VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 47 



dead, its membranous structure, was strong, would bear liandling, and stretch- 

 ing without breaking. It was at first thick, having its fibres and cavities soaked 

 with a very viscid and slimy matter, which, by washing in water, leaked off, 

 when the membrane became evidently thinner. The lad immediately, it seems, 

 breathed better, without that noise and wheezing heard before, and was less 

 hoarse; not, he thinks, from the separation of the membrane, but from that 

 load of filth discharged at the same point of time from the distressed respiratory 



passages. 



But, as usual, this relief did not prove lasting. In li hour the noisy respi- 

 ration began anew, his hoarseness increased, and his cough, though short and 

 low, was busy and vexatious; now he appeared as if quite strangled, and in the 

 agonies of death; now he would again revive; for a few days he was interchange- 

 ably in these different states; at length his father perceiving somewhat in his 

 mouth which he thought thick phlegm, thrust in his finger and thumb, and, 

 taking hold of it, drew it out. It was a hollow bag, as he thought, filled with 

 rot and corruption, for a considerable quantity ran out of it. It was, when full, 

 he said, as thick as his thumb, and of many inches in length. The agonies of 

 the child, during these moments, were not to be expressed; his face was livid 

 or black; but, being freed from this burthen, he soon revived, smiled, and said, 

 " now I am easy." Being put to bed, he soon slept, and continued to have short 

 naps for 2 hours. 



Dr. S. got to the house, being sent for in the beginning of the lad's extremity, 

 a few minutes after the affair was thus concluded. The account greatly surprised 

 him; but he was more surprised, when, on sight, he found the supposed bag 

 was the mucous coat of part of the larynx, the whole aspera arteria, with the 

 grand division of the bronchial ramifications. He spread it on paper, for the 

 conveniency of carriage, being some miles from home, and thence took its like- 

 ness with great exactness. There was something bloody visible about its middle. 

 It was more rotten and tender than the former, also somewhat thicker, excepting 

 where it belonged to the branches of the bronchia. What sweated from it was 

 as sticking as bird-lime. It is probable this morbid affection ran through the 

 whole bronchia ; for the ends plainly discovered a laceration ; consequently much 

 more remained to be separated and discharged. 



He now complained of soreness in the pipe, and pointed to the first and second 

 eosta, as the place of its termination. His inspiration was now free, soft, but 

 short; his pulse was become a little more frequent and weaker. Examining his 

 mouth, no ulcer or wound was discernible in that part of the velum, &c. It was 

 smooth, clean, and looked only like a new skin not quite hardened. While the 

 Dr. was in the house, he spit off" another membrane of an irregular figure, thin- 

 ner than either of the former, but more than sufficient to cover a crown-piece. 



