On some of the principal effects resulting from the detachment of fibrinous deposits from the interior of the heart, and their mixture with the circulating blood / by William Senhouse Kirkes.

  • William Senhouse Kirkes
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some of the principal effects resulting from the detachment of fibrinous deposits from the interior of the heart, and their mixture with the circulating blood / by William Senhouse Kirkes. 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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    By further search I might possibly have increased the number of instances in which old coagula have been found by different observers in cerebral arteries, yet since this peculiar affection of the vessels of the brain seems never to have been suspected, it has never been specially sought for, and the part in which it occurs has perhaps rarely been closely examined, the mere absence of general disease of the coats of the cerebral arteries being considered as sufficient proof that the cause of cerebral softening was not dependent on any lesion of these vessels. Yet I feel convinced that had more minute attention been paid to the condition of the middle cerebral arteries, many otherwise obscure cases of white softening of the brain, especially where attended with disease of the heart, would have been cleared up by the detection of some such cause of obstruction as that in the cases I have related; and I trust that future observa- tions will prove this to be a not unfrequent cause of cerebral softening, especially when occurring in young persons. One feels at once inclined to ascribe very many recorded cases of cerebral softening to this cause, and arguments in favour of such explanation readily suggest themselves ; but, in absence of direct proof, one must, of course, remain satisfied with the mere supposition that such explanation is correct, waiting for future investigations to determine the comparative frequency of this affection of the cerebral vessels in cases of pale, non-in flammatory softening of the brain. It is probable, too, that many cases of partial and tem- porary paralysis suddenly ensuing, in one or more limbs, in young persons, especially if accompanied with signs of car- diac disease, may be due to interruption of a due supply of nutriment to the brain by the temporary plugging up of a principal cerebral artery by fibrine detached from a diseased valve on the left side of the heart. Temporary loss of power in one or more limbs is not an uncommon circum- stance in young persons affected with heart-disease. A good example of this class of cases was furnished by a pale, delicate girl, admitted into St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, in
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