On the pathological anatomy of bronchitis, and the diseases of the lung connected with bronchial obstruction / by W.T. Gairdner, M.D.

  • Gairdner, W. T. (William Tennant), Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathological anatomy of bronchitis, and the diseases of the lung connected with bronchial obstruction / by W.T. Gairdner, M.D. 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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    PART I. PRIMARY RESULTS OF BRONCHITIS. In the present part, the direct and primary results of bronchitis will be discussed; comprising under this head those effects which follow, almost constantly, the accumulation of mucus and inflam- matory products in the bronchial tubes, when these are sufficient in quantity to cause serious obstruction. A second part will include the secondary and more permanent disorganizations of the pulmonary texture, which result from the former under peculiar circumstances; being induced either by long-continued intensity of the original dis- ease, or by constitutional states unfavourable to the removal of its results. Obstruction of the Bronchi. The ordinary effects of bronchitis upon the mucus and'other con- tents of the bronchial tubes, are, for the most part, well understood and clearly described by authors. The vascular engorgement of the mucous membrane, which at a later stage becomes much softened and thickened, and the loading of the tubes with an altered mucous secretion, intermixed to a greater or less degree with purulent matter, are familiar to every one. The connection of these sources of obstruction with the auscultatory and other signs is also so well known as to require but few observations. The varieties in the character of the secretion from the. diseased membrane are very great. In the earlier stages of the affec- tion, the mucus is profuse, thin, watery, and frothy, being mixed with air bubbles of all sizes. At this period it contains but few microscopic elements, a few altered epithelium-cells being only visible, and these in much greater number in the mucus procured from the dead body than in that expectorated by the living patient. At a later period the mucus has become yellowish, more tenacious and viscid, containing numerous pus corpuscles, and more of the altered epithelial elements. Occasionally, but more rarely, the expectoration, or the fluid in the bronchi after death, is composed of pus nearly pure, but always viscid and thick, like that which flows from old abscesses. In these cases the pulmonary tissue is rarely unaffected.