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.

    19/28 (page 17)
    served; the main difference being, that in this instance every part of the organ is affected. There can be little doubt that the foetus really perished in consequence of the succussion the lady experienced in the early period of pregnancy. Whether the ovum had been previously affected with a disposition to granular degenera¬ tion, or any other disease, must be a matter of conjecture only. In all probability the granular metamorphosis of the placenta, if it did not take its rise at that date, was, at all events, completed subsequently to the death of the foetus. During this process of conversion, the placenta probably preserved its connection with the uterus. One singular pur¬ pose it evidently fulfilled, was the preservation of the ovum from putrefaction, and its retention in the womb for some months after the death of the foetus. Authors have recorded cases in which the placenta has been retained for a lengthened period after delivery, without giving rise to those symptoms which usually attend putre¬ faction or the presence of a foreign body in the uterus. Saxtorph even says, “l have reason to believe that a placenta, which is entire and uninjured, enclosed in the uterus, ad¬ herent to it, and shut out from access of air, never becomes putrid” In many of these cases it is highly probable that granular metamorphosis is the conservative process. In connection with the present case, I am desirous of defining the meaning I wish to attach to the terms “ fatty deposition” and “fatty degeneration,” more especially as they are apt to convey different ideas to different pathologists. Fat, properly so called, is a normal organised structure, consisting of blood-vessels and cells, the cavities of which contain oily matter. This, like other organised structures, is subject to various lesions, such as hypertrophy and atrophy, or degeneration. It is to this latter condition, as affecting the organised adipose tissues, that the term “ fatty degene¬ ration” ought in strictness to be confined. This, the true fatty degeneration, differs entirely from that affection of the