Respiratory exercises in the treatment of disease : notably of the heart, lungs, nervous and digestive systems / by Harry Campbell.

  • Campbell, Harry, 1860-1938.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Respiratory exercises in the treatment of disease : notably of the heart, lungs, nervous and digestive systems / by Harry Campbell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    rope-hauling in developing these muscles ; he also calls attention to the marked influence of this occupation in diminishing abdominal obesity. It may be observed, in passing, that all muscle exercises do not cause fat to disappear at the same rate all over the body. The fat tends to be absorbed chiefly in the neighbourhood of the muscles most actively employed. Thus, if a stout man takes to fencing, the loss of fat takes place chiefly about the chest, and similarly, rope-hauling, which calls the abdominal muscles into active play, is especially calculated to remove fat from the belly. The chief causes of abdominal flaccidity, with its con- sequent low intra-abdominal tension, are : a sedentary life, the wearing of stays (which prevent the free play of the abdominal muscles), and the distension of the abdominal walls produced by repeated pregnancies and by ascitic and adipose accumulations. Thus, the abdomen of a person who, from being very stout, has become rapidly thin, is very apt to be flaccid. Intra-abdominal tension is, of course, also diminished by paralysis of the abdominal muscles, as in myelitis and in idiopathic muscle-atrophy, of which I have a good example at present under observation. But the tension within the abdomen, though mainly dependent on the contraction of the abdominal walls, may be increased by other conditions. Thus, the pressure within the stomach and intestines varies from hour to hour even in health. Often it is negative, but it is frequently also positive; e.(j., after a heavy meal it may be very decidedly positive, and may cause a considerable bulging of the upper part of the belly. (It is this positive gastric pressure which is the essential factor in causing dilated stomach.) Again, the stomach and intestines may be distended by flatus, and intra-abdominal tension is then much augmented, the abdominal walls often being stretched as tight as a drum.