The nose is an organ of breathing (respiration) and it warms and moistens the air we breathe and arrests particles of dust in the air before they enter the lungs.  If the air we breathe is of an uneven temperature, or of marked degree of dryness, or if it is saturated with impurities, it always acts as a source of irritation to the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract, like the larynx.  By the time the air reaches the pharynx, through the nose, it has become almost as warm as the blood, and also is well saturated with moisture.  The mucous membrane that lines the nose cavity and especially that part over the lower turbinate bone, secretes from sixteen to twenty ounces of fluid daily.  This fluid cleanses and lubricates the nose and moistens the air we breathe.  Conditions may arise which interfere with this natural secretion.  This may be due to the fact that some of the glands have shrunk or wasted (atrophied) and the secretion has become thick.  This collects in the nose, decomposes and forms scabs and crusts in the nostrils.  In this condition there will be dropping of mucus into the throat.  This condition is usually only a collection of secretions from the nose,—­which are too thick to flow away,—­collect in the space behind the nose, and when some have accumulated, drop into the pharynx.

[8 Mothers’ remedies]

In order to be in good health it is necessary to breath through the nose, and to do this there must be nothing in the nose or upper part of the pharynx to interfere with the free circulation of the air through these cavities.  The cavities of the nose may be partly closed by polpi (tumors) on the upper and middle turbinate bone, a spur on the (septum) partition, deviation of the partition or enlarged turbinate bones, or adenoids in the upper part of the pharynx.  These troubles almost close up the nose sometimes and the person is compelled to breathe through his mouth.  He not only looks foolish, talks thick, but is laying up for himself future trouble.  By correcting the trouble in the nose and removing the adenoids in the upper part of the pharynx the patient can breathe through the nasal passages.  If you take a tube you can pass it straight back through the lower channel (meatus) into the pharynx.  It will touch the upper back wall of the pharynx.  If the tube has a downward bend you can see it behind the soft palate and by attaching a string to that end you can draw it back out through the nostrils.  In that way we plug the posterior openings (nares).  The upper part of the pharynx reaches higher up behind than a line drawn horizontally above the tip of the nose to the pharynx.  It reaches forward above the soft palate on its front surface.  Its front surface is almost directly on a vertical line with tonsil, above the soft palate.  On its upper part and on the side near the nose cavity is the opening of the eustachian tube.

The name naso-pharynx means the junction of the nose and pharynx.  Sometimes the upper posterior wall of the pharynx, called the vault of the pharynx, especially the part behind each eustachian tube, is filled almost full with adenoids.  These are overgrowths or thickenings of the glandular tissue in the upper posterior wall of the pharynx (vault of the pharynx).