Contributions to the physiology and pathology of the breast and its lymphatic glands / by Charles Creighton. With illustrations.

  • Creighton, Charles, 1847-1927.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to the physiology and pathology of the breast and its lymphatic glands / by Charles Creighton. With illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    98/232 (page 82)
    tion naturally implies a largo addition, present or future, to the number of white corpuscles in the blood; and such an increase is found to take place during pregnancy. This subject attracted the attention of Virchow at an early period and is discussed in his Gesammelte Abhandlungen. In the Cellular-Pathologic he describes it as a case of physiological leucocytosis. In his earliest notice he pointed out that those periodical changes of the blood did not take place within the blood itself; the cause of them lay without, and he specially mentions organs of secretion and reception, but especially the proper matricular organs of the blood, among which the lymphatic glands must be placed first1. In the Cellular-Pathologie the subject, is noticed as follows : In proportion as a pregnancy advances, as the lymphatic vessels of the uterus enlarge, as the Stoffwechsel in the womb increases with the development of the foetus, the lymphatic glands of the inguinal and lumbar regions become considerably enlarged, and sometimes to such an extent that if we found them at any other time we should say they were inflamed. This en- largement brings to the blood more and more new particles cf a cellular nature, and so the number of colourless corpuscles rises from month to month2. The pelvic region must no doubt be held to be the chief source of the physiological leucocytosis of pregnancy, but there is every reason to believe that the abundant cellular waste products of the breast contribute also to that condition. As to the fact of a leucocytosis in the animals used in the study of the evolution of the mamma, the observations were not conclusive. The point was neglected in the earlier cases, and in only two of the later was the increase of white corpuscles very marked. In both of these there were from 30 to 50 in the field of the microscope3. 1 Loc. cit. p. 760. 2 Cellular-Patlwlogic, p. 229. 3 There is another class of appearances in pregnancy, besides the leucocytosis, on which the study of the evolution of the mamma throws some light. These are the peculiar deposits of pigment. Those of them that occur in women along the lower part of the linea alba, are perhaps to be referred to a corresponding local source in the pelvis. The pigmentation of the areola may be referred directly to the pigment production within the mamma during evolution. It is obvious that if the pigmented cells in Fig. 13 travelled along the submucosa of the ducts all tho way to their orifice, instead of breaking into the lumen, they would form a deposit of pigment in the areola; and that may reasonably be supposed to be the track along which tho pigment is carried, even if there is no actual transport of the original pigmented cells.