Observations on hypertrophy, / by Evory Kennedy.

Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on hypertrophy, / by Evory Kennedy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    10/24 (page 10)
    some of the character of irritable, and even inflammatory uterus were present, evidently produced by neglect and mismanage- ment of the original affection before Dr. O'Reilly's seeing her. The hypertrophy here was attended with prolapsus; the patient using active exercise until it became converted from a chronic into a more acute attack. There is a case of hypertrophy of the os uteri at present in the female disease ward, in which a curious development has occurred. In all the cases which have preceded, it will be seen that the hypertrophied portion was covered throughout its whole surface by mucous membrane, the continuation of that of the uterus or vagina. In this case, however, the fibro- cellular, or, as it is termed, the parenchymatous portion of the anterior lip, in its excess of development, has enlarged into the vesico-vaginal septum, separating the bladder and va- gina, in its growth, and consequently, in place of having a dis- tinct covering of mucous membrane, it is covered by the vaginal mucous membrane at its anterior part and point only.—(See Plate, Fig. 7.) This is peculiarly interesting, as proving the tissue that takes on the hypertrophy to be the fibro-cellular tissue of the uterus, and not the mucous membrane ; the latter mem- brane being merely continued over it in the gradual develop- ment of the hypertrophied structure. It is further interesting in furnishing us with a power of concluding that the disease is one quite distinct in its character and seat from that of polypus, the disease of all others which it is most likely to be confounded with polypus being a disease strictly of the mucous or glandu- lar structure, whilst this is clearly a disease of the parenchyma of the organ itself. From the preceding cases it will be seen that the symptoms usually attending this growth, are a sense of fulness and weight in the upper part of the vagina, which may be accompanied with heat and throbbing in this region. As the disease progresses, the patient experiencing a sensation as if a foreign body hung down into the vaginal passage; this is occasionally attended by a bearing