Volume 1

Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum.
Date:
1846-9
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Series VI.—Sub-Series A.— Tumours of Uncertain Nature. 301 A. A tumour from under the lower jaw [Uunterian MS. Catalogue], which may be an example of a true erectile tumour.* The cut surface of the tumour displays a close network of fine smooth shining bands and cords, almost exactly like that of the corpus cavernosum penis, only less regular in their arrangement. The exterior of the tumour is uneven, and has no definite character. Hunterian. 302. Sections of an oval tumour, together with a large portion of one of the flexor muscles of the thigh, removed from a stump. The tumour, which in its general appearance resembles the firm oval tumours found in nerves, was situated close to the tuber ischii. It was covered by a thin white capsule; and in compactness, toughness, and consistence, it approached to the characters of scirrhus, Presented by William Lawrence, Esq. The case of the patient is thus related by Mr. Lawrence in the ' Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,' vol. xvii. p. 31. London, 1832:— A tumour appeared spontaneously, and increased ratlier rapidly, in the left thigh of a gentleman twenty-seven years of age. He consulted one of the most eminent surgeons in London, who said that the limb must be removed ; and a day was fixed for the operation. When the surgeon came, he was alarmed by the local and general symptoms, and determined not to proceed until a consultation should have been held on the case. The four most experienced and celebrated surgical practitioners of the period were unanimous in considering the affection malignant, and that an operation would not be justifiable. The patient returned to liis residence in the country in the situation of a man condemned to death. Anxious however to take any chance of escaping, however slight, he determined to take the opinions of Sir William Blizard and myself before he abandoned himself to his fate ; and we visited him together. We found him with a tumour of elastic feel, undefined in its circumference, about four inches in diameter, with the skin shining and bright red, on the anterior and inner part of the left thigh, a little above the knee. There was a firm indolent swelling, about as large as a hen's egg, imbedded in the soft parts at tlie back of the pelvis, and a similar one in the back near the spine, one as large as a nut over the left eye, and several smaller ones just under the skin in various parts. Ail the smaller productions had * Many neevi, and some examples of the more vascular kinds of medullary tumours, are liable to variations of form according to the varying degrees of fulness of tlieir blood-vessels, and pro- bably such as these have been described as erectile tumours ; but there may be also a species of tumour dififerent from both these, and presenting, as the specimen described above does, a close resemblance to the structure of erectile tissue. T 2