Essays on the puerperal fever and other diseases peculiar to women : Selected from the writings of British authors previous to the close of the eighteenth century / Ed. by Fleetwood Churchill.
- Fleetwood Churchill
- Date:
- 1849
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays on the puerperal fever and other diseases peculiar to women : Selected from the writings of British authors previous to the close of the eighteenth century / Ed. by Fleetwood Churchill. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
541/580 page 529
![has been used, small portions of a white substance come away with the urine of the patient, and in the discharge from the vagina. When the tumour has arrived at a size greater than that of the os uteri, it spreads very much, and as the base is the (Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, 1841). I submitted some very thin slices from the surface of the section of the tumour to a powerful microscope in the possession of Dr. John Reid; it was seen to be composed of a number of cells, arranged in some places in groups, in others in irregular lines. These cells contained each a large nucleus, and the nucleus inclosed several large nucleoli. It may be interesting to add, that none of the caudate or spindle-shaped bodies, described by Muller as often existing in morbid cephaloid structures, were seen in any section examined. I must add an extract from Mr. S. Lee's work (p. 84), which, I think, will complete our knowledge of the intimate characters of these tumours. On examining a por- tion of the tumour taken away in Anderson's case, the granulations appeared to be covered with a fine membrane, producing a shining appearance, and small vessels were distinguished ramifying over it. When a portion was squeezed between the fingers, the substance became pulpy. Under the microscope, the lobules were found to be covered individually by epithelial scales, resembling those of the mucous mem- brane ; and each was composed of nucleated cells, with here and there a blood-vessel ramifying in it; but the tumour was not apparently vascular. The edge of the lobules with epithelial scales appeared as if impacted one upon another; beneath which, from its circumference, when the cells were much compressed to its centre, cells became gradually developed. There was no appearance of fibrous tissue, nor any of the caudate cells indicating cancer. This, then, was the result of a careful examination of a part of this tumour removed during life by Dr. Richard Quain and myself. The following is a description of a portion examined in the same way after death. When a piece of the tumour, the only remains of which was in small de- tached clusters, was taken and placed in water, it appeared to be made up of a number of villi, apparently attached to a central substance of more firm consistence. It was composed of nucleated cells of large size, some circular, some oval, and others elongated oval; these contained a quantity of granular matter, and a well-defined nucleus, which appeared to contain a cavity filled with a quantity of granular matter. The two together had the appearance of a cell within a cell, or a compound cell. These cells were connected by fine filaments like cellular filaments. From this ex- amination we conclude that the tumour is composed entirely of cells, and that these are covered by an epithelial membrane; also that it was of simple structure, and not malignant. Mr. S. Lee subsequently adds : From the observations thus made, the cause of the disappearance of these tumours, either after death or the application of a ligature, appears to be the draining away of the white cell-substance by the stop- page of the circulation which produces it. Consequently the only portion left is the seat from whence the cell-substance was produced, viz. the blood-vessels. It is right to state, however, that Dr. Renaud (Med. Gazette, June 18, 184 7) has arrived at the conclusion that the disease is a modification of encephaloid, con- sisting of tufts of pedunculated capillaries, the interstices of which are filled up with the cells proper to encephaloid products.—Ed.] 34](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21030170_0541.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
