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What does the word respiration mean?

• 1. A function common to all living plants or animals, consisting in the taking in of oxygen and the throwing off the products of oxidation in the tissues, mainly carbon dioxide and water 2. The sound of the air moving in the bronchi and lungs heard on auscultation.

• Inspiration and expiration, q. v.

• A function proper to animals, the object of which is, to place the materials of the blood-the mixture of the venous blood with lymph and clyle, - in contact with atmospheric air, in order that it may acquire the vivifying qualities which belong to arterial blood. The organs for executing this function are, in the mammalia, birds, and reptiles, the lungs. In man. the respiration consists of mechanical and chymieal phenomena. The mechanical are Inspiration and Expiration. The evident chymieal phenomena consist in the formation of a certain quantity of carbonic acid, the absorption of a part of the oxygen of the air, and the disengagement of a quantity of water in the state of vapour. In the healthy condition the respiration is easy, gentle, regular, and without noise. In man, the respirations are generally about 35 per minute in the first year of life; 25 during the second; 20 at puberty; and 18 in the adult age. The air of respiration has been divided into first, the residual air, or that which cannot be expelled from the lungs, but remains after a full and forcible expiration, estimated at 120 cubic inches: secondly, the supplementary or reserve air or that which can be expelled by a forcible expiration, after an ordinary outbreathing, valued at 130 cubic inches: thirdly, the breath, tidal or breathing air, valued at 26 cubic inches: and fourthly, the complementary or complemental air, or that which can be inhaled after an ordinary inspiration, which amounts to 100 cubic inches. This estimate gives 250 cubic inches as the average volume of air which the chest contains after an ordinary expiration.

• [ Latin] Breathing; the act by which air is taken into and expelled from the lungs; also a breath, a single inspiration and expiration. In inspiration the chest-cavity is enlarged by the contraction and consequent descent of the diaphragm( Diaphragmatic r.), the eversion and elevation of the ribs by the contraction of the external inter-costals and levatores costarum( Costal r.), the depression of the lower ribs by the abdominal muscles( Abdominal r., Inferior thoracic r.), and the elevation of the upper ribs by the scalene and other muscles passing down from the skull and cervical vertebrae( Superior thoracic r.). The abdominal( including the diaphragmatic) type of r. prevails in men, the costal and superior thoracic type in women. In cases where more air is needed than usual, forced inspiration( Forced r., Labored r.) is performed by all muscles which can elevate the ribs or give a fixed support to other muscles elevating the ribs( serratus magnus, trapezius, sterno-mastoid, rhomboidei, etc.) Expiration is accomplished by the elastic recoil of the ribs and the contraction of the internal intercostals, which draw the ribs down; and in forced expiration by the abdominal muscles, which force the contents of the abdomen upward. The rate of r. is about seventeen to the minute, varying from thirteen to twenty-five in health, and in conditions of dyspnoea( pneumonia, etc.) rising to from thirty to fifty. The amount of air taken in in an ordinary r. ( tidal air) is 500 cu. cent.; it diffuses with the air contained in the lungs( stationary air), giving to it oxygen and taking from it carbon dioxide and water. In forced inspiration additional air( complementary air) to the amount of 1200-1700 cu. cent. can be taken in; and the same amount of additional air can be expelled by forced expiration( reserve air, supplemental air). The air left in the lungs after the fullest possible expiration( residual air) amounts to 1400-2000 cu cent. The total amount of air which can be expelled by the most forcible expiration after most forcible inspiration( =tidal air+ complemental air+ supplemental air) is the vital capacity. In inspiration oxygen is taken in; in expiration, carbon dioxide, water, and various organic matters are given off. The air in passing in and out of the lungs makes a distinct breezy sound( Normal vesicular r., vesicular murmur). This may by disease be altered, as in the following table, or may be accompanied by adventitious sounds( see Rales, Table of). Artificial r., r. affected by inducing passive movements in the chest, when the normal respiratory movements are feeble or absent. The chief methods are Howard’s in which the diaphragm is pushed up by direct upward and inward pressure made against the lower ribs; Marshall Hall’s, in which the body is placed on its side, then rolled over on the face, then on the opposite side, then on the back; and Sylvester’s, in which the arms are drawn upwards and backwards over the head, with the forearm extended, and are then carried down and in, with the forearm flexed and the elbow against the side, so as to press strongly upon the lower ribs. In all methods each manipulation must be repeated from 12 to 15 times a minute. Cutaneous r., the exhalation of carbon dioxide and water and absorption of oxygen by the skin.

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