A compendium of human & comparative pathological anatomy / by Adolph Wilhelm Otto ; tr. from the German, with additional notes and references by John F. South.

Otto, Adolph Wilhelm, 1786-1845.

Date:: 1831

Credit: A compendium of human & comparative pathological anatomy / by Adolph Wilhelm Otto ; tr. from the German, with additional notes and references by John F. South. 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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$and ^e^ziusin Ars-Berattelse om Svenska-Lakare-Sallskapets Arbeten, p. 20, Stockh. 1827, experiments on the division and reproduction of the nervus plantaris in horses. \_G. Langstaff, Practical Observations on the healthy and morbid conditions of stumps, in Med. Chir. Trans. Vol. XVI. p. 128. T.] ^255. It does not appear remarkable that there should be, from the great rarity of their organic diseases and from the delicacy of their structure, great obscurity as to the vices of texture in THE nerves. Inflammation of nerves, neuritis,^ occurs not merely in consequence of injuries or exposure, but also spon- taneously and from internal causes, and is known by swelling, injection, and more or less extensive redness, with which there is also usually softening or loosening, as well also as hardening and thickening of the tissue, sometimes even adhesion to the neighbouring parts; so that very many of the above de- scribed vices of colour and consistence in the nerves appear to be produced, in the greater number of instances, by preced- ing acute or chronic inflammation. We must, however, dis- tinguish the accidental colouring of a nerve which arises from congestion of blood in a part, or from effused blood in the neighbourhood, from true inflammation.^ Suppuration and MORTIFICATION do uot appear to arise primarily in the nerves; still, however, they are not unfrequently in part ultimately de- stroyed by these diseases, although they often resist them for a pretty long while.^ Various spurious formations frequently occur in the nerves, to which we usually apply the general name, NERVOUS SWELLINGS, tumoves tiervorum, neuromata,'^ from their external appearance, as it is difficult to determine their texture. These vary exceedingly in number, size, position, and texture; usually there is found but one, though sometimes also several, and even very many in the same individual; ^ their size varies from that of a corn of hemp or wheat, to that of a walnut, an Gggi and in some cases of a small melon; ^ most commonly they produce, during life, little and very painful knots in and upon the membrane of the nerve; ^ there have been however found nervous knots on many of the cerebral, spinal, and even on the ganglionic nerves.^ Finally, as to the structure of these nervous tumours, they^are usually fatty, encysted, or fibro-cartilaginous, which are situated in the cellular tissue of the nerves, and tear asunder and separate from each other several nervous bundles, which are otherwise healthy: in other instances, there are tuber- cular or other masses of coagulated albumen attached at a particular part of the diseased nervous sheath; in still other cases the medulla of the nerve appears to be diseased; this especially occurs in sarcomatous and cancerous swellings of the$