FHILOSOPBICAL TRAHSACTIOKS. 



[akko 1740. 



A Case in wkick Part of the iMmgt were cot^ked tqt. Presemted to the Royal So- 

 ciety by ffiUiam IFatsoH, F.FLS. N" 459. p. 6a3. 



Tbomas Halsey, about 70 years of age, of a short make, and pretty fat, 

 beii^ in a tolerably good state of health, except that for some years before he 

 «as troubled wath frequeot coughing on any motion, was seized, Sept. 23, 

 1740, with a Tiol«it fit of coughing, in which he fell down, as if dead, and 

 diacfaaiged near a quart of Uood at his mouth, in a \ery large stream, mixed 

 with many portions of a seemingly gnimous matter. His coughing tit con- 

 tinued near 3 minutes. He renved upon bleeding at the arm, and being put 

 to bed, recovered his senaei, and was quite easy, and free firom pain, except 

 on ooqghing, whidi as often as he did, he spit blood \nsibly arterial from its 

 florid colour. About 4 hours after the first fit, he was taken with a 2d, at- 

 tended with the same s)-mptoms as the first ; and expired in it. On examining 

 the blood, which he brought up at his death, Mr. W. found, in pieces of dif- 

 iuui t-aiaes, near 3 oz. of the substance of the lungs, not ulcerated, or any 

 wmys iiilfm|ifinl ; and he bad reason to believe there was near the same quan- 

 ti^ of the lungs thrown up durii^ the first fit of coughing. The pieces were 

 easily distinguishable (mva gnimous blood, by their connecting membrane, the 

 acini in the intenial part, and their ^lecific gravity. 



On examining the contents of the thorax after death, die right lobes' erf' the 

 Im^were sound, of a good colour, and nowise injured. In the left cavity of 

 the thorax, there was a large quantity of extrarasated blood ; the inferior left 

 lobe adhered stronglT both to the pleura and mediastinum, and was somewhat 

 decayed ; but of the superior left lobe, the upper part next the trachea adhered 

 to the pleura for about 1 inches ; and the remainder, where xherc had been no 

 be coold peroei\'e from the smooth surface of the pleura, was torn 



ij by pieces, and discharged in coughing. As the greatest part of the left 

 akie of die langa was tied down to the cireumjaceot membranes, the person 

 being old, and the whole force of the paiietes of the abdomen, diaphr^m, &c. 

 in tbe actioo of coo^faii^, was unequally exerted on that part that did not ad- 

 here, and wfaidi, by the violence of tbe pressure, was torn off from the rest, 

 and dudiaiged. 



It is worthy observatioo, how small the d^ree of sensibility is in the lungs ; 

 that a penoa dMold lose so much of their substance, as in this instance, on 

 tbe first fit ; and yet, on recovery of his senses, to complain of little or no pain 

 fivMi such dilaceration, when e\-eu the bite of an insect on the surface of the 

 body is attended with so much. The adhesion of this man's lungs explained 

 likcwiK the cause of his frequoit conning for some years before his death. 



