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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    cedematous tumour, where we know extravasation has taken place. This appearance arises from the cells in the cellular membrane, and other interstices of parts, being loaded with extravasated coagulating lymph ; from this circumstance they are cemented together, and become impervious to air, not similar in these respects to common cellular membrane or natural parts.—On the Blood: Works, vol. iii. p. 351. Inflammation of Nerves. A man at St. George's Hospital who had several violent inflammations and ulcer- ations in his leg, by which means many of the tendons sloughed, and at last lost the use of the joint of the knee and ankle, was obliged to have it cut off, which was done above the knee. I injected it for the different appearances of the parts. The pos- terior tibial nerve was very much enlarged, vascular, and very firm in texture where it passed through the inflamed parts, but above and below this it was natural. I slit the nerve down its middle through its whole length, and observed the nervous chords running through this thickened substance very distinct, and could easily separate them from one another, and each chord appeared to be as sound or natural when cut into as in the other parts of the nerve ; so that the thickening and hardness of the nerve was owing to the uniting cellular membranes being loaded with coagulable lymph, which like other inflamed parts [had] become more vascular. In another case of Inflammation of Nerves, Mr. Hunter says :— Mr. Anderson's ischiatic nerve had been denuded for more than four inches where it became of a bluish black ; but where it was in contact with the living parts which were become inflamed, there it was also become inflamed and thickened; but this thickening was owing to the cellular membrane being loaded with coagulable lymph. From these two cases it would appear that the nervous substance is not so susceptible of inflammation, or is not so easily altered in texture by inflammation, as their uniting membrane.—Hunterian MS. Cases in Surgery, p. 686. Among the effects of adhesive inflammation in the following series, the most remark- able examples of adhesions of surfaces are 1114, 1115, 1116, 1507, 1508, 1509, 1510, 1749, 1751,1754, 1755, 2375, 2376,2377; and those of thickening and induration of tissues 1117, 1118, 1120, 1252 to 1259, 2528 to 2537, 1491, 1492, 1493. The organized products of inflammation, like the natural parts of the body, are liable to various diseases: they may inflame ; lymph may be deposited in them, and be organized in the same manner as themselves were [1512, 1513, 1753] ; they may sup- purate and ulcerate [710, 1388, 1389, 1758, 1759]; or mortify [588 to 592], or various morbid substances may be formed in them, such as tubercle [299, 1128-9, 1803], and cancer [1791]. For examples of thickening and cysts formed around foreign bodies, of which Mr. Hunter speaks in a passage following that quoted above from his Works, vol. iii. p. 351 ; see Nos. 59, 60, 61, 67, 69.