The static lung tests / by William Augustus Guy.

  • Guy, William A. (William Augustus), 1810-1885.
Date:
[1842?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The static lung tests / by William Augustus Guy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and that of the body before and after respiration, at 6, 7, 8, and 9 months, it will be obvious that a larger assortment of facts is still to be desired. To supply this desideratum is the object of the present essay. As no single individual can hope to make a collection of facts so large as to supply all the data necessary to determine the real value of the static lung tests, I have thought that I might render some service to the science of forensic medicine by bringing toge- ther all the facts which I could collect from domestic and foreign authorities. This has been a greater labour than I at first con- templated ; for, in addition to the task of reducing the foreign weights to our own standard, the subsequent arrangement of the facts themselves, preparatory to drawing.conclusions from them, has occupied at least as much time as the subject is worth. Although this investigation was at first undertaken merely for my own satisfaction, I have bestowed as much pains upon it as if I had from the first intended making the results which I obtain- ed public. The facts which I have grouped together have been as nearly as possible comparable facts ; I have examined them one by one, and excluded such as were in any respect objectionable ; and I have stated the average and extreme results in such a way as to enable others to add to the facts which I have collected wherever they appear insufficient. I have also taken the precau- tion of putting by themselves such maxima and minima as seem to form exceptions to the several rules, or to be much greater or less than the numbers next below or above them. In reducing the foreign weights to the English standard, I have made use of the Avoirdupois weight, as being more convenient. This will account for the weight of the lungs in the tables being greater than it is usually represented to be. In England the weight of the lungs is usually expressed in Troy grains, hence it has been necessary to convert them into Avoirdupois grains, that the same standard might be employed in all the observations. I have taken care in all cases to satisfy myself of the correctness of my calculations. The total number of facts which are used in one way or another in the formation of the following tables is 652. Of these, 3 are from Ploucquet, 4 from Morike, 2 from Jager Senior, and 8 from Jager Junior.* Haartmarm’s dissertation has supplied me with 19 observations,*}* Schmitt’s excellent treatise with 1004 * The facts supplied by Ploucquet, Morike, and the two Jagers, father and son, are embodied in the essay entitled “ Uber die ausfuhrbar keit des von Herrn Pro- fessor Ploucquet getnachten Vorschlags zu einer neuen Lungenprobe* von Herrn Ho'medicus, Dr Jager in Stuttgardt, 1790.” This essay is published in the Salz- burg Med. Chir. Zeit. B. iii. p. 56. t Haartmann’s treatise is translated by Rudolphi in the Nordischen Archiv. B. ii. St. ii. No. 3. t “ Neue Versuche und Erfahrungen iiber die Ploucquet’s che und hydrostatis- che lungenprobe. Vron Dr Willelui Joseph Schmitt,” Vien. 1806. This treatise contains a large collection of well.observed facts and experiments, and abounds iti sound and judicious conclusions from them. 4/ 36)