RESPIRATION IN INFANCY

Abstract

This study was undertaken for the purpose of obtaining some accurate information concerning the rate, character and volume of respiration in average normal infants in the first few months of life, and of learning what variations may normally be expected in the breathing of different infants and in that of the same infant at different times. <h3>METHOD AND APPARATUS</h3> Since the use of a mask or nose-piece might be expected to disturb the infants and result in distorted types of breathing, respirations were recorded by an indirect method, similar to the method described by Murphy and Thorpe¹and by Shaw and Hopkins.² With this indirect method, the infant's body was enclosed in an air-tight chamber while the head remained outside the chamber, sealed off by a circular rubber collar, leaving the infant free to breathe the air of the room in a normal manner (fig. 1). Connected with