Ligaments joining the cartilages of the ribs to the sternum.
103. Such are the boundaries of the cavity of the thorax as far as its walls are solid. The interspaces between these solid portions at the sides are filled up by muscles, principally by those termed the intercostal (fig. LIX.); below, the boundary is formed by the diaphragm (fig. LXI. 2); while above, as has been already stated (69), the cavity is so contracted as only to leave an opening for the passage of certain parts to and from the chest.
A view of the muscles called Intercostals, filling up the
spaces between the ribs.
104. The inner surface of the walls of the thorax, in its whole extent, is lined by a serous membrane, exceedingly thin and delicate, but still firm, called the pleura. The same membrane is reflected over the organs of respiration contained in the cavity, so as to give them an external coat. The membrane itself is every where continuous, and every where the same, whether it line the containing or the contained parts; but it receives a different name as it covers the one or the other: that portion of it which lines the walls of the cavity being called the costal pleura (fig. LXI. a), while that which covers the organs contained in the cavity is termed the pulmonary pleura (fig. LX. 5, 1).
105. A fold of each pleura passes directly across the central part of the cavity of the thorax; extending from the spinal column to the sternum, and dividing the general cavity into two. This portion of the pleura is called the mediastinum, from its situation in the centre of the thorax, and it so completely divides the thoracic cavity into two, that the organs on one side of the chest have no communication with those of the other; so that there may be extensive disease in one cavity (for example, a large accumulation of water,) while the other may be perfectly sound.
106. The main organs contained in the cavity of the thorax are the lungs with their air tube; the heart with its great vessels; and the tube passing from the mouth to the stomach (fig. LX.).
107. The two lungs occupy the sides of the chest (fig. LX. 5). They are completely separated from each other by the membranous partition just described, the mediastinum. Between the two folds of the mediastinum, namely, in the middle of the chest, but inclining somewhat to the left side, is placed the heart, enveloped in another serous membrane, the pericardium (fig. LX. 2, 1).
108. The lungs are moulded to the cavities they fill; whence their figure is conical, the base of the cone being downwards, resting on the diaphragm (fig. LX. 5, b); and the apex upwards, towards the neck (fig. LX. 5).