Lung

“ At birth the lungs are pinkish-white in color but in later life they are marked with slate-colored patches, due to the deposit in the lung tissue of particles of dirt breathed in. They are light, spongy, and highly elastic, and will float in water, crepitating upon pressure owing to the air in the tissue. ”

“ But our author has adduced these matters inconsistently, for he has established the lungs as an emunctory or passage from the heart; [108] and he says: “The lung is affected by the blood which passes through it, the sordes flowing along with the blood.” ”

“ The lung follows the heart. The whole mediastinum finds itself altered in its position and in its contents. The depressed diaphragm rises promptly to its old position in the pleural cavity. The liver, spleen, and the rib-wall undergo striking modifications. We do not expect the lung to dilate to its full extent, as after aspirations in simple pleurisies. The lung, indeed, is already impaired in its movement. We admit air in order to secure treatment to these surfaces. When air is admitted into the normal chest, the lung is retracted to about one-half its size. ”

“ The lungs may sink as a result of disease. 2. Respiration, even in healthy lungs, may be so imperfect that they may sink. 3. Emphysema pulmonum neonatorum. 4. Putrefaction. 5. Artificial inflation.
1. That in consequence of disease the entire lungs, or portions of them, may sink, and yet respiration may have taken place. Disease of the lung may occur previously to birth or soon afterwards, but it is scarcely probable that the disease would attack every portion of the [Pg 172] lung. Parts, doubtless, small in proportion to the diseased part, may yet have been sufficiently inflated to float. ”

“ The average person uses only about one seventh of his lung capacity in ordinary breathing, the rest of the air remaining at the bottom of the lung, being termed 'residual.' As this is vitiated by its stay in the lung, it does harm rather than good by its presence.... ”

“ Each lung is enclosed, and its structure maintained by a serous membrane, called the pleu ́ra, which invests it as far as the root, and is thence reflected upon the walls of the chest. The lungs, however, are on the outside of the pleura, in the same way as the head is on the outside of a cap doubled upon itself. The reflected pleuræ in the middle of the thorax form a partition, which divides the chest into two cavities. ”

“ The branches and the sacs make the two lungs. So a lung is a soft and spongy piece of flesh, and can be blown up like a rubber bag. A frog's lung is a single, thin bag, about half an inch across it. Each little sac of a man's lung is like a tiny frog's lung. ”

“ Placed in certain positions one lung may expand very much more than the other in normal respiration; or in some positions, and sometimes for unknown reasons, there may be practically no expansion in one lung for a short time. ”

“ Thus, experiment has shown that in a foetus which has never breathed, the lungs are compact and will sink in water; but as soon as they become inflated with air, they spread over a larger surface, and are therefore more buoyant. Each lung is invested, as far as its root, with a membrane, called the pleura, which is then continuously extended to the cavity of the chest, thus performing the double office of lining it, and constituting a partition between the lungs. ”

“ Each lung resembles a cone with its base resting upon the diaphragm, and its apex behind the collar-bone. The right lung is larger though shorter, than the left, not extending so low, and has three lobes, formed by deep fissures, or longitudinal divisions, while the left has but two lobes. Each lobe is also made up of numerous lobules, or small lobes, connected by cellular tissue, and these contain great numbers of cells. The lungs are abundantly supplied with blood-vessels, lymphatics, and nerves. The density of a lung depends upon the amount of air which it contains. ”

“ But as maturity approaches the true lung appears; the gill gradually transfers its task to the higher organ. It then becomes atrophied and disappears, and finally respiration in the adult is conducted by lungs alone. ”

“ Furthermore, the air expired from the infected lung is sensibly hot, especially if the inflammation is of the erysipelatous variety, and, as a consequence, the patient shows a disposition to draw long breaths, knowing that the cold air which he thus draws into his lungs will afford him some measure of relief. ”

“ The ultimate cells of the human lungs are from one two-hundredth to one seventieth of an inch in diameter, and in number are about six hundred million. Mammalian lungs are always partially filled with air, and only by great pressure can the air be sufficiently expelled from the lung-tissue to allow it to sink in water. ”

“ Thence it perforates the diaphragm and enters the pleural cavity, finally penetrating the lung to become encysted there. The lung is the favorite site but wandering flukes may invade other tissues and organs even invading the central nervous system. ”

“ The bronchial breath sound which we hear over the lung, compressed by fluid, near the vertebra continues sometimes a long time after the absorption of the fluid, because the lung, deprived of air, expands slowly. ”

“ In imperfect or shallow breathing, only a portion of the lung cells are brought into play, and a great portion of the lung capacity is lost, the system suffering in proportion to the amount of under-oxygenation. ”

“ The blood, wishing to burn its waste matter, and wishing also to purify the alimentary principles which the veins have drawn from the stomach, has need of air. Where will it find it? In the lungs. And that is why it is necessary to introduce air into our lungs, or, in other words, that is why we breathe. The lungs are a simple intermediary between the air and the blood. ”

“ It here receives the oxygen from the atmosphere, and the chyle, or white blood, from the digested food, and becomes, in an instant, arterial blood, a vital principle, from which every solid and fluid of the body is constructed. Besides the lungs, Nature has provided another respiratory organ, a sort of supplemental lung, that, as well as being a covering to the body, _in_spires air and _ex_pires moisture;—this is the cuticle, or skin ”

“ In this case after a time the pulmonary capillaries, like the cutaneous ones, act with increased energy; the breathing, which was before quick, and the air thrown out at each respiration in less quantity, and cool to the back of the hand opposed to it, now becomes larger in quantity, and warmer than natural; which however is not accompanied with the sensation of heat in the membrane, which lines the air-vessels of the lungs, as in the skin. ”

“ The lungs are, among the internal organs, the most exposed to direct irritations, either by the air that constantly enters them and can irritate them, or by heterogeneous substances that it introduces, or especially by the changes of heat and cold that it occasions. 2d. These organs are connected by the most numerous sympathies with the other systems, the cutaneous, for example; so that perhaps, as it respects inflammation, a suppression of transpiration has as much influence upon the lungs alone, as upon all the other organs together. ”

“ No organ is of greater importance to life than the lungs; and hence it is necessary not only to breathe a pure atmosphere, but also that we take in enough of it at every respira­tion to inflate the whole chest. The lungs may be said to commence with the soft lining of the trachea, and to extend in two huge lobes down into the chest ”

“ The compression of the chest brings the thin membrane of the lungs into contact, and upon the slightest inflammation suppuration naturally takes place, and hence pul­monary consumption is established. ”

“ But more wonderful yet is its effect on the disorders of the respiratory organs. Under anything like favorable circumstances the lungs are, indeed, the most curable part of the human body. With every inspiration the balm of pure air can be brought into contact with the thousand times thousand air-cells of the respiratory apparatus, [2] and, as we breathe about twenty times per minute, the panacea can be applied twenty-seven thousand times in twenty-four hours. ”

“ The lungs of animals and the leaves of vegetables, are their respiratory organs, by means of which, the blood in the one case and the sap in the other, derive gas from the air, and impart gas to it, each taking what is thrown off by the other. ”

“ The free and equable expansion of the lungs by full inspiration, necessarily takes place; this maintains their healthy structure, by keeping all the air-passages open and pervious; it prevents congestion in the pulmonary circulation, and at the same time provides more completely for the necessary chemical action on the blood, by changing, at each act of respiration, a sufficient proportion of the whole air contained in the lungs,—all objects of great importance, and all capable of being promoted, more or less, by the means in question. ”

“ When the blood enters the lungs it is dark in color, but when it leaves the lungs it is of a light vermilion hue. The oxygen which has been taken into the lungs has wrought this change. So wonderful is this element of nature that some have called it life. ”

“ The removal of these growths not only improves the method of breathing, but in many instances causes a marked improvement in the general health and personal appearance.
35.The weakest portions of the lungs appear to be the tiny lobes at the top. As they occupy the part of the thorax most difficult to expand, air penetrates them much less freely than it does the lobes below. In most cases of consumption (some authorities give as high as eighty per cent) , the upper lobes are the first to be affected. ”

“ This air was extravasate, had burst through the extremities of the bronchia and vesicular substance, and had insinuated itself throughout the whole substance of the lungs, in which it was detained by the membrane investing them. In a word, the whole substance of the lungs was in a state truly emphysematous. In several parts this air had formed large bladders, which, though no pressure upon the surface of the lungs could force back, a sight incison into them permitted to escape, and caused the whole lobe to collapse. ”

“ The purity of the blood is influenced by the condition of the lungs. When the bronchial tubes and air-cells have become partially impervious to air, from pressure upon the lungs, from fluids in the chest, from tumors, or from the consolidation of the cells and tubes from disease,—as inflammation, or the deposition of yellow, cheesy matter, called tubercles,—the blood will not be purified, even if the air is pure, the lungs voluminous, and the respiratory movements unrestricted, as the air cannot permeate the air-cells. ”

“ A new element of many thousand pounds weight then presses upon the surface of its body. This atmospherick fluid, adulterated in cities with innumerable impurities and feculencies is drawn into its lungs: its diaphragm and muscles of respiration then begin to act, the lungs expand, and the respiration commences. The passage between the auricles of its heart and arterial duct are gradually closed up; the sphere of the circulation is extended; the whole current of blood in its frequent revolution hourly, passes through the lungs ”