The classification, pathology, & general treatment of morbid growths / by John Hughes Bennett.

  • John Hughes Bennett
Date:
[between 1857 and 1870?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The classification, pathology, & general treatment of morbid growths / by John Hughes Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE CLASSIFICATION, PATHOLOGY, & GENERAL TREATMENT OF MORBID GROWTHS. BY JOHN HUGHES BENNETT, M.D., F.E.S.E., PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF MEDICINE AND OF CLINICAL MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. I. Classification. A cultivation of Histology in recent times excited a hope, that by studying the ultimate structure and mode of development of morbid growths, distinctive elements and thereby a new foundation for their classification would be discovered. But extensive researches long ago convinced me that this hope was vain; and in a special work, pub¬ lished in 1849,* I pointed out what were the ultimate elements of all morbid growths, and that no one of these was characteristic. In fact, the structural ultimate elements may be reduced to six, viz., 1st, mole¬ cules and granules; 2nd, nuclei; 3rd, cells; 4th, fibres; 5th, tubes (especially vascular ones) ; and, 6th, crystals or irregular masses of mineral matter. Now no combination of these elements will serve to characterize morbid growths, such as fibro-molecular, fibro-nucleated, fibro-cellular, fibro-vascular, &c., &c., for the simple reason that tumours very unlike in their nature and external character may he composed of the same elements. For instance, cystic, glandular, cartilaginous, and cancerous growths are all fibro-cellular. It is not, then, from the existence of one or more elementary structures, but from a careful investigation of their mode of arrangement, conjoined with a study * On Cancerous and Cancroid Growths. Edinburgh, 1849.