Volume 1
Lectures on the principles and practice of physic : delivered at King's College, London / by Sir Thomas Watson.
- Sir Thomas Watson, 1st Baronet
- Date:
- 1871
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Lectures on the principles and practice of physic : delivered at King's College, London / by Sir Thomas Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![therefore I have introduced hypertrophy to your notice among the alterations to which parts are liable in size. But it is not always so. There may be hypertro]3hy of an organ without enlargement—in at least three different ways :— 1st, In hollow organs, where the additional substance is deposited centrically, and the hypertrophy takes place at the expense of the cavity : 2ndly, In any organ, whereof the liypertroj)hy is confined to one or more tissues, while the others are proportionably wasted: and, 3rdly, Hypertrophy may even be consistent with no alteration of shape, or increase of bulk in any direction, the organ occupy- ing exactly the same space and preserving the same absolute dimensions as before, but becoming more full of component par- ticles, more compact, heavier. This state is well exemplified in certain cases of hypertrophy of bone: the spongy or cancellous texture of the bone disappears; its specific gravity is increased; it becomes hard, firm, and like ivory. The structure appears, to the eye, to be changed, yet remains the same, except in respect of its density. I have told you that hypertrophy is usually a conservative and salutary change. We shall meet with many illustrations of this as we proceed. But I may take the present occasion for pointing out to you some of the beneficial tendencies of this change when it takes place in bone. For, since the diseases of the bones do not belong to my province, I may have no other opportunity. You probably know that in the disorder called rickets, oc- curring principally during childhood, the bones are soft and deficient in their more solid ingredient; so that they bend under the weight of the body, or the contraction of the muscles attached to them. After a certain period this disproportion in the constituent particles of the osseous tissue ceases; but the bones are permanently distorted, and, therefore, less adapted to their office, and less strong, than if they had remained straight. Now the natural remedy that ensues is very striking and beau- tiful. The bent bones become kypertrophied in certain places; they grow thicker, denser, harder, and consequently stronger, at the very concave part where the stress of the pressure is the greatest. The following experiment showed the same thing in a some- what different manner. An inch of the middle part of the fibula of a quadruped Avas cut out. A long time afterwards the animal](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2129253x_0001_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
