Lymph-stasis, or, Retardation of lymph, as an element in the causation of disease : especially in regard to scrofula and tuberculosis / by Wayland C. Chaffey.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lymph-stasis, or, Retardation of lymph, as an element in the causation of disease : especially in regard to scrofula and tuberculosis / by Wayland C. Chaffey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    the disease within itself, but by pressing on other channels in its vicinity it may obliterate them also. Much will depend on the number of glands diseased and the possibility of by-currents being established by regeneration, as is known to occur when the thoracic duct of an animal is tied.* The lymph- Let us consider what occurs in the case of deeply- static factor situated organs, such as the lungs. It must be exemplified remeni]3ere^ that the space at the roots of the lungs xxi tne case . of lung is limited, whereas'in many other parts there is affections, ample room for side-routes to form. This may be one reason why tuberculosis of the cutis is very rare, and that extensive disease of the superficial sets of glands is so often un- attended by serious results, general tuberculosis being only an occasional occurrence. If all the bronchial glands be diseased or surrounded by fibroid tissue, in such a way as to completely arrest the flow of lymph from the lungs by that route, there is still the possi- bility of the lymph being returned by the set of lymphatics which have been shown to exist in great abundance under the visceral pleurae. In this case the deeper parts of the lungs would probably suffer to some extent owing to the lengthened course which the lymph would have to take. The possibility of its being returned by the sub-pleural set will depend also upon the condition of the lung-tissue in that situation, for dense adhesions often form at the surface and the adjacent lung- tissue undergoes a more or less fibroid change. In this latter condition, the stomata, which Recklinghausen and Klein have demonstrated, are presumably closed, so that their safety-valve action, which one would imagine to exist in healthy states of the visceral pleura, would be unavailable. If these views be correct we shall not be surprised to find, in reviewing the abstracts, that fibrosis frequently occurs about the roots of the lungs, which we may surmise is the result of a lymph-stasis and attempt at organisation, more or less suc- cessful, of lymph products which have become arrested. We should expect a pneumonia arising in a patient suffering under these conditions to be long in clearing up, if indeed it clear up at all; and we should expect, moreover, that pleurisy would supervene on account of the great determination of waste pro- * Astlcy Cooper, 1798; Andral, 1824; Magendie, 1821.