Handbook of the science and practice of medicine / by William Aitken.

  • William Aitken
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of the science and practice of medicine / by William Aitken. 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.

    83/880
    namely, the fatty-like degenei-ation of the fibrine, Mr. Paget gives the name of liqioefactive degeneration; the soHd fibrine of in- flammatory lymph that becomes again Hquid when suppuration takes place, as may be observed in a hard mass of inflamed tex- ture -when it becomes soft. This is a degeneration which brings the exudation into a state favourable for its absorption, or to the resolution of an inflamma- tion in which lymph has assumed tliis condition. Examples of such an absorption may be seen in rheumatic iritis, and the observa- tions of Dr. Kii-kes on the rarity of adhesions of the pericardinm in comparison with the frequency of pericarditis may also be ex- plained in this way. (3.) Melanic degeneration of lymph is not unfrequent, as in peritonitis. Concui-rent with these degenerations of the lymph, are the degen- erations of the corpuscular elements ;—the lymph cells— (1.) They may wither, as in the dried-up pus of chronic ab- scesses. (2.) The fatty degeneration of lymph cells is said to be shown in their transition to the granule cell, known also as the inflammatory globtde of Gluge, or the exudation corpuscle of Bennett. The history of the formation of these corpuscles is still doubtful. The description of them, as originally given by Gluge, in de- scribing the alterations of blood in inflamed parts, is as follows :— He observes, that the blood globules lose their tegument and their colour, their inner substance alone remains, which, however, does not re- mahi solitary, but by means of a whitish connecting material the masses become agglomerated, and form dense, opaque, round gi-oups, containing on an average from twenty to thirty of the smaller bodies, which, examined singly, are quite hght and transparent. By means of pressure or acetic acid,the associated gi-anules break do\vn into the individual bodies,_ and we see that the opacity is merely owing to the association. The associated bodies have a diameter in the mass of from J^th to ^roth of a millimetre; the single granules are from -5^*^^ i^^^ o^''^ miUimetre. These associated bodies, says Gluge, I have seen in the blood-vessels, so that we have not here to do with a fluid which, transuding through the coats of the blood-vessels, is changed into gi-anules. They escape by bursting the capillaries. That tliis cell or corpuscle is formed within as well as without the blood-vessels, is apparent from an examination of inflammatory lungs, exudation into many textures, and more particularly in the bi-ain. The exuded matter may be seen to coat the blood-ves- sels exterior and interior to their walls; and the formation of the corpuscle of Gluge can also be traced through stages of develo])ment, as described l)y Vogel, Bennett, Kolliker, Hasse, and