On the so-called fatty degeneration of the placenta / by James M. Cowan.

  • Cowan, James Moffat.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the so-called fatty degeneration of the placenta / by James M. Cowan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    amorphous granules, which on the addition of nitric acid are completely dissolved. In the specimens, again, of this lesion in which we can trace with the naked eye the changes the blood undergoes, and of which a delineation has been given by Cruveilhier,1 the microscope in one part detects the ordi- nary red blood-corpuscle of its usual form and size ; in another spot these become less numerous, and shew a more corrugated external wall, and are mixed up with other cellular bodies of an irregular form, containing neither nuclei nor colouring matter; in a third place, these last are seen occurring in con- nection with oleo-albuminous granules, which, in a fourth por- tion of the diseased structure, form the only object in the field of the microscope. Such is the result of the general and minute examination of placentae affected with this lesion. From it I would deduce the following conclusions :— Isi, That this is a morbid condition denoted by a peculiar condensation and consequent atrophy of the true placental tissue ; 2d, By a degree of anaemia—characters explicable on mechanical grounds. 3d, Under the microscope certain bodies are seen which can be traced as transformations of certain of the constituents of extravasated blood, and which present a characteristic behaviour under the action of chemical tests,— oleo-albuminous granules, in short, which are met with in no other morbid state of this organ with which the pathologist is as yet familiar. II.—The causes of this diseased condition, and the symptoms observed during utero-gestation. In eight out of the ten cases which fell under my observa- tion, external injury could be clearly, with one exception, traced as the exciting cause. As a consequence of this, ex- ternal hemorrhage happened in seven of these cases almost immediately upon the reception of the injury, so that there can be no doubt as to the connection between this cause and the effect. In the remaining one no direct injury could be traced, and it seemed probable the hemorrhage per vaginam which occurred during utero-gestation was due rather to some constitutional morbid condition. However it is matter of con- jecture, because as the patient was a woman of abandoned habits it seemed not at all improbable that she did sustain such injury, although not to her knowledge. The part of the body on which the injury is inflicted may vary in each case. In four the injury was direct, that is to say, inflicted on the abdominal region. In three it was indirect, that is, received on other parts of the body not in immediate relation with the