A demonstration of the origin of tubercular consumption / by Henry M'Cormac.

  • Henry MacCormac
Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A demonstration of the origin of tubercular consumption / by Henry M'Cormac. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Among the diseased conditions common to the whole animal kingdom, is tubercle, tubercle of the blood and tubercle of the solids. First we have the diseased condition or tuberculosis of the blood, then as a consequence thereof, the amorphous, non- organised morbid deposition termed tubercle. This morbid deposition is common to the whole family of warm-blooded animals when domesticated, and even to lower tribes of being. The black races and the white races of mankind, the inha- bitants of warm climates and of cold climates alike, of dry regions and of damp, the rich and the poor, }oung and old, male and female, the temperate and the intemperate, the laborious and the indolent, birds, beasts, and man are liable, one and all, to tubercle. Amorphous tubercular deposits may take place in any part of the body, in virtue of the law or rule of diseased action to which tubercles owe their birth. This law of diseased action is the same in one place as in all, in man as in brutes, taking it for granted that the conditions of its existence subsist otherwise. When tubercles however are deposited in the lungs, they con- stitute the well-known and devastating malady, variously termed consumption, phthisis, decline. The mortality from phthisis is excessive. By a very rough estimate I have arrived at the conclusion that the mortality in the Three Kingdoms only, amounts to not less than 100,000 annually! Many diseases however, exclusive of pulmonary con- sumption, owe their fatal character and close to the presence of tubercles. Among these are the various forms of scrofula, many affections so named of the joints and spine, white swellings, certain diseases of the bones, the brain, and its membranes. Tubercle in appearance has much the semblance of decayed cheese, or the substance termed adipocere otherwise animal matter in a certain state of decay. It is completely unorganised, and without a trace of vitality. It may occur in the encysted form, also in a diffused state. In either of these states or forms, or both of them, it may be manifested in the lungs. In the liver the tuberculous matter is commonly diffused or non encysted.