Notice of the dissection of a case of lateral transposition of the viscera of the thorax and abdomen in a man / by Allen Thomson.

  • Allen Thomson
Date:
[1853?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notice of the dissection of a case of lateral transposition of the viscera of the thorax and abdomen in a man / by Allen Thomson. 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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    Sganarcllc in his play of M^decin Malgri lui^ which was first pub- lished about the same time. This condition appears to belong to that class of malformations which admit of some explanation from the observation of develop- ment, as it seems to proceed from a derangement or deviation from the natural progress of that process at a very early period. It is a general fact, that the commencement of all the most important malformations dates from a very early period of development. The degree to which the various kinds of malformations may be so elucidated is very different. In regard to some, great advance has already been made by a careful comparison of their abnormal structure, with the rudimentary and imperfect conditions of the parts in the earlier stages of their growth, and we may hope that, as our acquaintance with the phenomena of embryological deve- lopment proceeds, and more accurate dissections of the malforma- tions themselves shall be made, still greater light will be thrown upon their origin. The origin of malformations by defect h^ more particularly been very fuUy explained by embryological investigations, which have shown that the greater number of these malformations may be looked upon as arrests, checks, or modifications of some parts of the changes of the natural process of development. A second class of malformations, exhibiting considerable variety of forms, are to be attributed to morbid processes, diseased gro’^vths, un- natural adhesions, constrictions Iw foreign substances, &c. occur- ring also in the earliest stages of fictal life, and giving rise to very vanous defects, both of the intcmal and external parts of the body, and may depend either on the original defect of the germ, or on foreign and accidental causes acting in the course of fcetal development. A third class of malformations, those, of redun- dancy of parts, and the various degrees of double monstrosity, admit of explanation only on the supposition of an original abnor- mal condition or tendency of the germ, and have received omy collateral elucidation from embrydogical observations, in so far as these have pointed out the general phenomena of the formative process by which the combined organs, or the pairs of organs, of a double foetus are developed in unison, or in various degrees of fiision; and it has been ascertained that these phenomena do not deviate essentially from those of the natural process, exceptmg in the circumstance of duplicity. A fourth class of malforma- tions, to which the one at present under consideration belongs, viz. those of imnatural position (situs mutatus), a^it of being di\dded into two sections; in one of which, single organs, or pairs of symmetrical organs, are entirely displaced^ from their natural situation. In some of these, the iiimatural position is more or less that in which the organ is originally formed in the foetus, as in the case of the genital organs, and these malformations, therefore, are, like many of those in the first mentioned class, to