Trachea
Trachea names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Trachea or WINDPIPE, the tube extending from the larynx
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or WINDPIPE, the tube extending from the larynx, or organ of the voice, and from the level of the fifth cervical vertebra to the third dorsal vertebra, at which latter point the trachea bifurcates or divides into two main bronchi or divisions, one supplying each lung with air tubes. The average length of the trachea is 4½ inches and its diameter about three-fourths of an inch. the latter measurement being greater in males than in females. The trachea consists of fibrous membranes united by elastic cartilaginous rings, rendering the tube flexible and patent. The cartilages are circular but imperfect rings, each being joined posteriorly by fibrous membrane. They vary from 16 to 20 in number. The muscular fibres of the trachea are of longitudinal and transverse arrangement. The trachea is lined with of which is ciliated. The trachea receives mucous membrane, the epithelium blood from the inferior thyroid arteries, and nerves from the pneumogastric and recurrent trunks, and also from the sympathetic system. The right bronchus, or one of the main divisions is wider and shorter than the left. It of the trachea, enters the lung opposite the fourth dorsal vertebra. The left bronchus is smaller and more oblique than the right and enters the left lung at the level of the fifth dorsal vertebra. Diseases and Injuries of the Trachea. The trachea is liable to inflammation and its products, and frequently suffers from extension of disease from the larynx. Acute inflammation may occur as an idiopathic affection, or a symptom of other disease, as smallpox, measles, typhus, tuberculosis, croup, etc. The symptoms are pain in the windpipe from the top of the sternum, expectoration of mucus, sometimes in regular rings, and a peculiar brazen-like cough. When confined to the larynx there is no hoarseness. Chronic inflammation usually accompanies follicular pharyngo-laryngitis, tuberculosis, and syphilis. Constriction of the trachea may be produced by aneurismal or other tumors pressing externally on the trachea; or the symptoms
Trachea or WINDPIPE may be produced by pressure on the nervous trunk
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or WINDPIPE may be produced by pressure on the nervous trunk, or the inferior laryngeal fibers. Constriction may also depend on undue muscular contraction, the seat thereof being immediately above the bifurcation of the trachea. Foreign bodies occasionally pass through the larnyx into the trachea, and the accident is a formidable one, which not infrequently proves fatal.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The anatomy Collier's set out in 1921 — a tube of some 16 to 20 incomplete cartilage rings, about 4½ inches long, dividing into a wider, shorter right bronchus and a narrower, more oblique left one — is still what medical students learn, though the "pneumogastric" nerve is now universally called the vagus. What has changed is the outlook when things go wrong. The 1921 entry calls a foreign body in the windpipe "a formidable one, which not infrequently proves fatal"; rigid bronchoscopy and, from the 1960s, the flexible fibreoptic bronchoscope made retrieval routine, and most such cases now end in recovery. Diphtheritic croup, one of the causes of inflammation listed, has been all but eliminated in vaccinated populations, while tracheal intubation and tracheostomy became everyday procedures with the rise of mechanical ventilation from the mid-20th century.
Written for this edition, 2026.