On some of the more important diseases of the army : with contributions to pathology / by John Davy.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some of the more important diseases of the army : with contributions to pathology / by John Davy. 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.

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    Autopsy 21 hours after death. Body stout. The spinous process and the left transverse process of the 6th dorsal vertebra were found fractured, as was also the body of this vertebra, the latter transversely. The only other lesions that could be attributed to the accident were some coagulated blood effused in the posterior medias- tinum and the compression of the right lung owing to air accumulated in the pleura. How the air gained admission was not discovered; the lung was blown into and forcibly distended without the escape of air. There was no emphysema. The left lung partially adhering contained many clusters of grey granular tubercles; they were confined to the superior lobe. The viscera generally were sound. Death in this instance it may be inferred, judging from the symptoms, was mainly owing to the accumulated air in the pleura, which during life unfortunately escaped detection. That the air gradually collected was clearly indicated by the gradual increase of difficulty of breathing. Could it have been secreted ? It is more probable that there was a very minute rupture of the lung. Case 6.—David Marshall, setat. 37; S. and M.; killed by the blow of a stone.— This man when in perfect health was struck in the forehead by a large stone projected from a mine about 200 yards distant; his death was instantaneous. The accident occurred at Vido, one of the Ionian Islands, at 6 p.m. on the 14th July, 1826. Autopsy 16 hours after. Body fat and very muscular. The frontal bone and parts of the parietal bones were found broken in, the integuments perforated and the anterior portion of the cerebrum smashed. One of the internal carotids, just at its entrance into the cranium, was torn. There was a good deal of blood at the base of the brain and effused into the lateral sinuses; there was also some extravasated blood in the substance of each corpus striatum. The lungs were almost free from adhesions ; the surface of both was darkly mottled and thickly studded with small granular bodies little larger than a mustard seed, of a white or grey color, chiefly seated in the pleura pulmonalis. A few minute accretions, black and solid, were found in the substance of each lung. The bronchia generally were of a pretty dark red, and contained a little frothy mucus. The bronchial glands were considerably enlarged; the heart was empty and contracted. The thoracic duct contained a small quantity of chyle, of the appearance of ass’s milk. The stomach exhibited the hour-glass contraction in a slight degree; in its pyloric portion there was a mass of undigested food, nearly spherical, of about the size of a small orange ; a much larger quantity of the same kind of food was found in its upper compartment; it contained no liquid, was nearly colorless and was not softened. The duodenum was empty ; there was air under its epithelium here and there, as if artificially injected, also in its cellular structure. There was no offensive smell indicating even incipient putrefaction. There was a good deal of half-digested food in the lower part of the ileum ; in its upper portion and in the jejunum there was air. There was very little fecal matter in the larger intestines. The greater part of the colon was perfectly empty, of about the size of the little finger, soft, moist and white. The gall-bladder contained about foiu: drachms of bile. The abdominal viscera generally were of healthy appearance. These few cases which I have given, though of unequal interest and weight, the last indeed questionable, I trust are sufficient to prove the proposition that tubercles, the germs of pulmonary