Note 106 — Chapter IX · OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE DEATH OF THE LUNGS, OVER THE GENERAL DEATH OF THE BODY.

We know that fine injections pass from the branches of the pulmonary artery into the divisions of the bronchia; and that even water, when pushed into the trachea, will return, at least a small quantity of it, by the pulmonary veins and arteries.

Bichat thought that the gases absorbed in the lungs must pass through the mucous membrane; but this is not the case unless absorption takes place at the time they are in the bronchia, for the mucous membrane which lines the air-tubes does not extend into each bronchial lobule.