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J. L. YATES, M.D.

Arch Surg. 1926;12(1):257-285.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

PART I

Vital capacity, the largest expiration following the deepest inspiration, varies with age and sex, height and weight, health and disease, and after periods of rest and exertion. It is a fair criterion of life, reaching its peak when physiologic competence is highest, diminishing as incompetence increases and becoming zero when respiration ceases.

A just evaluation of the therapeutic significance of vital capacity depends primarily on recognition of the anatomic and physiologic factors that establish it and secondarily on knowledge of their interrelationships, which control it. These are the means to understand the causes and effects of the numerous, considerable and at times abrupt fluctuations in vital capacity known to occur in health and in disease spontaneously and to be provoked by operations. They are also the means to better therapy.

Answers to the questions implied are to be found in studies of the processes that control oxygen metabolism, . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
MILWAUKEE, WIS.

Footnotes
The work on which this paper is based was aided by the American Red Cross and carried on in the Laboratory for Surgical Research of the American Expeditionary Forces and in Columbia Hospital, Milwaukee.

This paper introduced a prearranged discussion of the significance of vital capacity. A moderate time limit was imperative. Presentation of the subject, however, would have been of little practical value unless methods to control vital capacity were established on a physiologic basis. The basis is Dunham's air cell capillary gear, and its existence was certain to be questioned.

In order to include the most important features the presentation was divided into two parts, the first to consider the main subject, and the second to elucidate the actions of an air cell capillary mechanism. The second part was given in the time allotted to close the discussion. Even so it was impossible to proffer evidence to support all the assertions made. Evidence not presented can be found in the following articles by me: Wounds of the Thorax, Oxford Surgery, New York, 1920, p. 665; Effects of Acute and Chronic Pneumothorax, Am. J. M. Sc. 165:1 (Jan.) 1923; Significance of Vital Capacity in Intrathoracic Therapy, Arch. Surg. 10:477 (Jan.) 1925.

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