November 25, 1991
This Week at a Glance
Nov. 25 Dec. 1
DAY/DATE TIME EVENT PLACE
Monday, 25 7:30-9:30 pm Movie —Le Cercle Francais Commons
9-10 pm Union Meeting Dana Lounge
Tuesday, 26 10:30-2:30 pmYoga Class Gallery
Noon-1 pm Committee "W" Meeting Dana Lounge
1:30-3 pm IDS Lecture Dana Auditorium
4-5 pm SRC Meeting Boren Lounge
4-5:30 pm Publications Board Meeting Dana Lounge
5:15-6 pm Episcopal Holy Eucharist Moon Room
7:30-8:30 pm Explorative Bible Study Founders 203 A
8:45-10 pm FCA Meeting Boren Lounge
Wednesday, 27 2:30-4 pm Senate Meeting Boren Lounge
4 pm Residence Halls Close
Thursday, 28 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Friday, 29 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Saturday, 30 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Sunday, Dec. 1 9-Noon Christ the King Church Service Moon Room
1 pm Residence Halls Reopen
5:30-10 pm Philosophy Club Meeting The Underground
THE BARRY M. GOLDWATER SCHOLARSHIP AND EXCELLENCE IN EDU
CATION FOUNDATION: operates educational scholarship program designed to
provide opportunites for outstanding U.S. students with excellent academic records and
demonstrated interest in, and potential for, careers in matematics and the natural
sciences. To be eligible a student must be a current full-time sophomore or junior and
must be pursuing a baccalaureate degree, have a B average or equivalent, stand in upper
fourth of the class and be a U.S. citizen, a resident alien or U.S. national who will pursue
a career in mathematics or the natural sciences. The DEADLINE for all 1992
nominations is Feb. 7. (Interested students should contact Anthony Gurley or the
appropriate department chairperson by Dec. 10.) The scholarship award covers eligible
expenses up to a maximum of $7 thousand per year.
Come join the fastest growing
organization on campus.
We want you on our team.
The Guilfordian
Contact Nancy Benson x.2643 or Reagan
Hopkins x.3955
Features
A Word on coughing
Nancy Benson
Personnel Manager
I surmise that in another life I was one of
those cocky children who openly mocked
my fellow classmates with severely asth
matic symptoms. In a Buddhist light this
would explain why I, through a large portion
of my grammar school, secondary school
and collegiate life have been the solitary
cougher in the back of many distinguished
classessuch as Mrs. Lovesky's second-grade
reading class.
My classmates and I sat in neat and
orderly rows of tiny wooden desks — a typi
cal collection of runny-nosed, bell-bottomed
eight-year-olds studying the whimsical uses
of the English language. Without missing a
beat, Mrs. Lovesky, a woman of excessive
age and hairspray, would glance up from our
phonics book and say, "Nancy, would you
like to get a drink?" Suddenly all eyes con
centrated on me, the lone cougher. All
twenty-five heads turned, and I shrank with
the embarrassment of recognition. For some
reason I thought they wouldn't notice if
nothing was said. I thought class would
carry on and my loud and hardy cough
would go unnoticed. I was wrong.
Of course it al 1 began innocently enough.
I sat silently in class desperately trying to
ignore the harping tickle in the back of my
throat. I knew immediately that I should
excuse myself, but I never did. I still don't!
I fought the dreaded cough which rose from
the depths of my soul like a Doberman's
angry bark, sounding out across the crowded
class room, bouncing off the chalk boards
and causing the whole room to echo like an
empty cave, or reverberate like a young
child screaming into a large Sears Kenmore
fan. I attempted to stifle the canine-like
noise with my hands, wads of tissues or my
Ziggy notebook— only to find myself pow
erless and wishing to disguise the husky
sound. I failed.
As I pressed my lips hard together, tears
welled up into my eyes and my cheeks
swelled red and round like a Blowfish or
novice trumpet player. Next, an extempora
neous prayer streamed though my normally
agnostic mind, "Oh God, please let me stop
coughing!!!" I realized that I was not only
disturbing the class, and Mrs. Lovesky's
review of the versatile soft and hard "c"
sounds, but I had irritated myself.
This irritation caused me to ask, "What
is a cough? What is this invisible monster
which causes me to shut off the outside,
seizes my entire person and metamorphoses
my upper torso into an uncontrollable, con
vulsing monster, like a scared kid held cap
tive by a roaring roller coaster?" According
to Mosby's Medical, Nursing, and Allied
Health Dictionary, the definition of a cough
is a "sudden, audible expulsion of air from
the lungs. Coughing is preceded by inspira
tion, the glottis is partially closed, and the
accessory muscles of expiration contract to
THE GUILFORD lAN
expel the air forcibly from the respiratory
passages." This act is essential for making
sure no foreign matter or our own bodily
secretions collect in the lungs. Coughing not
only clears the lungs, but it also clears the
nose, throat, bronchi and trachea.
In case Chuck Smith hasn't slapped you
with these medical terms yet, the glottis is
simply the free area between the vocal cords
in the upper part of the larynx. It acts as a trap
door. Often doctors refer to the breathing
passages as "the pulmonary tree;" the si
nuses and the tubes leading to the inner ears
can be considered the roots of the tree. The
base of the tree is the throat. The windpipe
(trachea) acts as the trunk and is divided into
two main branches called bronchi. The
bronchi lead into the lungs, which houses
300 million little air sacs which are compa
rable to the leaves on a tree. When we cough,
the tree is cleared of mucus and unwanted
particles.
For the past two decades I've been
plagued with an evil cough caused my
asthma, but this dreaded symptom comes in
many forms and can indicate a number of
physical conditions. It could mean anything
from a cold to reflux esophagitis. Oh my!
There are four important causes of a chronic
or persistent cough. The first two which I
shall attempt to discuss are environmental
irritants and lower respiratory tract prob
lems. However, since I, a humble English
major, have not yet begun working on my
M.D., I shall leave the latter two —upper
respiratory tract problems, and extrinsic
compressive lesions —for the Surgeon Gen
eral.
Allen H. Goroll, author of Primary Care
Medicine, explains that environmental irri
tants include things like cigarette smoking
(cigar, pipe or other funky substances), pol
lutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide
or particulate matter. (Those of us from the
Garden State can appreciate this tip next
time we're landing in the Newark airport.
Another environmental cause for a cough is
common dust or simply "all agents capable
of producing pneumoconioses". I looked to
The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language to find "Pneumoconioses"
and, simply, it is: "A lung disease caused by
long-continued inhalation of mineral or
metallic dusts." The last environmental irri
tant listed by Goroll is a lack of humidity.
This is common in centrally heated build
ings such as the dorms and academic build
ings we have here at Guilford.
Lower respiratory tract problems range
form asthma to the dreaded LUNG CAN
CER. According to Barbara Kantrowitz of
Newsweek, "Asthmatics have highly sensi
tive airways that contract and fill up with
mucus in response to a variety of triggers
such as cold weather, infection, exercise or
allergies." She continues by quoting Dr.
Allan Weinstein, a Washington, D.C. aller
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