Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Lung Dissection

Observations – At first, the lungs were dark red and it dripped a bit of blood but when we pumped the air into it, it became a lighter peach color.  I could see that the lungs are quite big compared to humans.  The air pipe was put into the trachea so the air pumped in would go into both the left lung and the right lung.  The air slowly filled the lung, making it at least twice its original size.  When we stopped pumping air into it, the air pressure from outside was pushing on the outside of the lung, slightly helping with squeezing the air out and the lung went back to its original form (there was a leak somewhere because we could hear a hissing noise).  We saw that the lung isn’t one big piece, it has many flaps that, when grouped together, look like one piece.  These flaps were more visible when the lung was inflated.  I saw the trachea branch off into the bronchioles and I saw that the trachea is made up of cartilage rings.  They aren’t really rings, they are more of a ‘c’ shape, allowing more flexibility. 

When I touched the lungs, it was very cold and squidgy.  Apparently it was a very healthy lung.  When I pushed down on it, it would sort of bounce back to its original form.  Sometimes the plastic gloves would stick to the lungs a bit.  I felt the cartilage in the trachea and tried squeezing it a bit to see how the ‘c’ shape works.  The voice box was a lot more firm than the lungs and the trachea.  The whole thing had this smell to it, I don’t know how to explain it.

Opinions – I think it is quite useful to dissect a lung because then you would know how it actually works.  I think it would be wrong to dissect a lung if the animal was killed especially for the dissection or some scientific use, but if the animal was killed for meat and the lungs were going to be thrown away it is good to make use of it.  I don’t really see why learning about how the lungs work in this detail is necessary, but I’m not a scientist.  I wonder what people thought of the first person to dissect a lung.