[Methods for the macroscopic diagnosis of pulmonary emphysema]

The author examined 124 dead persons with clinicaly and anatomicaly diagnosed emphysema in order to prove and demonstrate the possibilities of the the existing methods for macroscopic diagnosis of the lung emphysema. The method of Gough and Wentworth, barium-sulfate method of Heard and simple original method for examination of the changes by a naked eye or with only a magnifying glass in fixed total lung sections were used and the results described. He constructed a special table and knife to cut the lung at equal sections. An inference was made that the method of Gough and Wentworth, although more complicated, revealed the best advantages. Both the impregnation method of Heard and the newly proposed method were very suitable for an examination of a very large number of lungs, since they assure enough information for the diagnosis, distribution and degree ofthe pathological process and allow current morfological classification of the disease.