Illustrations of pulmonary consumption : its anatomical characters, causes, symptoms and treatment. With twelve plates, drawn and coloured from nature / By Samuel George Morton.

  • Morton, Samuel George, 1799-1851.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrations of pulmonary consumption : its anatomical characters, causes, symptoms and treatment. With twelve plates, drawn and coloured from nature / By Samuel George Morton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    30/226 (page 16)
    PNEUMOTHORAX. The distension of the cavity of the pleura by air may origi- nate variously, but in most instances is consequent to the absorp- tion of the serum effused in pleurisy. The long continuance of such effusion presses the lung towards its root until permanent atrophy is established; if absorption is subsequently effected, the lung does not regain its bulk, and the serum is replaced by air. (Case 17.) In other instances the pleura is thus invaded from the bronchia, in consequence of ulceration. This affection appears also to be sometimes idiopathic. HYDROTHORAX. Dropsy of the chest.—This name is given to idiopathic dropsy of the pleura, and must be cautiously distinguished from effu- sion from pleurisy, or from perforation consequent to an ulcer in the lungs. MALANOSIS. Melanosis is the name given by Laennec to masses of a black, or blackish-brown colour, occasionally found in the lungs, especially in tuberculous persons. This matter, according to the later views in pathology, is merely an excess of secretion of the pigmentum nigrum, modified no doubt by disease; in fact, it seems to bear much the same relation to the pigmentum nigrum that tuberculous matter does to the healthy albuminous secretions of the pulmonary tissue. Melanosis is mostly seen in amorphous masses, or irregular laminae, as represented (PI. III. fig. 2), or in black spots in the cellular tissue immediately beneath the pleura. (PI. XI. fig. 1.) It is sometimes encysted, and looks then not unlike a bronchial gland. Pathologists also speak of this secretion in the fluid form, a modification I have