On the morbid anatomy of the cattle-plague now prevalent in Britain : in reference to its supposed identity with enteric fever / by Charles Murchison.

  • Charles Murchison
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the morbid anatomy of the cattle-plague now prevalent in Britain : in reference to its supposed identity with enteric fever / by Charles Murchison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    NOW PREVALENT IN BRITAIN, IN REFERENCE TO ITS SUPPOSED IDENTITY WITH ENTERIC FEVER. BY CHARLES MURCHISON, M.D., F.R.S. LECTURER ON THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE' AT THE MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL ; PHYSICIAN TO THE MIDDLESEX AND LONDON FEVER HOSPITALS ; [ Communicated to the Pathological Society of London, October 17th, 1865, and reprinted from the Transactions of the Society, Yol. XYII.*] My main object on the present occasion is to call attention to the appearances presented by the small intestine, in reference to the rela- tion which has been supposed to exist between the cattle plague and the typhoid or enteric fever of the human subject. The small intestine is more or less inflamed throughout, and presents the appearances of the ordinary muco-enteritis of cattle. The inflam- mation is usually most intense about the middle and at the opening into the caecum, but in extreme cases the bowel is equally affected in every part. Yiewed from its serous surface the inflamed bowel pre- sents a blueish aspect, and occasionally small ecchymoses may be seen beneath the serous membrane, but there is never any trace of peritonitis. The coats of the bowel are attenuated and softened. The inner surface, according to the intensity of the inflammation, presents every shade from a rose-red to the deepest claret and occasionally small patches of submucous ecchymosis. The mucous membrane is deprived in a great measure of its epithelium covering, is extremely soft, and is detached from the subjacent muscular coat with unusual facility. It is coated with a quantity of transparent and viscid, or of opaque and puriform, secretion; and in rare cases, particularly those where the vascular in- jection is most intense, masses of blood, or of solid exudation composed * The researches, on which this communication is founded, were made two months prior to the appointment of the Royal Commission, and were published in the Lancet and British Medical Journal for August 26th, 1865. C