Dr Flemyng’s Letter
We
took notice above that women
use
the diaphragm in respiration less than men.
This
is a most wise provision of nature
as
it enables them during pregnancy, especially
in
the last months, to breath commodiously,
tho’
the diaphragm then can scarce act at all,
being
so strongly pressed upwards
by
the distended uterus.
It
would therefore appear highly probable
that
accretions of the lungs to the pleura
are
attended with much less inconveniency
in
the female than the male sex.