On the pathology of fatty degeneration / by Edward Latham Ormerod.

  • Ormerod, Edward Latham.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology of fatty degeneration / by Edward Latham Ormerod. 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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    This is the lowest condition of suboxidation. The invading /substance itself is more widely diffused, and permeates other parts besides the cells of the common adipose tissue. Our remedial measures are now utterly inadequate to meet the difficulty. The principles to be applied are indeed the same, but their practical application is often quite impossible,* ^ Again, regarding the subject from an anatomical point of view, following the guidance of Virchow,t we find that fatty matter may accumulate under three typical forms:— 1. In the first of these, which common adipose tissue fami- liarly illustrates, the cells in which the fatty matter is deposited are adapted for its permanent reception. This is a normal con- dition, the pathological equivalent of which occurs in the form of fatty tumours, and of local fatty accumulations which resist the common physiological influences to which adipose tissue generally is subordinated. The accumulation, except, usually, in the case of fatty tumours, may arise, and be dissi- pated, and arise again, without any detriment to the integrity of the containing tissue, whose function is to separate and retain fat for the purposes of the system. 2. The second typical form under which fat accumulates is as a temporary infiltration of parts to whose functions it is inci- dental to be thus temporarily loaded Avith fat or oil, which is permeating them for transmission onwards. Such parts are the epithelial glands of the intestines and of the liver. When in active operation they are loaded with fatty matter, and when they have discharged their share of the digestive function the fatty matter passes on and they are free. But when, from any cause, this transmission is delayed, and the oil is retained within the gland cells, and the fatty infiltration becomes permanent, then the physiological line is passed, and a morbid condition results, which is most familiarly illustrated by fatty degenera- tion of the liver. 3. The third form of fatty accumulation is where this sub- stance is infiltrated into parts which do not contain it in any appreciable quantity in the physiological condition, and where the infiltration is accompanied by the disorganisation of the part. The typical normal illustration of this form is sup- plied by milk, where epithelium cells are produced in great abundance, only to be infiltrated with fatty matter, and then to be thrown off and die, producing milk as the result of this dis- * See, on all this subject, Dr. H. Bence Jones's ' Lectures on the Applications of Chemistry, &c., to Pathology and Tlierapeutics,' 8vo. 1867, p- 170. t ' Cellular Pathologie,' S. 288.