Pyogenic infective diseases of the brain and spinal cord : meningitis abscess of brain, infective sinus thrombosis.

  • MacEwen, William, Sir.
Date:
1893
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pyogenic infective diseases of the brain and spinal cord : meningitis abscess of brain, infective sinus thrombosis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    CHAPTER II. PATHOLOGY. The pathology of abscess of the brain is so closely interwoven with that of infective meningitis, and the one so frequently accompanies the other, that the pathological aspects of both are dealt with in the same chapter. In a given case, where a cause of infective inflammation exists on the outside of the skull, from which the interior becomes affected, the alternative, whether meningitis or brain abscess results, depends partly on the anatomical arrangement of the structures, and partly on the intensity and rapidity of the inflammatory action: which again, may be dependent upon the nature of the micro-organism and the virulence of its action. One, or more, of several intracranial conditions—pachy-meningitis, lepto-meningitis, ulceration of the brain, abscess of the brain, and necrosis of the cerebral tissue, besides the involvement of the intracanial sinuses with disintegrating thrombosis—may result therefrom. Various intracranial lesions which may result from pathogenic and saprophytic causes and the manner in which organisms reach the intracranial structures. (1.) If the inflammatory process be slow, mild, and distinctly localized, involving a portion of the inner table of the skull, then, an external pachy-meningitis may form, possibly with pus be- tween the dura mater and the bone, producing an extradural abscess. (2.) Should this condition persist, adhesive inflammation is apt to spread to the inner side of the dura, which may result in a soldering of the inner membranes, the subjacent arachnoid, D