Clinical lecture on the obliteration of varicose veins, and the sources of danger involved in that operation : delivered at King's College Hospital / by Henry Lee.
- Lee, Henry, F.R.C.S.
- Date:
- 1853
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Clinical lecture on the obliteration of varicose veins, and the sources of danger involved in that operation : delivered at King's College Hospital / by Henry Lee. 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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![the cellular tissue between the muscles of the leg and thigh were extensively infiltrated with pus. The shiverings were repeated on several days after his admission into the hospital, and were followed by most profuse and exhausting perspira- tions. He died on the 16th of October. On a post-mortem examination the patella was found to be softened in its interior; one part of its posterior surface was rough and carious, and lying in contact with this exposed surface was a small detached portion of dead bone. The profunda vein was found to be filled with coagula, but the superficial femoral contained only a small quantity of fluid blood. At the junction of the two (and this is the point to which I wish particularly to direct your attention) was a con- siderable mass of white adherent fibrine. This was easily removed from the lining membrane of the vein, which then presented its natural polished appearance. No signs of in- flammation of the lining membrane could be discovered. The portion of decolorised fibrine to which I have referred was removed from the vein, and when pressed between the fingers a small quantity of white purulent-looking matter escaped from its interior. At the lower part of the right lung were several small oval deposits of white matter, as firm in consistence as ordinary tubercle. In other parts of the same lobe were larger indurated masses, containing in , their centres discoloured purulent-looking fluid. The point ] of the greatest interest in this case is, that, upon a microsco- pical examination, the appearances of the white fluid from the clot in the vein accurately resembled that from the secondary deposits in the lung. We therefore naturally come to the conclusion, that, in both these situations, the purulent-looking fluid was formed in the same way, and that the same action which produced its development in the fibrine after it had travelled from the seat of injury to the termination of the profunda vein, produced its developments in the lung, at a still greater distance from the original source of mischief. The third physical change that may take place in con- t'^minated blood is, that it may decompose : instead of coagulating or of separating into its different elements it may become putrid in the vessels of the body. The whole of the constituents of the blood are then involved in the changes which take place. Fortunately, we have few exam- ples of this disease in the London hospitals at present; but during the prevalence of severe epidemics they are not so very uncommon. In the severer forms of puerperal fever espe- cially, the whole mass of the blood appears to be contami- nated, and, wherever it stagnates, it shows a tendency to decompose. Any organ attacked in this state of the system](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21481817_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
