After removal, the lung retains its shape, but is more flaccid than the consolidated lung of lobar pneumonia. It cuts with very little resistance and immediately a large amount of a syrupy, pink fluid escapes and obscures the entire area. With the fluid scraped away, the variations in the consistency of the lung become visible. The pale areas around the borders and chiefly at the apex in which the air sacs are discernible with the naked eye, sink slightly below the remainder of the surface, and the pleural edge inverts. The individual lobules of the lung in these areas are more conspicuous than normal, because the interstitial tissue bearing the lymphatics and vessels, as well as that around the bronchi and larger blood vessels, does not lose its edematous appearance as quickly as the alveoli (40, 92, 110, 164), and, consequently, these grey lines and points stand up somewhat more prominently.[6] In contrast with the paler areas which are prone to slight collapse, the remainder of the cross section retains its more smooth and even surface. The alveolar walls are not distinctly made out, but the terminal bronchioles often make themselves evident by the nature of the material which is within and by their distinct dilatation (1, 67, 110, 149, 162). The more firm areas stand out, too, on account of their difference in color. The scheme is not unlike that seen on the pleural surface, and while dark, almost black, infarct-like areas occur on the cut surface, the solid areas are more likely to be translucent, dull, light red, brown or even grey. They have a surface similar to a very fresh, tuberculous, gelatinous pneumonia, but the color differs from the cloudy grey of the latter on account of the admixture of blood in the exudate and the great congestion of the vessels (Fig. XIV).
The well developed post-mortem muscular rigidity, the lividity of the dependent parts, of the face with its mucous membranes, and often of the trunk, the jaundice variable in extent, the crusts of blood on the nares and mouth, and the splanchnic dilatation are features which prepare for the gross picture presented by the thoracic organs. The increased moisture within the pleural cavities associated with the even, translucent pleural surface, whose dilated lymphatics become more and more prominent towards the hilum, the large succulent lymph glands, and the exudate in the bronchial tree, are all striking, but more characteristic of the gross picture, is the great increase in volume of the lung itself, mottled with brilliant colors. The lung, too, is very wet and on section, after the syrupy, blood-stained fluid escapes from the less definitely consolidated zones, the latter appear, not as the usual granular, firm areas of hepatization, but have more the consistency of a gel, and also its translucence. Characteristic of this disease as these changes may be, the specificity of the fundamental lesion in the respiratory tract, becomes more emphatic after study of its histology (92, 162).