On sanguineous tumours on the heads of new-born infants / by James M. Adams.

  • Adams, James Maxwell, 1818-1899.
Date:
[1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On sanguineous tumours on the heads of new-born infants / by James M. Adams. 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.

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    liave led tlicm to the same conclusions. Several cases related hj them and others seem to countenance this view. In a case attended by M. Fortin * the tumour was detected by the finger in the passages. Dr Burchard diagnosed a cephalhajma- tonla before the rupture of the membranes, to the great joy of those who waited the result of liis diagnosis ; and this, according to Osiandcr, may occasionally be done. Dr Burchard MkeAvise records, that in 1831 he removed by the cffisarian section 27 infants from the uteri of their mothers, who were victims of the cholera. In one of these foetuses he found a tumour seated on the right parietal bone. On dividing it in the presence of two brother practitioners, he discovered to his surprise, in the place of the bony substance, two laminre, which were extended into a small pouch, and contained recent, fluid, uncoagulated blood,— in other words, a cephalhjematoma. The vessels of the skull, he adds, even to the most minute, were filled with blood.f M. Billard found a large sanguineous effusion on the summit of the head of a foetus at the fifth month, but he does not say whether situated above or beneath the pericranium. It is difficult to say precisely what opinion M. NaDgele holds, but at first he considered that the affection was caused by the laceration, during labour, of the blood-vessels which ramify through the skull, and which he supposed were in a varicose ■condition; but latterly he is of opinion with SchmittJ and Feiler that there is no certainty on this point. Becker,§ Carus, Capuron, Wendt, Osiander, and others, consider that the affec- tion may be caused by the pressure which the head receives in a small pelvis; the latter author believing that in such a case a small vessel is somewhere ruptured, and that the tumour may be viewed as a kind of extravasation. But the most important researches on this point have been made by M. Valleix, who has illustrated his views by a train of close reasoning, the result of much philosophic observation. He considers that cephalh.se- matomata do not exist before the occurrence of labour, and that they are the consequence of force or pressure employed upon the child's head during delivery. For a right understanding of his vicAvs it is necessary to advert to the anatomy of the parietal Ix^nes in the infant. At birth the pericranium adheres but Snghtly to the bone, with the exception of a few lines at the sutures and fontanelles, and consequently a slight force is sufli- cient to strip it off. In doing so, numerous vessels are seen to enter the fissures of the bone. The bone itself ossifies from one * Presse M(?dicale, No. 9, 1837. t The pathological appearances, as detailed, make it doubtful if this was a real case of cephalhasmatoma. ± Journ. Med. Chir. de Saltzbourg, vol. i. 1810. § Sur les Bosses sanguines des Nouveau-n.'s, {fee. Journal de Hufeland, Oct. 1828.