On the relation of the chest-movements to prognosis in lung-disease : and on the application of stethometry to examinations for life assurance / by Arthur Ransome.

Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the relation of the chest-movements to prognosis in lung-disease : and on the application of stethometry to examinations for life assurance / by Arthur Ransome. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ON THE USE OF THE STETHOMETER. In the first place, it will be necessary briefly to de- scribe the instruments which I use and the mode of their application. But first it should be noted that the movement of any point on the chest-wall is complex in its nature. It is, mathematically speaking, in three different dimensions or directions, viz., upwards, forwards, and outwards. In order to give an accurate representation of the movements of any point, therefore, it is essential to record, these “dimensions of the motion.” In other words, the extent of the movement measured in each of the planes in which the point moves, must be recorded. As we proceed it will become more and more evident how im- portant it is to observe not merely the gross movements of the chest-wall, but also the relative extent of the upward and forward movements, and in some instances the lateral or outward movements have also to be carefully measured. For each of these dimensions of the motion has its own significance. The upward dimension means simply the extent to which the clavicle or the rib can be raised or lowered. Thus it declares chiefly the degree of muscular power that can be exerted upon these bones; or else, as in cases where these levers have been abnormally raised, it