ainhum (an'hum)

A disease of African countries characterized by the formation of a constricting ring around one or more digits, usually the little toe, and the gradual spontaneous amputation of the affected part. [Said to be an African word A meaning air. name originally "to saw."] applied to any gas. It is now restricted to the gas forming the earth's atmosphere, which is a mixture of 78 per cent, nitrogen, 21 per cent, oxygen, 0.03 per cent, carbon dioxid, and 0.94 per cent, argon by volume. It contains beside very small amounts of helium, krypton, neon, and xenon. It may also contain water vapor, ammonia, nitric acid, nitrous acid and ozone, beside other occasional vapors, alveolar a. The air contained in the alveoli of the lungs, complemental a. The volume of a. in addition to the tidal a. which may be drawn into the lungs by a forced inspiration. dephlogisticated a. Oxygen, expired a. The a. forced from the lungs in respiration, inspired a. The a. taken into the lungs in inspiration, fixed a. Carbon dioxid. liquid a. A. condensed by pre ure to the form of a liquid. It has been used as a refrigerant and caustic. minimal a. The small amount of a. left in the lungs after their collapse from the opening of the chest wall. It is the a. entrapped in the alveoli by occlusion of the small bronchioles opening into the alveoli, reserve a. Syn.: respiratory reserve. The volume of a. that may be voluntarily forced from the lungs after an ordinary respiration. residual a. Syn.: respiratory residue. The volume of a. that remains in the lungs after the most forcible respiration, stationary a. The amount of a. which remains constantly in the lungs in ordinary respiration, supplemental a., supplementary a. See reserve a. tidal a. Syn.: breath, breathing a., breathing volume. The volume of a. taken in at one inspiration in ordinary tranquil breathing. For other combinations of the word air, as air-chamber, air pa ages, see separate heads. [Gr., aer. Lat., aer, air.]