Volume 1

Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • James Paget
Date:
1882-1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    30. The left foot of a young Chinese female, much distorted, atrophied, and hindered in growth by artificial compression. The great toe is turned outwards; the others, especially the little toe, are folded under the sole of the foot; the first and third, being pressed towards each other, meet beneath the second, which is displaced upwards. There are two circular ulcers on the skin, perhaps the result of artificial pressure, one over the distal extremity of the fifth meta- tarsal bone, the other nearer the instep. Presented hy Mrs. Stanley, loidow of Dr. S. 8. Stanley, R.N. Similar specimeiis are Nos. 1775 to 1781. 31. Five dorsal vertebras, of which parts of the sides of the bodies have been atrophied and hollowed-out in consequence of and adaptation to the pressure of the blood in an aneu- rismal sac. The bodies of the vertebrEe are deeply excavated, but their cancellous tissue is not exposed; their size is reduced and their shape is changed, but they retain a com- plete thin external layer of compact tissue. They illustrate what Mr. Hunter describes as the progressive absorption without suppuration. Presented by Sir William Blizard^. 31 A. This preparation represents the front of a chest, which contained an aneurism of the aorta; and here, on the right side, you see an instance of the elongating process, the cartilages being bent outwards, or elongated, to adapt them- selves to its figure.—Hunter^sLectures: Works,Yol.i.Y).4:22. Besides these two modes of removing whole parts, acting singly or together [i. e. besides the interstitial and the progressive absorption], there is an operation totally distinct from either; and this is a relaxing and elongating process carried on between the abscess and the skin, and at those parts only where the matter appears to point. It is possible that this relaxing, elongating, or weakening process may arise in some degree from the absorption of the interior parts; but there is certainly something more, for the skin that covers an abscess is always looser than a part that gives way from mere mechanical distention, excepting the increase of the abscess is very rapid. That parts relapse or elongate without mechanical force, but * The specimen of aneurism, by which Mr. Hunter illustrated this land of absorption, is No. 3198. See his Lectures in his Works, vol. i. p. 422, and pi. xvii. fig. 4.