On the corpus Morgagni, with reference to diseases of the testicle / by S. Osborn.

  • Osborn, Samuel, 1848-1936
Date:
[1874]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the corpus Morgagni, with reference to diseases of the testicle / by S. Osborn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tumour of which I have just given you the description. We have dissected it with care, and have found the osseous body which he regarded as a small embryo is none other than a large molar, the crown of which is formed by an eburnated tissue, destitute of enamel, and of which the configuration is very irregular; the portion which represents the root is formed of a spongy bony tissue, and exca- vated in its centre to such an extent that its extremity has much resemblance to the roots of the primary teeth. This osseous production was jutting out from the interior of a fibro-cellular cyst, of which we found the remains. In the portion of the tumour formed by the fleshy tubercle primarily springing out, we found three teeth, two of which were very small, irregular, and composed of a crown without root, whilst the third, the largest, was provided with both, and offers all the characters of a canine tooth. The crowns of the two largest are covered with enamel.” The following case is reported by Dr. Velpeau at p. 97 of the e Gazette Medicale de Paris ’ in the year 1840 : “ Gallochat, of Esternay,'a young man of 27 years, well built, and who had never experienced any serious illness, applied towards the middle of January to Prof. Andral, who immediately transferred him into my ward in the Hopital de la Charite. “ Examining the disease, I saw that he had on the right side of his purse a tumour of the size of a fist or thereabouts; this tumour, which appeared foreign to the substance of the testicle, and over which the skin was not analogous with that of the scrotum, did not appear to belong to the class of known tumours, so that several surgeons thought it to be due, one to cancerous tumours, others to fibrous tumours, and some to tubercular degeneration. I did not think that it was possible to adopt their opinions. Remarking, moreover, that its origin dated from the birth of the young man, that it had never caused him any pain, that no pathological change had taken place in it, that it was insensible to pressure, that it was possible to incise it, to prick it, to traverse it from side to side without causing the least suffering; taking into account the aspect of the skin covering it, its elasticity, the hardness which it presented in its interior, the mesh of hair which came out of a sort of tubercle which existed in front at the bottom of another opening, and from glairy or grumous material which the disease had several times expelled, I came to the conclusion that it was a fcetal tumour, a product of conception. Wishing to obtain the precise notes on the first condi- tion of so singular a production I wrote to M. Senoble, a doctor of Esternay, who quickly replied to me in these terms:—At about the age of four months the mother of young Gallochat brought him with a swelling of his purse, which I recognised to be only a pneumatocele; some months after I remarked, in ex- amining the patient a second time, a small inflamed tumour, which appeared to me to be only a slight phlegmon, and which yielded to simple emollient applications- I did not hear of it any more until at the end of three or four years I learnt that the child’s tumour continued enlarging. Though these details are very incom- plete, and M. Senoble, who for some time had lost sight of young Gallochat, finds it impossible to furnish me with more precise information, they strengthened me, however, in my first opinion, which seemed so singular to those persons I consulted about it that I remained alone in my opinion. I conceived from that
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