Hints and helps for home nursing and hygiene : a handbook for all who have to do with sickness arrange acording to the syllabus of the second (or nursing) course of lectures / by E. MacDowel Cosgrave.

  • Cosgrave, E. MacDowel (Ephraim MacDowel)
Date:
[1908?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hints and helps for home nursing and hygiene : a handbook for all who have to do with sickness arrange acording to the syllabus of the second (or nursing) course of lectures / by E. MacDowel Cosgrave. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    pure blood leaving by other arteries which take it to the lungs, so that it may be purified and return to the heart fresh and pure by another set of veins. The heart. We said just now that the heart was a hollow muscle, but if it were merely a muscle hollowed out into a single chamber it could not manage to drive the pure blood to the thirsty tissues and at the same time pump the impure blood through the freshen- ing net-work of the lungs. It would be better, therefore, to say that the heart is a couple of hollow muscles packed side by side and laced together. They might be called the left heart and the right heart, but as they are so close together and seemingly parts of the one organ, they are spoken of as the left side of the heart and the right side. The work which the left side has to do is much the harder; it has to pump the blood through the thirsty tissues as far off, for instance, as the crown of the head and the soles of the feet, and through all the tissues which lie between them, whereas the right side has only to pump the impure blood through the lungs, which are very roomy and close handy. It is like comparing the work of the blacksmith with that of the tailor. The left side of the heart having so much more work to do is ever so much thicker and stronger than the right side. Roughly, the heart is about the size and shape of the clenched fist. It is placed in the chest, behind the left breast, where it is protected from violence by the springy ribs and the breast-bone. In the greater circulation the blood leaves the heart by the large main artery, the aorta. This gives off