Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Outlines of human pathology / by Herbert Mayo. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![VIII. Phthisis. This disease, of which one-fourth of the population of this country dies, originates in the deposition of tuberculous matter in the lungs. a. Nature of tubercle. By the terms tubercle, tubercu- lous, strumous, or scrofulous matter, pathologists denote a yellowish unorganized substance of different degrees of con- sistence;— the two first terms referring to the form which it commonly affects, the latter to the diathesis in which it prevails. The relation of this substance to the blood is not yet esta- blished : its deposition is unattended by symptoms of gene- ral or local inflammation. Nevertheless, tubercle is frequently present in combination with effused lymph. In one form of general peritoneal adhesion, for instance, among the gra- nules of firm lymph, which stud the accidental filamentous tissue, pellets of tubercle are not unfrequently met with. Tuberculous matter is likewise occasionally found in parts of malignant tumours: in medullary sarcoma of the tibia and of the testis I have seen tuberculous matter; in the first in- filtrating the bony cells, in the second disposed in amorphous masses in the septa dividing the lobes of the medullary tumour. The substance to which in appearance and other relations tuberculous matter bears the closest affinity is, the flaky, curdy matter which floats in the serum of chronic abscesses. Andral describes tuberculous matter as a secretion ori- ginally semi-fluid, which acquiies solidity through the ab- sorption of the liquid part. He recognizes its deposition on mucous surfaces [in the pulmonary cells], upon serous surfaces [in the cavities of absorbent vessels], upon the interstitial cellular membrane [in the interlobular pulmonary substance], in the cellular membrane of organs [in the brain, and be- tween muscular fasciculi]. Tuberculous matter may be formed in the majority of the vascular textures: it has been found in every vascular part except tendon, ligament, cartilage, the skin, the eye, the veins and arteries. When the disposition to form tuberculous matter is strong, the entire texture of a part becomes infiltrated with it. When the disposition is less, partial deposits take place.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21066735_0538.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
