The pathology of intra-uterine death being the Lumleian lectures delivered at the Royal College of Physicians of London, March 1887 / by William O. Priestley.

  • Priestley, W. O. (William Overend), 1831-1900.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pathology of intra-uterine death being the Lumleian lectures delivered at the Royal College of Physicians of London, March 1887 / by William O. Priestley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    hepatisation of the lungs—was friable, engorged with blood, and dense in tissue. In some sections the structure was yellowish, and strewn with fatty degeneration analogous to fatty liver. He further states that he has seen circumscribed abscesses m the placenta, such as occur in inflammation of other parenchymatous organs. Dance and Brachet both aver that they have seen a deposit of pus covering the entire surface of the placenta, while Jacquemier and Cruveilhier each report the presence of purulent matter as the result of inflammation in the placenta and adjacent uterine veins. Jacquemier teaches, that especially when a portion of the placenta has been sepa- rated, inflammation may be set up and pus formed. In later days a good deal of scepticism has been expressed about the existence of placentitis; at least, so far as its parenchyma or foetal portion is concerned. Bustamente disbelieves in its existence altogether, and says the evidence rests on the supposed presence of pus, which has been shown to be fallacious; the supposed purulent matter, according to Kobin and other observers, being merely pseudo-pus, produced by broken-down fibrin. It has been further argued that, according to modern theories, inflammation of the placenta is impossible, since there are no capillaries in the maternal portion, and there are no nerves to regulate the contractility of vascular walls in the entire struc- ture. This seems to me not conclusive reasoning. There are foetal capillary loops in all the active villi, and there are also minute capillaries of maternal origin in processes or dissepiments of the decidua which circumscribe the foetal villi. K 2