CHAPTER XII.
SURGICAL ANOMALIES OF THE THORAX AND ABDOMEN.
Injuries of the lung or bronchus are always serious, but contrary to the general idea, recovery after extensive wound of the lung is quite a common occurrence.

Even the older writers report many instances of remarkable recoveries from lung-injuries, despite the primitive and dirty methods of treatment.

A review of the literature previous to this century shows the names of Arcaeus, Brunner, Collomb, Fabricius Hildanus, Vogel, Rhodius, Petit, Guerin, Koler, Peters, Flebbe, and Stalpart, as authorities for instances of this nature.

In one of the journals there is a description of a man who was wounded by a broad-sword thrust in the mediastinum.

After death it was found that none of the viscera were wounded, and death was attributed to the fact that the in-rush of air counterbalancing the pressure within the lungs left them to their own contractile force, with resultant collapse, obstruction to the circulation, and death.