, See also:measles, See also:pneumonia, &c., due to the micro--organisms observed in these diseases, is known as specific; whereas that which results from See also:extension from above, or from chemical or See also:mechanical irritation, is known as non-specific. It is convenient to describe it, however, under the chemical divisions of acute and chronic bronchitis. Acute bronchitis, like other inflammatory affections of the See also:chest, generally arises as the result of exposure to See also:cold, particularly if accompanied with See also:damp, or of sudden See also:change from a heated to a cool See also:atmosphere. The symptoms vary according to the severity of the attack, and more especially according to the extent to which the inflammatory See also:action spreads in the bronchial tubes. The disease usually manifests itself at first in the See also:form of a See also:catarrh, or See also:common cold; but the accompanying feverishness and See also:general constitutional disturbance proclaim the attack to be something more severe, and symptoms denoting the onset of bronchitis soon See also:present themselves. A See also:short, painful, dry cough, accompanied with rapid and wheezing respiration, a feeling of rawness and See also:pain in the See also:throat and behind the See also:breast See also:bone, and of oppression or tightness throughout the chest, See also:mark the See also:early stages of the disease. In some cases, from the first, symptoms of the form of See also:asthma (q.v.) known as the bronchitic are superadded, and greatly aggravate the patient's suffering. After a few days expectoration begins to come with the cough, at first scanty and viscid or frothy, but soon becoming copious and of purulent See also:character. In general, after See also:free expectoration has been established the more urgent and painful symptoms abate; and while the cough may persist for a length of See also:time, of ten extending to three or four See also:weeks, in the See also:majority of instances convalescence advances, and the patient is ultimately restored to See also:health, although there is not unfrequently See also:left a tendency to a recurrence of the disease on exposure to its exciting causes. When the See also:ear or the See also:stethoscope is applied to the chest of a See also:person suffering from such an attack as that now described, there are heard in the earlier stages snoring or cooing sounds, mixed up with others of wheezing or See also:fine whistling quality, accompanying respiration.

These are denominated dry sounds, and they are occasionally so abundant and distinct, as to convey their vibrations to the See also:

hand applied to the chest, as well as to be audible to a bystander at some distance. As the disease progresses these sounds become to a large extent replaced by others of crackling or bubbling character, which are termed moist sounds or rales. Both these kinds of abnormal sounds are readily explained by a reference to the pathological See also:condition of the parts. One of the first effects of inflammation upon the bronchial mucous membrane is to cause some degree of swelling, which, together with the presence of a tough secretion closely adhering to it, tends to diminish the calibre of the tubes. The respired See also:air as it passes over this See also:surface gives rise to the dry or sonorous breath sounds, the coarser being generated in the large, and the finer or wheezing sounds in the small divisions of the bronchi. Before See also:long, however, the See also:discharge from the bronchial mucous membrane becomes more abundant and less glutinous, and accumulates in the tubes till dislodged by coughing. The re-spired air, as it passes through this fluid, causes the moist rales above described. In most instances both moist and dry sounds are heard abundantly in the same See also:case, since different portions of the bronchial tubes are affected at different times in the course of the disease. Such are briefly the main characteristics presented by an See also:ordinary attack of acute bronchitis See also:running a favourable course.

End of Article: BRONCHITIS

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