Actinomycosis of the colon, liver, and lung / by R.F.C. Leith.

  • Leith, R. F. C. (Robert Fraser Calder)
Date:
[1894?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Actinomycosis of the colon, liver, and lung / by R.F.C. Leith. 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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    Actinomycosis of tlie Colon, Liver, and Lung. By R. F. C. Leitli, M.A., B.Sc, M.B., F.R.C.P.Ed. Actinomycosis • is in many respects a most interesting disease. Clinically, it j)resents very varied aspects, according to the site of the initial lesion. Beginning nsually insidiously and slowly, it steadily progresses, and may have produced very grave pathological lesions before it gives rise to any definite symptoms, and may, indeed, run its entire course, and cause death without affording the physician sufficient evidence of its existence to enable him to give more than a conjec- tural diagnosis. Pathologically, it is equally interestmg. It has long been classed, like its allies tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy, etc., as a chronic infective disease, due to the action of a specific organism, named Actinomyces by Harz, a year after its discovery by Bollinger in 1877. Much is known regarding the course and character of the lesions which this organism produces in the tissues, and there are few more beautiful microscopic objects than those presented by the diseased structures when properly demonstrated by suitable staming methods; but many problems still remain somewhat obscure, especially as regards the a3tiology, inorphology, and exact tissue reactions of the organism. It is sometimes erroneously referred to, especially by veterinary writers, as a new disease, but there is good reason for believing that it was somewhat prevalent among oxen in Scotland some fifty years ago, and the observations of Langenbeck and Lebert, referred to on p. 51, render it probable that it occurred in man quite as long ago. The number of recorded cases has increased greatly m recent years, largely, no doubt, owing to the greater amount of attention which has been paid to bacterial diseases generally. So much is now known regarding the disease that