.t88 Mayow 



It will be urged by those who maintain that the 

 lungs move of themselves, that when the thorax is 

 wounded the lobes of the lungs usually burst from 

 the cavity in the chest and protrude through the 

 opening of the wound, which would by no means 

 happen if the lungs merely followed the movement of 

 the chest and did not expand of themselves. This 

 difficulty is thus answered by the learned Dr High- 

 more. The air, he says, pressing violently into the 

 expanded chest and the lungs, does not instantly cease 

 from its motion, but rushes where the way lies open 

 and carries the lungs with it, on account of their 

 extreme lightness, beyond the cavity of the thorax. 

 But with all respect to such a man, the lungs do not 

 (as I have ascertained by vivisections) protrude 

 through the opening made by a wound in the chest 

 unless the thorax is contracted ; when, namely, the 

 air does not, as the eminent man supposes, rush into 

 the lungs, but, on the contrary, is driven out of them. 

 So that it should rather be said, 1 think, that the 

 lungs are so compressed by the thorax, which is 

 everywhere contracted, that they burst forth where 

 there is an outlet, that is, through the aperture of the 

 wound ; just as we see a sponge tightly compressed 

 by the hands, protrude between ths fingers if they 

 are kept a little apart. But afterwards, when the 

 chest expands and the lungs are no longer com- 

 pressed by the sides of the thorax, now drawn 

 outwards, the lobe of the lungs, which protruded 

 beyond the cavity of the chest, will immediately 

 return to it, unless perhaps, in consequence of its 

 being caught tightly in the lips of the wound, the 

 outlet for the air is closed and the lobe is kept inflated 

 outside the thorax. 



Nor is there more force in the objection to what 



