The matron's course : an introduction to hospital and private nursing / by Miss S.E. Orme.

  • Orme, S. E.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The matron's course : an introduction to hospital and private nursing / by Miss S.E. Orme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    think is impure—so much so that when travelling abroad they will rarely even taste it. They should be equally afraid of inhahng air that is contaminated. In every room or ward )'ou want to provide for the escape of foul and the supply of fresh air. In a former lecture I described to you the composition of dust in hospital wards. Dust being the deposit of the atmosphere, you are always liable to take into your lungs the harmful particles floating about. Air is a mixture chiefly of two gases—nitrogen and oxygen. There are 79 volumes of nitrogen and 21 of oxygen in 100 of air. Oxygen is necessary for the maintenance of animal life. The changes which the air undergoes by its contact with the lungs are: (i) Its temperature is raised ; (2) its oxygen is diminished ; (3) the carbonic acid and aqueous vapour are increased ; (4) a small quantity of ammonia and organic matter is added to it. For every volume of air inspired into the lungs per cent, of oxygen is absorbed by the blood, and about the same quantity of poisonous car- bonic acid gas is thrown off ; this process is called the aeration of blood, and consists essentially of this interchange of these two gases. The blood is the great nourisher and purifier of the body, and the blood itself is purified by this process of aeration in the lungs. The blood flowing into the lungs is dark, venous, or impure,