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.

  • Kirkes, William Senhouse, 1823-1864.
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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    fibrine, while recently deposited granules, washed away and mixed with the blood, may merely cause symptoms of irritation in the parts through which the blood circulates, or, at the same time, produce the fibrinous masses of so-called capillary phlebitis in various organs. It seems not im- probable that many anomalous symptoms ensuing in the course of certain diseases, acute rheumatism for example, in which there exists a great tendency to the deposition of fibrine on the valves of the heart, may have their explanation in the irritation or other effects resulting from the existence of minute fragments of fibrine in the blood circulating through the organ whose functions are disordered. I would suggest that many functional disorders of the nervous system, especially chorea, may be thus explained. The frequent existence of a cardiac murmur in chorea, and the presence of warty vegetations on the valves of the heart so commonly found in fatal cases of this disease, are in favour of such a view. PART II. On the effects which may result from the detachment of fibrinous deposits from the right valves of the heart. If, from what has been stated, it be assumed as probable that deposits of fibrine occurring on the valves of the left side of the heart may, by being detached, be productive of serious affections of remote organs, it may be inferred also that similar deposits occurring on the right valves may induce correspond- ing secondary affections of the lungs. And there seems to be sufficient evidence for believing that such is really the case. For it may, I think, be clearly shown, that most of the fibrinous or other similar secondary deposits in the lungs, also many of the old coagula found in the pulmonary artery or its branches, and possibly some forms of pulmonary apoplexy, are closely connected with, if not . actually depen- dent upon, fibrinous deposits on the valves, or interior of the right side of the heart, or materials transmitted through the heart by venous blood. It is of course conceivable that