Cystic degeneration of the muscular fibres of the heart : a form of disease hitherto undescribed / by Arthur V. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Arthur Vincent, 1850-1912.
Date:
[1892]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cystic degeneration of the muscular fibres of the heart : a form of disease hitherto undescribed / by Arthur V. Meigs. 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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    CYSTIC DEGENERATION OF THE MUSCULAR FIBRES OF THE HEART. A Fokm of Disease Hitherto Undescribed. By ARTHUR V. MEIGS, M.D., PHYSICIAN TO THK PENNSYLVANIA AND CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS. [Read February 3, 1892.] In April, 1801, I read before the College a paper entitled, “The Microscopical Anatomy of the Human Heart,” which appeared in the Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and was published besides in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences for June, 1891. It was then shown that in the human heart in the natural condition the muscular fibres are penetrated by capillaries, and that they are not therefore, as is commonly supposed, mere solid rods * At the same time, I alluded to the fact that I was able to make this observation owing to a certain pathological change that I had noticed in studying diseased hearts—a change by which the nearly solid normal fibres became tubes. So far as mv observations extend, this condition is usually most marked in the fibres of the papillary muscles of the left ventricle, though it is common in all other parts of the heart as well. The degree of the excavation varies exceedingly; the cavities may be so small that in some instances it is impossible to distinguish them from capillaries, or, on the other hand, the hollowin”-out process may have gone so far that the fibres are chano-ed&into tubes with thin walls. The disease may be best studied when the fibres are seen in cross-section, for then its most character-