Researches on the nature, pathology, and treatment of emphysema of the lungs, and its relations with other diseases of the chest / by A.T.H. Waters.

  • Waters, A. T. Houghton (Alderman Thomas Houghton), 1826-1912.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on the nature, pathology, and treatment of emphysema of the lungs, and its relations with other diseases of the chest / by A.T.H. Waters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    tlie walls are placed at some distance from each other, so that spaces are left between them where the blood- vessels are uncovered, except by the basement mem- brane and epithehum. At the circumference of the alveoli, and at the margins of the sacs, the fibres are often gathered into bundles of considerable size. It is to this tissue that the elasticity of the air-sacs, and of the whole lung, is due ; and the changes which take place in it, in the disease under con- sideration, constitute one of the most important features of the affection. The basement membrane is thin, homogeneous, and transparent. It is a prolongation of that lining the bronchial tubes; but it becomes finer and more delicate as it passes from the latter vessels into the air-sacs. It is covered by an epithelium, consisting of small flattened nucleated cells. The capillaries of the pulmonary arteries, which form the pulmonary plexus, ramify in the membrane described above as forming the walls of the air-sacs and the septa of the alveoli. The plexus consists of a single layer of vessels placed between two layers of basement membrane. As the respiratory changes take place in the air-sacs, it is obviously of the greatest importance that the integrity of these latter should remain unimpaired, for any loss of structure they may undergo diminishes the amount of aerating surface over which the blood has to pass. The bear- ings of these points on the disease under considera- tion will be dwelt on hereafter. Having premised these observations on the arrange-