Preliminary note on the anatomy of the umbilical cord / by Lawson Tait.

  • Tait, Lawson, 1845-1899.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Preliminary note on the anatomy of the umbilical cord / by Lawson Tait. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    at as low a pressure as 55 millims., with a nozzle only 1 millim. in dia- meter ; yet at a pressure of 350 millims. I have not produced a rent in the surface of the cord, though I have produced numerous extravasations into the alveoli and into the neighbouriug columns. The appearances when these canals are distended are well shown in several of the draw- ings, but especially in Plate 11. figs. 5, 6, and Plate 12. fig. 14, in the first of which they are seen to run up close to the muscular coat of the artery. Transverse and longitudinal sections of the same piece of the cord show that they are stellate in every plane, and that they intercom- municate in every direction; but their processes are slightly longer in the long axis of the cord than in any other. This, however, is not con- stantly evident. Recklinghausen regards these canals as wall-less spaces between the anastomosing cells, simple interspaces in the connective-tissue basis substance (“ Ausgrabungen in der Bindegewebs-Grundsubgtanz ”) ; but that this is not so my own observations, substantiating those of Koster, I think completely established. It is best proved by preparations of the termination of the injected district, where the blue colour may be seen running into the processes of the so-called stellate “ connective-tissue corpuscles,” contrasting with the complete occupation by the colour of every thing but the alveoli*. It is in these alveoli exclusively that I have found the round migratory cells. Henle thinks that the anastomosing cells may be the foundation plan for blood-vessels (“ Gefassanlage ”), such as are seen in the umbilical cords of all mammals but man. So far, however, as I have yet seen the vessels wrhich extend over the mammalian cord are chiefly on its surface, as I have already mentioned they are to a limited extent at the foetal inser- tion of the human cord; but this point is one for further research. It is scarcely possible, however, to regard a system of canals which constitutes the whole tissue of the cord as a representative of blood-vessels, otherwise it must somewhere be seen as an almost erectile tissue. Pohmann has asserted that he has injected a complete system of lym- phatic vessels in the cord by quicksilver; and though Yirchow thinks that his material has permeated the alveoli, and Hyrtl that his lymphatics are mere chasms in the tissue, I think it possible that he really has injected these canals, but that from his inability to make sections which would retain the quicksilver in the tissue, he has not demonstrated the facts of his system. This difficulty is obviated by the use of size and Berlin blue. Staining with silver lactate (1 in 800, with slight excess of lactic acid) leaves the canals as clear white spaces (Plate 11. fig. 3), but gives a decided brown edge to them, which shows that they are walled. Their general appearance after this treatment closely corresponds to that seen after * This is also shown in silver-stained sections (Plate 11. fig. 3), where the walls seem indicated by an increase of colour.