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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    CHAPTER VL SPLEEN. If it be admitted that tlie existing state of ignorance, re- specting the functions performed by the spleen, renders the study of its anatomical changes less interesting than of those of other organs, their number and frequent occurrence are, at least, ■well calculated to excite the zeal of observers; and for this reason I have thought I should not be justified in omitting the enumeration of such as I have myself met with in that organ. These anatomical changes consisted of alterations of consistence and of volume, and of adventitious products. These adventitious products were two in number. One of them, tubercle, existed in the fourteenth part of the cases, or in seven of ninety individuals in whom the spleen was carefully examined. (Cases vi, vii, ix.) The tubercles were, in one of these cases, exceedingly numerous, and of a size varying between that of a hemp-seed and of a filbert. In all the cases except one, they were of more or less perfectly globular form, yellowish colour, opaque, dull-looking, and in all respects similar to tubercles developed in the lungs : they were not encysted, and the surrounding splenic tissue was healthy. The two individuals, in whom they existed in greatest abundance, pre- sented also a considerable number in other parts of the body, the mesentery, the neck, the axillae, and even the brain. (Case ix.) I did not detect gray, semi-transparent matter beside the tuber- cles in any case. In one instance the tuberculous matter had not assumed the rounded form, and displayed characters some- what diff*erent from those it possessed in the others. The subject of this case was a man aged thirty-seven, in whom the disease lasted five months; his spleen was somewhat larger than natural, adhered to the diaphragm, and was invested completely by a cartilaginous pseudo-membrane, about half aline [1 millimeter] thick. Under this membrane, on the external or left suifacc