Diphtheritic ulceration of the air-passages and its relation to pulmonary phthisis / by John N. Mackenzie.

  • Mackenzie, John Noland, 1853-1925.
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diphtheritic ulceration of the air-passages and its relation to pulmonary phthisis / by John N. Mackenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    V \ v <%' ■} ,'J . .&• ° ry / \ ' \ V \ * ■ Y s r r Reprinted from The Transactions of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland, April, 1882.] DIPHTHERITIC ULCERATION OF THE AIR-PASSAGES AND ITS RELATION TO PULMONARY PHTHISIS. By John N. Mackenzie, M. D., of Baltimore. There is perhaps no subject in the whole domain of laryngeal pathology which has excited such universal interest and awakened so much animated discussion as the pathological conception of laryngo- tracheal phthisis. The association of ulcerative disease of the upper air-passages with pulmonary consumption has been recognized from an early time, and although nearly a century has elapsed since the publica- tion of Petit’s celebrated essay,* the most divergent opinions still pre- vail concerning the correct interpretation of their reciprocal relation- ship. The older writers described only one form of ulceration, and busied themselves with the question of a laryngeal tuberculosis in the strict sense of the term, without making those finer histological distinc- tions which pathological anatomy later developed. The existence of true tubercle as one of the chfef, if not the chief etiological factor in the production of what is commonly known as phthisis laryngea cannot be gainsaid in the light of recent pathological investigation, and it now only remains to be decided whether all forms of ulceration of the upper air-passages which are encountered in the course of general tuberculosis are to be referred directly to the tubercular diathesis as their primary cause, or whether, on the other hand, there are not some which may be regarded as accidental, owing their origin to influences associated with, but not necessarily dependent upon, the tubercular process. I propose in this paper to consider a variety of ulceration which has an important bearing on this question, and which, on account of its more frequent localization in the lower portion of the trachea and* bronchi, and its usual occurrence in the later stages of pulmonary * De phthisi laryngea. Montpelier, 1790.