o4 MIDRIFI PALPn-ATlON. INFLAMED LUNGS* 



rias made great exertions, so as to fill all the cells of his lungs to their utmost, 

 und then relaxes from the labour, he finds himself renovated, the cells being 

 rendered more capable of distention and expulsion, when each inspiration and 

 expiration also occupies more time and less labour. 



Sporting men, who are fond of our bear-baitings, Pecora-fights, and mon- 

 kej' scratches, may daily witness a practical natural illustration of the same 

 doctrine, in the conduct of the bear towards his antagonist. Seizing the d( g 

 between his paws, he squeezes him up till he gasps for breath, when Bruin, 

 being muzzled, rams his nose tight into the dog's mouth, and, blowing with 

 all his might, you may hear the wind whizzing : the dog swells all over, by 

 reason of the air entering the cellular membrane, and he dies unless timely 

 pulled off. A dog which has " had a hurt" of this sort seldom regains his 

 proper wind; he must be "a good one" to face the bear again, "as long as 

 he crawls." Such is the polished language at those elegant places of town 

 amusements. 



35. The MiDRiFr has been already mentioned (ss. 25 and 31). It is term- 

 ed diaphragm by the learned in hard words ; and we have seen how materially 

 it is engaged in the business of respiration. But for the action of this drum 

 head-like membrane, neither the lungs on one side of it, nor the stomach, 

 bowels, and liver on the other, would obtain their full degree of motion, which 

 is thus kept in tune, as it were, by those organs acting alternately upon each 

 other ; the action of the heart, too, is in unison with that motion ; but when 

 through agitation (occasioned by great exercise, affright, &c.) it does not 

 keep time, the temporary disorder, termed })alpitation, is the consequence. 

 We may infer that, when the lungs have discharged their contents, the lower 

 or thinnest end of that organ, falling upon the muscular border of the midriif, 

 is by it repulsed and excited to action. Any man can feel, when he has ex- 

 pired all his wind, a kind of throbbing internally, lower down than the heart, 

 until he inspires a fresh portion of air. When the lungs are in such a state 

 of supineness, those of the horse are about three or four inches thick at the 

 conjunction with the windpipe, and ten to thirteen inches from thence to each 

 extremity, according to the size of the subject ; but, when fully inflated with 

 air they together fill up the whole cavity of the chest, obstructing in a trivial 

 degree the vibration of the heart : then do they reach to the enormous differ- 

 ence of twelve or thirteen inches in thickness, and somewhat more in length. 

 At least such were the dimensions of this organ in a horse which was opened 

 by me in May, 1820: he was of the cart-horse breed, under sixteen hands, and 

 healthy m other respects than having been blown by eating too much corn ; 

 whereby nature was compelled to leave the lungs quite full at the moment of 

 his death. The same subject is alluded to in the 26th sect, where 1 intended 

 to illustrate the formation and functions of the cellular membrane. 



"No part of the animal has been formed in vain," as I before observed 

 (s. 23) : quadrupeds and bipeds both press the earth which gave them birtl/ 

 and which affords them the means of prolonging life ; accordingly this order 

 of beings is furnished with a midriff, but fishes and insects, having no such 

 occasion for this organ, are without it : neither have birds a midriff; but Mr 

 John Hunter was of opinion, that the want of it is supphed by the hollowness 

 of the bones, which not only increase their buoyancy, but the air contained y?3 

 them re-acts upon the lungs in the same manner as a midriff would do. 



36 In health, as in disease, the midriff is liable to be affected by its neigh- 

 bours, both before and behind it, the stomach often communicating its state 

 of feeling to the lungs through the midriff; for it is by this medium that me 

 dicines impart their beneficial effects upon the lungs, as may be experienced 

 upon our swallowing cold water at a time when our lungs are heated — 

 •he relative situation of those organs being much ahke in man anj] in thf 



