On diseases which affect corresponding parts of the body in a symmetrical manner / by William Budd.

  • William Budd
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On diseases which affect corresponding parts of the body in a symmetrical manner / by William Budd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    are both highly interesting, whether as regards the repetition of the same deformities in the limbs of the two sides, or, still more, that of similar deformities in corresponding parts of the upper and lower extre- mities ; thus giving, in deviations from the natural form, curious and undeniable sanction for those specu- lative views of organic analogies, which have long been entertained by a certain class of anatomists.* Sym- metrical anomalies of the muscles and blood-vessels, are facts of the same order. As distinct instances of secondary morbid changes, belonging to this group, I may mention emphysema of the lungs, which almost always affects both lungs in a sym- metrical manner; the arborescent fatty growths (lipoma arborescens) which are sometimes found in * In apposition with these drawings, I have placed one of monstrosity in the common anemone, in which all the^jepals and petals were transformed into similar tripartite leaves. It is only when viewed in connection with monstrosities in plants, that facts, like those recorded in the text, are seen in their true character. For the rest, these monstrosities affect the body symmetrically, in subjection to the same law, which presides over the symmetrical development of parts in their normal type, a law, which has lately been enunciated by an eminent philosopher in the following words:— We have an idea of symmetry, and an axiom involved in this idea is, that in a symmetrical natural body, if there be a tendency to modify any member in any manner, there is a tendency to modify corresponding members in the same manner.—Wkewell, Philosophy of Induct. Sc. Aphoris. LXXX. But what is most remarkable is, that this tendency being so strikingly exemplified in some cases, as in those, for instance, now exhibited, should, in others, be entirely wanting.
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