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

  • Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

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.

    52/616
    Sectio Cadaveris ; forty hoUrs after death. External appearances. Marasmus in its last stage. Nothing else worthy of note. Head. Two small spoonfuls of serosity in the upper part of the arachnoid cavity; pia mater a little red; brain healthy ; half a table-spoonful of transparent serosity in each lateral ventricle. Neck.' Epiglottis, larynx, and trachea natural. Chest. Firm and tolerably thick adhesions betAveen the right lung and costal pleura, extending over the greater part of the surface of the organ, at its apex and posteriorly. Removal of these adhesions from the external surface of the organ displayed a broad deep hollow, resulting from the presence of an enor- mous cavity, occupying three fourths or four fifths of the en- tire mass of the lung, extending from the apex to within nearly ten lines [3 centimeters] of the base, and from the posterior border to within about five lines [I centimeter] of the anterior. This cavity contained a turbid matter, moderately thick, of grayish-brown colour, and exhaling that kind of fsetor given off by animal matters undergoing maceration. Its walls, re- markably anfractuous, gave attachment in various places to shreds of pulmonary tissue totally changed in properties, and on the point of dropping away from their connexions; the walls were not invested with false membrane, and measured at their external aspect from one to three lines [2 to 6 millimeters] in thickness, or in some parts much less even. Opposite the interlobular fissure the cavity was divided into two unequal parts by a septum largely perforated in several places, and composed, like the rest of its walls, of a grayish matter (or in some spots blueish and semi-transparent.) studded with tuber- cles. The right bronchus, much wider than the left, opened into this enormous excavation almost immediately after its entry into the lung, and at six lines' [12 millimeters] distance from its own origin. The rest of the organ contained gray granulations and tubercles in abundance, in such manner as to leave scarcely a tenth part of its entire structure permeable to the air.—The apex of the left lung adhered slightly to the costal pleura, and contained a small cavit}^, which might have held a walnut, surrounded Avitli gray semi-transparent matter, and, in great abundance, with tubercles. Beneath this the upper lobe contained an abundance of semi-transparent gray