Even the older writers report many
instances of remarkable recoveries from lung-injuries, despite
the primitive and dirty methods of treatment. A review of the
literature previous to this century shows the names of Arcaeus,
Brunner, Collomb, Fabricius Hildanus, Vogel, Rhodius, Petit,
Guerin, Koler, Peters, Flebbe, and Stalpart, as authorities for
instances of this nature. In one of the journals there is a
description of a man who was wounded by a broad-sword thrust in
the mediastinum. After death it was found that none of the
viscera were wounded, and death was attributed to the fact that
the in-rush of air counterbalancing the pressure within the lungs
left them to their own contractile force, with resultant
collapse, obstruction to the circulation, and death. It is said
that Vesalius demonstrated this condition on the thorax of a pig.
Gooch gives an instance of a boy of thirteen who fell from the
top of a barn upon the sharp prow of a plough, inflicting an
oblique wound from the axilla to below the sternum, slightly
above the insertion of the diaphragm. Several ribs were severed,
and the left thoracic cavity was wholly exposed to view, showing
the lungs, diaphragm, and pericardium all in motion.
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