Fabricius Hildanus and Ruysch record instances of recovery in which large pieces of lung have been cut off; and it is said that with General Wolfe at Quebec there was another officer who was shot through the thorax and who recovered after the removal of a portion of the lung.

In a letter to one of his medical friends Roscius says that he succeeded in cutting off part of a protruding, livid, and gangrenous lung, after a penetrating wound of the chest, with a successful result.

Hale reports a case of a penetrating stab-wound in which a piece of lung was removed from a man of twenty-five.
Tait claims that surgical treatment, as exemplified by Biondi's experiment in removing portions of lung from animals, such as dogs, sheep, cats, etc., is not practical; he adds that his deductions are misleading, as the operation was done on healthy tissue and in deep and narrow-chested animals.

Excision of diseased portions of the lung has been practised by Kronlein (three cases), Ruggi of Bologna (two cases), Block, Milton, Weinlechner; one of Kronlein's patients recovered and Milton's survived four months, but the others promptly succumbed after the operation.

Tuffier is quoted as showing a patient, aged twenty-nine, upon whom, for beginning tuberculosis, he had performed pneumonectomy four years before.