BRONCHITIS. 575 



to contain little or nothing besides blood corpuscles, epithelium, and 

 other portions of normal tissue, and possibly a small amount of pus 

 from the interior of the bronchi." 



I have not had an opportunity of studying this subject in 

 the lower animals, but it merits the attention of every intel- 

 ligent practitioner. I have not the slightest hesitation in 

 saying, that though the collapse may be more rare than in 

 man, still auscultation in cases of bronchitis in animals de- 

 monstrates its not unfrequent occurrence. That this collapse 

 is due to obstruction in bronchi, is proved by the experiments 

 of Mendelsohn and Traube. The former inserted a leaden 

 shot into the trachea of a dog, pushing it down as far as 

 possible into the bronchus with a probe. In another in- 

 stance he inserted a ball of paper. In both cases, the parts 

 to which the obstructed bronchi led were red and void of air. 

 In the former there were emphysematous portions in the 

 other parts, and in the opposite lung. Traube's experiments 

 were similar, but more numerous. The general result was, 

 that the artificial obstruction of a bronchus always produced 

 expulsion of the air from the corresponding part of the lung, 

 which had a dark-red colour, and presented the characters of 

 collapse. Mendelsohn also threw a solution of gum into the 

 air-passages of an animal, with the result of a collapse of 

 some portions of the lung. In one instance Dr GairdntT 

 tried the experiment upon a rabbit with a similar result ; 

 but the difficulty of limiting the fluid to particular parts of 

 the lung makes these experiments less valuable.* 



The pulmonary collapse is curable, though amongst the 

 immediate causes of death from bronchitis. It may persist 

 on portions of lung, and be associated with extensive pul- 

 monary emphysema. Horsemen will easily understand from 



* Dr Gairdner, loc. cit. 



