Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / by John Abercrombie.
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / by John Abercrombie. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![and occun'ed in persons of various ages, but chiefly in young people and in children. It took place in con- nexion with attacks of an acute character, chiefly the character of acute hydrocephalus ; and it Avas in many cases distinctly combined with appearances of an in- flammatory kind, such as deep redness of the cerebral matter surrounding it, suppuration bordering upon it, and deposition of false membrane in the membranous parts most nearly connected with it. We may even observe in different parts of the same diseased mass, one part in the state of ramollissement, another forming an abscess, ivhile a third retains the characters of ac- tive inflammation, and probably exhibits, as we trace it from one extremity to the other, the inflamed state passing gradually into the state of softening. Remark- able examples of this will be given in the sequel, and another of a different nature, in which an opening in the septum lucidum produced by the ramollissement, was entirely surrounded by a ring of inflammation. This is the affection which I have endeavoured to in- vestigate, and Avhich I consider as one of primary im- portance in the pathology of acute affections of the brain, and upon the grounds noAV shortly referred to, I cannot hesitate to consider it as a result of inflam- mation. When w’e compare the facts noiv alluded to, with the observations of M. Rostan and his friends, I think we may arrive at a principle by which the apparent differ- ence may be reconciled. The principle to which I refer is, that this peculiar softening of the cerebral matter is analogous to gangrene in other parts of the body ; and that like gangrene it may arise from two very different causes, inflammation, and failure of the circidation from disease of the arteries. The former I concei>'e to be the origin of the affection which I have described, and the latter to be the source of the appearances described by M. Rostan. If this doctrine be admitted, the diffi- culty is removed ; and I do not see any good objection to it. Gangrene from inflammation is familiar to every one; and equally familiar, though very different in its AllOSi of tkaitenes of ^cawoflteartenesjf >> to k a very frequent souri iraraatioa of HooJ, at advanced eilremely probable that it AAllnlfltMl fit H Dflrt lemiBaies in ibe ramollissenieiit nW be Istinclly points at tl 'Jubeotbet band, lam still disp ibe lamofemsni of poiso aScctioiis, and satti tlilolv || oftbotenninaiionsofiiilamma ffeactwe. I cojceire it to be j ™«a«intiepatio%rof rest of i, of011(1 1 ajotbiii Inti >(«],% .r](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21959432_0048.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
