Contributions to the anatomy and pathology of the thymus gland / by A. Jacobi.

  • Jacobi, A. (Abraham), 1830-1919.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to the anatomy and pathology of the thymus gland / by A. Jacobi. 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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    E. ] jancereaux (Iraite d'Anatomic Pathol., ii. p. 628) speaks of exudative, suppurative, hypertrophic, tuberculous, and syphilitic inflammations. Two cases of inflammation of the capsules of the thymus have come under my observation, but neither of them was primary. One of them appeared to be secondary to a general medi astinitis and pericarditis. The capsule was very hyperaemic, thick- ened, and fibrinous deposits were found on it. The second case was one in which there was a considerable amount of fibrinous pleuritis on both sides. The capsule of the thymus was thickened, covered with thick layers of fibrin, was easily peeled off the organ; the latter was hyperaemic, and contained a few punctated hemorrhages. In this case there were in the neighborhood a consider- able number of enlarged mediastinal glands. It is the opinion also of Sanne, that inflammations of the organ and its capsule are mostly not of a primary character, but the results of difficulties experienced during parturition, and generally attended with hyperaemia, oedema, and hemorrhages in other places. Similar cases have been mentioned by Veron, Billard, and Weber. Wittich (Virchow's Arch., viii. p. 477, 1855) reports the case of a young man of eighteen, who complained a long time of a retro-sternal pain and intense dyspnoea, particularly when in the recumbent position. After having suffered several months, he was admitted to the hospital, where he died, in an attack of suffocation, with hydrothorax and ascites. There was found at the autopsy bilateral pleurisy with bloody and serous effusion; no tuberculosis; plenty of adhesions; in the left upper lobe, emphysema, in the left lower lobes, atelectasis ; the external layer of the pericardium considerably thickened and discolored by pigment. The pericardium at its base was seven inches wide, its height from four to five inches. There was a large tumor which con- tained some normal tissue of the thymus gland, some cavities filled with pus and surrounded by a hypermmic zone, other cavities filled with serum, pigmented granulations, and some fat. It could not be separated from the pericardium, the large bloodvessels, and the trachea. Even in this case it is very difficult to say whether the tumor was primary or not, for it is possible that it originated in the pericardium, the external layer of which was affected, or that it was the result of progressive mediastinitis.