Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 1098
| equivalent to that portion of the right bronchus which lies on the distal side of its eparterial branch. The first branch of the left bronchus arises about 5 cm. from the bifurcation of the trachea, and is distributed to the superior lobe. The main stem then enters the inferior lobe, where it divides into ventral and dorsal branches similar to those in the right lung. The branch to the superior lobe of the left lung is regarded as the first of the ventral series. |
Structure.—The lungs are composed of an external serous coat, a subserous areolar tissue and the pulmonary substance or parenchyma. |
| The serous coat is the pulmonary pleura (page 1090); it is thin, transparent, and invests the entire organ as far as the root. |
| The subserous areolar tissue contains a large proportion of elastic fibers; it invests the entire surface of the lung, and extends inward between the lobules. |
| The parenchyma is composed of secondary lobules which, although closely connected together by an interlobular areolar tissue, are quite distinct from one another, and may be teased asunder without much difficulty in the fetus. The secondary lobules vary in size; those on the surface are large, of pyramidal form, the base turned toward the surface; those in the interior smaller, and of various forms. Each secondary lobule is composed of several primary lobules, the anatomical units of the lung. The primary lobule consists of an alveolar duct, the air spaces connected with it and their bloodvessels, lymphatics and nerves. |
| The intrapulmonary bronchi divide and subdivide throughout the entire organ, the smallest subdivisions constituting the lobular bronchioles. The larger divisions consist of: (1) an outer coat of fibrous tissue in which are found at intervals irregular plates of hyaline cartilage, most developed at the points of division; (2) internal to the fibrous coat, a layer of circularly disposed smooth muscle fibers, the bronchial muscle; and (3) most internally, the mucous membrane, lined by columnar ciliated epithelium resting on a basement membrane. The corium of the mucous membrane contains numerous elastic fibers running longitudinally, and a certain amount of lymphoid tissue; it also contains the ducts of mucous glands, the acini of which lie in the fibrous coat. The lobular bronchioles differ from the larger tubes in containing no cartilage and in the fact that the ciliated epithelial cells are cubical in shape. The lobular bronchioles are about 0.2 mm. in diameter. |
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FIG. 974– Part of a secondary lobule from the depth of a human lung, showing parts of several primary lobules. 1, bronchiole; 2, respiratory bronchiole; 3, alveolar duct; 4, atria; 5, alveolar sac; 6, alveolus or air cell: m, smooth muscle; a, branch pulmonary artery; v, branch pulmonary vein; s, septum between secondary lobules. Camera drawing of one 50 μ section. X 20 diameters. (Miller.) (See enlarged image) |
| Each bronchiole divides into two or more respiratory bronchioles, with scattered alveoli, and each of these again divides into several alveolar ducts, with a greater number of alveoli connected with them. Each alveolar duct is connected with a variable number of irregularly spherical spaces, which also possess alveoli, the atria. With each atrium a variable number (2–5) of alveolar sacs are connected which bear on all parts of their circumference alveoli or air sacs. (Miller.) |