The Lettsomian lectures delivered at the Medical Society of London, 1872, on the pathology and treatment of some diseases of the liver / by S.O. Habershom.

  • Habershon, S. O. (Samuel Osborne), 1825-1889.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Lettsomian lectures delivered at the Medical Society of London, 1872, on the pathology and treatment of some diseases of the liver / by S.O. Habershom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    the ventricles contained very little fluid. There was ecchymosis at the posterior part of both pleurae. The lungs were congested with blood, and did not collapse freely. The pericardium was maculated on the posterior part, and still more so the fat surround- ing it, some patches of blood being as large as horse-beans. The cavities on the right side contained fluid blood, with yellow, soft, gelatinous flocculi. The left ventricle presented extensive ecchy- moses on the endocardium, especially of the septum. The muscle was very fatty. The stomach contained 9 oz. of soot-like fluid and water. The gall-duct was pervious. The bowels contained blackish clay-coloured stool. The consistency of the liver was gone, so that it formed a tremulous mass, and when cut the contents bulged over the edges. Externally the liver was clay- colour ; the section was of cadmium yellow, with redder parts around the portal veins, and under the capsule. The substance was very flabby; the yellow portion was softer than that which was of a deep red colour. The hepatic cells were in great measure destroyed. Both the ducts and veins were free from obstruction. The weight of the gland was 31 oz. The gall-bladder was shrunken with pink-red walls ; it contained a plug of deep pale-green mottled mucus. The spleen was 6 oz. in weight, and rather soft. The kidneys were 10 oz. in weight, plump, and the cortex swollen ; the Malpighian tufts were highly fatty. The left ovary was shrivelled ; the right ovary was enlarged, and contained a recent false corpus luteum. The ovaries were adherent to the Fallopian tubes, which were turned back. There was an ulcer on the inner surface of the vagina, near the urethral orifice; it had a soft base, and was shallow. The fibres of the pectoralis major were degenerated ; the colour was bright, but many fibres had lost their striation, and much granular matter was present where the striation was yet perfect. The renal epithelium was fatty, so that the nuclei could not be seen ; the stroma was healthy, but some yellow balls were present in the tubules here and there ; these were epithelial cells, charged with bile pigment. This interesting case of acute yellow atrophy of the liver pre- sented many symptoms closely resembling acute poisoning by phosphorus in the delirium associated with jaundice, and in the fatty degeneration of muscular fibre and of glandular tissue ; but the degenerative changes in the liver were of a different kind,