An inaugural dissertation on the congenital malformations of the heart / by John Paget.

Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on the congenital malformations of the heart / by John Paget. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    tions of animal life,—witness the kangaroo, the ostrich, 8ec. &c. or even in the after-growth of different parts of an individual body,—the arms of the blacksmith and head of the student, may perhaps lend weight to the opinion ; yet we venture to deny, that any such relation can be made out in the developement of mon- strosity. Many more instances might be adduced to controvert, than to confirm such an hypothesis. There is then little sym- pathy, and no absolute connection, during formation, in the developement of different parts of the same body. These considerations have led us to believe that each system of organs, if not each individual organ, is formed independently of any other; that the body consists at first of a number of parts, each formed on its own type, as each possesses its pecu- liar irritability, and that they are united together only by the necessary connection of their separate functions, when these, as formation advances, are called into action. Take, for instance, a heart possessing but a single auricle and ventricle, while the rest of the body at birth presents a natural and healthy struc- ture ; this heart, though ofi^ering no impediment to formation during uterine life, is unable to perform its proper function after birth, and involves in disorder every part with which that func- tion connects it,—in other words, the whole body,—and cyania is the result. It must not, however, be supposed that we maintain that a body can be formed without a vascular system of some kind; we only mean that it may vary in the form and number of its parts, without exercising a corresponding influence on any other part. Nor is the frequent occurrence of several malfor- mations in the same body at the same time, any necessary proof of connection ; the same cause, (be that what it may,) which produced derangement of developement in one organ, acting more generally, may produce a similar effect in others. We should not have dwelt at such length on this proposition, but for the important inference which necessarily follows, that a monster should not be described or classified as one connect- ed vhole, but that the malformation of each organ or system of organs should be considered separately, while the state of the rest of the body is noticed only incidentally. It is on this plan, therefore, that we intend to proceed ; and in spite of the great names opposed to us, we cannot but think that it is the only