On fatty degeneration of the placenta : and the influence of this disease in producing abortion, death of the fœtus, hæmorrhage, and premature labour / by Robert Barnes.

  • Barnes, Robert, 1817-1907.
Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On fatty degeneration of the placenta : and the influence of this disease in producing abortion, death of the fœtus, hæmorrhage, and premature labour / by Robert Barnes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in them manifest evidences of the same destructive changes in progress; considerable fatty deposition is visible, and the nuclear structure of the parietes of the blood-vessels and of the chorion is, to some extent, implicated (fig. 4). In these portions, the distribution of the oil-molecules coincides exactly with the course of the blood in the vessels. This observation shows that the condition of the blood itself is intimately connected with the origin of the deposit. “ It must not be forgotten, however, that a very small quantity of fat, in the form of minute spherules, is almost constantly present in the placenta. “ In order to judge how far the pathological changes in the placenta resulting from fatty degeneration above given, accord with those observed by Professor Kilian, I will quote his description. “c Examined with the microscope, the extreme ends of the vessels of this portion were found to form little knobbed swellings composed of fat-globules, stronglyreflecting the light. From these ends of the vessels filled with fat droplets closely packed together, the blood-corpuscles of the placental vessels were quite absent; but in proportion as the vessels were traced back from their terminations, the fat-globules were progressively replaced by blood-globules, the walls of their vessels which, at their terminations, were also loaded with fat, recovering their natural appearance. The remotest ramifications of the healthy portions of the placenta con¬ tinued entirely normal; and where the yellow portion joined the coloured, many of the terminating vessels were destitute of fat; others contained droplets, but none showed the dense masses observed at the uterine surface/ “ I will quote another passage conveying Professor Kilian's remarks on the origin of this disease. ‘But it may be inquired whether this fatty formation occurs during the healthy conditions of life, and becomes the causa mortis; whether it results from decomposition after death, or whether, originating during life, it may be but the expression of other causes, inducing the degeneration of the ovum, and a symptom of retrogressive metamorphosis of the placenta.