Copy 1, Volume 2

The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good].

  • John Mason Good
Date:
1834
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    576/704 (page 568)
    ° v 5 7, 568 east] See HAMATICA, | [orp. 1v.- Gen. V. __ the origin of all tubercles to the existence of a higher or lower de- Spec. I. gree of inflammation. Yet it is singular that, at the same time, Struma we here meet with proofs of the most advanced state of a living: vulgaris. action in the morbid growths themselves, the most perfect specimens. Yet amore ad- of vascularity and sensation, and particularly where they originate in vanced living slandular texture, which is their proper seat. This living property, Pee iaeis However, they do not seem capable of retaining long ; for they soon other tubercles. run through their career of vitality, and become decomposed. But retained Such was the short-lived date, according to the first physiological only forashort poet of Rome, of those monster-growths which sprang in the time. infancy of the world, but were soon cut off by Nature, as incongru- Illustrated. ous with her laws and hateful to her survey. | Cetera de genere hoc monstra, ac portenta, creabat : Nequidquam ; quoniam Natura absterruit auctum ; Nec potuere eupitum etatis tangere florem, Nec reperire cibum, nec jungi per Veneris res.* These sprang at first, and things alike uncouth : Yet vainly; for abhorrent Nature quick Check’d their vile growth; so life’s consummate flower Ne’er reach’d they, foods appropriate never cropp’d, Nor tasted joys venereal. . Probably As occurring in early life, when, as we have already observed, formed from a there is a peculiar abundance of albumen, with a comparatively deposit of albu- Jess portion of fibrin or coagulable lymph, it is highly probable that von! a morbid deposition of albumen forms the commencement of the strumous tuber. And such, indeed, seems to be proved by the Chemical com- Chemical tests to which Dr. Abercrombie has put them.+ It is at mencement and first, perhaps, deposited: in a soft state, and involved in the struc- — progress. ture of the gland, the part being, in other respects, vascular and organised, and probably capable of performing its functions. As the disease advances, the proportion of albumen seems to increase, while, at the same time, it assumes a more concrete and structural figure, and evinces a vascular and sensitive character. “In this Different first state of enlargement,” says Dr. Abercrombie, “ these glands stages. present, when cut into, a pale flesh colour, and a uniform, soft, : fleshy texture. As the disease advances, the texture becomes firmer, and the colour rather paler. In what may be regardedasthe next stage, we observe portions that have lost the flesh colour and have acquired a kind of transparency, and a texture approaching to that of soft cartilage. While these changes are going on, we generally observe, in other specimens, the commencement of the opaque white struc- ture, which seems to be the last step in these morbid changes, and is strictly analogous, in its appearance and properties, to the white Stages some- _ tubercle of the lungs.t In a mass of considerable size we can some- ne ce * Lucret. De Rer. Nat. v. 845. ordinate. ft On the Nature and Origin of Tubercular Diseases. ‘Frans. Medico-Chir. Soc. Edin., vol. i. p. 686. ¢ In the section on tubercular phthisis, reference has been made to Dr. Cars- well’s observation, that the same kind of substance as constitutes tubercles in the lungs has been traced in scrofulous lymphatic glands. According to Andral, the latter organs rank as parts of the body in which tubercular matter is most com- monly detected. At present this deposit is supposed to take place in the sub- Stance of these organs; but Andral conceives it probable that future researches may trace its seat ‘o be within the lymphatic vessels, which communicate together In these organs. In fact, cases have come under his notice, where tubercular matter was found in the thoracic duct, and in seyeral of the absorbent vessels. od