The deformities of the fingers and toes / by William Anderson.

  • Anderson, William, 1842-1900.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The deformities of the fingers and toes / by William Anderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    above the ligamenta vaginalia they are separated from them by a kind of lymph space. If we examine a case of Dupuytren's contraction in the Hght of our anatomical knowledge, we shall be struck by the circumstance that the morbid structure which causes the permanent flexion of the fingers bears no resemblance in position or character to the normal fibrous tissues of the part, although it is apparently continuous in the prox- imal direction with the digital bands of the radiat- ing fascia. The band is best developed beyond the point where the radiating fascia normally ceases, and maintains its longitudinal fibrillation while crossing the vaginal fascia and the trans- verse fibres of Gerdy. The varieties and modes of branching already described are only to a limited extent related to the anatomical arrangements— that is, where the morbid tissue spreads proximally over the radiating fascia, and sends lateral branches along the course of Gerdy's fibres ; but it is certain that the tendon-like cords are of entirely new formation, and that they exist at the expense of the normal structures. The well-known prepara- tion in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which has been figured by Mr. Adams, afibrds a demonstration of this, as the band, instead of following the direc- tion of the radiating fascia, runs towards the inter- digital cleft and there bifurcates, sending branches to the adjacent sides of two fingers. In a speci- men of my own the band runs axially to the little