The care of the sick at home and in the hospital : a handbook for families and for nurses / by Th. Billroth ; translated by J. Bentall Endean.

  • Billroth, Theodor, 1829-1894.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The care of the sick at home and in the hospital : a handbook for families and for nurses / by Th. Billroth ; translated by J. Bentall Endean. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    327/356 (page 315)
    This tube consists of cartilaginous rings, united one to another by a fibrous membrane, and, at the top, widens for a length of about two inches; this part consists wholly of cartilage, and is called the larynx (head of the wind- pipe). Air is drawn into the lungs through the trachea and the larynx, and flows out again through the same channel. A mucous membrane lines both windpipe and larynx through- out. This mucous membrane forms two folds, one on each side in the larynx, called the vocal chords. The air issuing from the lungs causes these vocal chords to tremble, “ vibrate,” and tone—the voice—is produced in the larynx. By means of small muscles we are able to expand or relax the vocal chords at will, and, by vigorous expiration, can produce different kinds of noises and tones in screaming, singing, or speaking. By giving different positions to the tongue, the palate, and the lips, the manifold forms of tone and sound of which speech is composed are produced. 2. What is the nature of the Lungs, and how are they connected with the Trachea ? Within the thoracic cavity man has one lung on each side. The lungs are composed of fine membranes and fibres; in their structure they may be compared to a sponge with very fine pores, encased in a fine membrane (pleura-pulmonalis, or plmra), which sponge, one must imagine, is capable of ex- pansion so that it can be inflated. The trachea is first divided, at its base, into two main trunks, one for each lung \ each trunk sinks in into its own lung, where it divides itself again and again into thinner branches, until these finest tracheal ramifications (bronchial tubes) enter into the pulmonary vesicles, which vesicles we have compared to the pores of a sponge.