A manual of pathological anatomy (Volume 3-4).

  • Rokitansky, Carl von, 1804-1878.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of pathological anatomy (Volume 3-4). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    body that are at a distance from the heart, and becomes extremely so if there be any mechanical interruption of the circulation. Congestion in a higher degree gives rise to hemorrhage into the tissue of the skin ; sometimes in small circumscribed spots, sometimes in streaks, and sometimes to a large extent; it may take place upon the surface of the corium beneath the epidermis, or in the tissue of the former; and, in the latter case, it is usually associated with hemorrhage into the sub- cutaneous tissue also. The bloody spots in Werlhof s morbus maculosus1 and in scurvy, the petechiae in the course of typhus and typhoid fevers, &c., are instances of such hemorrhage. Its occurrence is facilitated by delicacy and susceptibility to injury on the part of the walls of the capillary vessels, and by a tendency to transudation on the part of the blood. Anaemia of the general integuments is a local part of a universal ansemia, and is always accompanied with collapse and pallor of the skin ; the pallor acquires a waxen character when the skin is delicate, and especially if at the same time it be rendered tense by the presence of fat or oedema. 2. Inflammations.—Inflammation of the skin (dermatitis) may result from very various external influences, which are but partly known, and be an idiopathic, substantive disease : it also very frequently occurs as a symptomatic and dependent affection,—a reflex of other morbid processes. Regarded in an anatomical point of view, it is found sometimes diffuse, and extending over large tracts of skin ; sometimes it is circumscribed, and confined to one or more small spots. In the first form, the true cutis is the part attacked, and sometimes only its external layer and papillae—erythema: at other times the deeper layer also, that is to say, the whole thickness of corium is affected; and that constitutes phlegmonous inflammation. From it, and particularly from the erythematous form, there are several transitions to the circumscribed inflammation of skin. The simplest form of the circumscribed is furuncular inflammation. Allied to this are several of the acute and chronic exanthematous processes. I proceed now to speak of them in detail.1 a. Erythematous inflammation of skin.—Erythematous inflammation, as has been said, is an inflammation of the outermost layer of skin, which contains the papillae; and it includes not only the slight inflammation produced by external agents, such as the heat of the sun, fire, cold, irri- tating plasters, trifling injuries, the stings of insects, &c, but also spon- taneous inflammations of exanthematous nature, which are essentially connected with other morbid processes such as the various erythemata, erysipelas, scarlatina, measles, intertrigo, &c. Erythematous inflammations usually run an acute course, but several of them are apt to recur, and to become habitual. The following are the anatomical characters of the disease. The red- ness is for the most part bright and uniform, but sometimes it is irregular, presenting here and there various forms and outlines of a deeper hue, 1 [Vide Behrens' Dissert. Epistol. de Affectionibus a Comestis Mytulis. Hanover 1730 p. 3.—Ed ]