The presence of water on the respiratory surfaces of the lung

Abstract

Interest in the possibility of a fluid medium for the transport of oxygen in the respiration of terrestrial vertebrates was aroused by the author's discovery of a watery fluid in the bronchioles of human cadavers and of domestic animals. In the literature of respiration the tolerance of water injected into the lungs of living animals had been demonstrated by Claude Bernard in 1869. Water as the vehicle for oxygen in the respiration of terrestrial invertebrates has been recorded many times. The life of fishes and of invertebrates inhabiting the waters of the world is dependent upon oxygen dissolved in this medium. The present paper records : ( a ) The author's experience in seeking and recording evidence of the presence of a watery medium in the respiratory organs of a series of vertebrates, and (b) presents evidence in explanation of the method of oxygen transport from the termination of the bronchial system into the capillary blood-stream of the lung. The investigation called for special techniques, apparatus and instruments; these are described. The period of investigation extended, with many interruptions, from '10 to '60; during which period reports of progress have been published.In '20, I reported the presence of fluid in the pulmonary alveoli of domesticated animals (Terry, '20 ) , These observations increased my interest in having found fluid and casts in the bronchioles of human cadavers -all probably the result of postmortem transudation.Moist respiratory surfaces have long been recognized by the zoologists, but the claim of free fluid being normally present in the pulmonary alveoli is not generally accepted, chiefly because of the low solubility of oxygen in water. Evidence recorded in the literature and the results of my own work have convinced me that water is the vehicle for oxygen in the respiration of animals. MATERIALS AND METHODSAnesthesia. Nembutal intravenously, or injected into the abdominal cavity, and urethane by mouth were used generally.Several methods of inquiry as to the presence of fluid in the air spaces of the lung called for special instruments or apparatus. Of these the pipette was most frequently used. It was made of Pyrex glass tubing, chemically cleaned, drawn in the flame to a filament with outside diameter ranging between 0.07 to 0.2mm and cut into lengths of 5 to 7 m m ( fig. 1) Focusing apparatus. In order to obtain motion pictures of the pulmonary alveolus in the cat an apparatus was designed.& Details of its structure, and connections of its several parts are shown in figures 4, 5. Description of its application follows: An anesthetized cat is secured to an animal-board and the fur removed from 1 Editorial note: This paper is the result of observations and experiments, spread over fifty years, by Dr. Robert J. Terry, Emeritus Professor of Anatomy at Washington University and a revered member of the American Association of Anatomists since the turn of the century. Although much of the work reported In this paper was highly original and pertinent to the problems of t...

Developmental Maturation of Functional Coupling Between Ventilatory Oscillators in the American Bullfrog

“…The lung cavity, though present, is seldom employed for ventilation. Nevertheless, lung ventilation, however infrequent, likely still necessitates tight coordination of lung valves and buccal pumping mechanisms in the tadpole, much as in mature frogs, as any mismatch between gating of the glottis and buccal movement could result in the lungs being filled with water (Terry, ; Burggren and Doyle, ). Consistent with this logic, there is some evidence to suggest that there is coordination of buccal and lung ventilation in the semi‐intact tadpole preparation (Gdovin et al ., ).…”