Concerning aneurysms : the Gordon Bell memorial lecture / by Oskar Klotz.

  • Oskar Klotz
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Concerning aneurysms : the Gordon Bell memorial lecture / by Oskar Klotz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Monro, reviewing the reports of aneurysms up to his time, found that hundreds of them had appeared in literature. Most of the authors, however, gave very meagre descrip¬ tions of the sac, and few of them undertook careful dissec¬ tions. Not a few comments were made by various authors as to the cause, but in the majority of instances the words of former writers were carried forward without the addition of material information. He commented upon the statement by ^tius, Fernelius, and Pare that aneurysms are common in the neck, claiming with Heister that this did not conform with subsequent observation. It may be that the pulsating tumour which was observed in the neck of pregnant women, and to which ^tius applied the term ‘ ‘ bronchocele ”, was in truth an enlarged thyroid. Monro remarked upon the frequency of aneurysms of the aorta near the heart, being “almost equal to, if not greater than, those in all other parts of the body together”. These conclusions were arrived at by a study of the cases reported by Lancisi and subsequent writers. As these reports were made in the post-Columbian period the state¬ ment still holds at the present time. It is still true to-day that aneurysms of sufficient importance to attract attention are for the most part located within the chest; nor has the type of aneurysm described by Monro changed in any manner. The mode of death was possibly more frequently by rupture in his time than in ours. The present-day intensive anti- luetic treatment has held in check the progress of early aneurysm, whereby the increased burden of the circulation has been borne by the heart. Comments made by Baillie (1789) upon aneurysm are very clear, and although he did not associate its development with lues, it is unquestionable that the specimens which he described were of this kind. “The most frequent situa¬ tion of aneurysm within the cavity of the thorax is at the arch of the aorta. In this disease the arch of the aorta is much enlarged beyond its usual size, sometimes forming a uniform tumour; sometimes a large swelling which arises out of the arch of the aorta by a neck or narrower portion;
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