Clinical lecture on the obliteration of varicose veins, and the sources of danger involved in that operation : delivered at King's College Hospital / by Henry Lee.

  • Lee, Henry, F.R.C.S.
Date:
1853
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical lecture on the obliteration of varicose veins, and the sources of danger involved in that operation : delivered at King's College Hospital / by Henry Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    arisen from the action having constantly been observed out of the body, where undoubtedly the separated portion of blood does die. But when we consider, that the conversion of blood into muscle, in the ordinary process of nutrition, is but a modified act of coagulation, it will readily be admitted that the coagulation of a portion of blood by no means neces- sarily involves its death. In the experiments which Hunter performed of transplanting one portion of an animal (as a tooth or a testicle, for example) into another living being, he had a much higher object in view than the gratification of his curiosity. Although he doubtless was interested and amused to see the tooth of a man growing from the comb of a cock, yet he saw more than this. He saw in it the great principle, that every part of an organised struc- ture is endowed with its own life, and, although inca- pable of continued separate and independent existence, he inferred that each separate part might live for a certain time; that, in the case of the tooth, for instance, it would retain its vitality when separated from the rest of the body, until it had formed fresh connexions in its new situation. Now, these principles, (extending as they do to every part of the animal system,) you will at once perceive, are appli- cable to our present subject. The blood alone forms no exception to the general rule. It may for a time retain its vitality, whether in a solid or a fluid form, when separated from the circulating mass. But as it may live and undergo further changes in harmony with the well-being of the part and of the system, so may it die, or become subject to cer- tain morbid actions, and thus be a source of danger to both. We have here, then, two distinct classes of cases; one, in which the separated blood undergoes changes which issue in the reparation of the injury inflicted upon the vein ; the other, in which, from some defect in the system, or from some vice in the composition of the blood, the natural and healthy process of repair is not carried out. It will be my endeavour, if time permit, to trace very briefly both these actions (the healthy and the unhealthy) through some of their more ordinary forms. After a portion of the blood has become separated and coagulated, it adheres to the surfaces with which it happens at the time to be in contact. The adhesion thus formed is at first very slight, but it gra- dually becomes much firmer. The coagulum itself is sometimes solid throughout; at other times it is less consistent and broken ; but it always fills the cylinder of the vein. After a ligature has been applied to the jugular vein of a horse, for the first five days there is no blush upon its lining membrane. No signs of adhesive inflammation, —that is, of lymph secreted from inflamed vessels,—can