Researches on phthisis: anatomical, pathological and therapeutical / by P. C. A. Louis.

  • Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis
Date:
1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on phthisis: anatomical, pathological and therapeutical / by P. C. A. Louis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    vanced, that the tissue was as soft and yielding as mucus, and, when removed, actually looked like that substance. The membrane was thickened in several of the cases in question, and ulcerated in the greater number. Thickening existed in certain cases, wherein the membrane had retained its natural white colour; but it was then softened, and studded with a certain number of ulcerations. It follows, then, from the last two paragraphs, that thickening of the mucous membrane of the large intestine was always associated with another change of structure,—this other being almost invariably softening. Softening was, consequently, a condition of very frequent oc- currence. Not only was it observed in cases where the mucous membrane was red, and more or less thickened, but also in some of those, where this had retained its natural colour and dimen- sions. In seventy-two cases it affected either the entire tract, or a considerable part only, of the intestine. In a tolerably large number of cases, the mucous membrane, red and softened, had a mammillated aspect, more or less gene- rally, (Case XI;) or it was destroyed from place to place in small patches, so as to exhibit an undulated appearance, occasionally discernible from one end to the other of the bowel. In two cases it was entirely destroyed to a superficial extent of twelve inches [30 centimeters] ; and in both, this enormous destruc- tion of substance would have escaped me, in consequence of the slightly pinkish tint of the submucous cellular membrane, had I not examined the parts very closely. In the situations where the mucous membrane had undergone destruction, the cellular coat did not exhibit any appreciable alteration in properties; and it appears hkely that this destruction was of mechanical origin,—an effect of friction by the passing faeces;—a view rendered tl^e more probable by the fact, that when the mucous membrane of the colon has undergone the greatest possible amount of softening, simply passing the back of a scalpel along its surface suffices to remove it altogether. In the cases referred to, the cellular tissue was commonly opaque, and its thickness doubled, trebled, or quadrupled, (Case XI;) in some subjects, as already mentioned, it had a slightly pinkish tint, but, in the majority of instances, retained its natural whiteness.