Observations and experiments on the pathology of Graves's disease / by Walter Edmunds.

  • Edmunds, Walter.
Date:
[1895]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations and experiments on the pathology of Graves's disease / by Walter Edmunds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    Seprinled from the 'Transactions of the Pathological Society of London,' 1895 Observations and experiments on the pathology of Graves's disease. By Walteb Edmunds, M.C. [With Plates X—XIII.] MiCEOscopic examination of the enlarged thyroid constituting an ordinary goitre shows various changes ; there are found— 1. A tissue differing from the normal thyroid only in being somewhat coarser. 2. Cysts, some containing colloid material, and some a papillo- matous ingrowth. 3. Nsevoid or erectile tissue (explaining the expansile pulsation felt in some goitres). 4. Myxomatous changes of the interacinous tissue : this tissue then stains of a pale colour, and thus contrasts with the colloid con- tents of the vesicles. Sometimes the vesicles contain in their centre normal dark-staining colloid, and external to this, next the lining cells, a layer which stains much more palely. 5. Tissue of an embryonic type, consisting mainly of secreting cells, and not containing either vesicles or colloid. The goitre of G-raves's disease does not differ greatly from others, but a remarkable hypertrophy of the blood-vessels is sometimes found, and the presence of the embryonic (small-celled) tissue is fairly constant (Plates X and XI). This tissue resembles that of the parathyroid glands. These glands are most easily recognised in rabbits, for in them they are situate quite apart from the thyroid j^roper ; they are of a bright red colour, and lie one on each side of the trachea below and at a considerable distance from the thyroid. They consist mainly of secreting cells arranged more or less in columns; there are no ▼esicles and no colloid ; these glands were first described by Sandstrom in 1880. In rabbits it has long been noticed that excision of the thyroid gland is not followed by the same fatal result that attends the operation almost (though not quite) invariably in dogs and cats ; but Gley has recently shown that in rabbits, if, as well as the thyroid, the parathyroid glands are removed, the animal, as a rule,