Porto Rico. Anemia Commission
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 120
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ...in all treatises which we have read on uncinariasis. THE SPLEEN. Most authors state that the spleen is not enlarged, but lead us to believe that it is normal. As a matter of fact, the spleen frequently is reduced in size, soft, and possesses a wrinkled capsule. Dr. Rafael Cesteros, of Guayama, Porto Rico, the director of the com 2. Amer. Med., Sept. 5 and 12, 1903. mission's substation in that city, reporting on one autopsy, writes of this organ as follows: The atrophy of the spleen attracted my attention. It was as small a spleen as I have ever seen in my professional career and at no autopsy, whether made for scientific or for medicolegal purposes, have I encountered this organ of such reduced dimensions. Its color was that of wine lees and its size was not greater than that of the kidney. Microscopic sections revealed in every one of the eight autopsies in which a portion of the spleen was preserved, a great paucity of lymphoid elements, even decided decrease in the protoplasm of the cells. The Malpighian corpuscles were greatly reduced in size, the cells were scanty and widely separated, and the central artery presented, almost uniformly, considerable hyaline degeneration. Not only were the tufls smaller than normal but they seemed fewer in number. The apparent increase in conective tissue we explain by the decided reduction in lymphoid elements and blood, and it seemed relative rather than absolute, although in some instances, thickening of the capsule was observed. Pigmentation was only once very prominent, and the pigment was of the same character as that seen in the liver. There was unusually little blood in the organ. HEMOLYMPH GLANDS. The following notes were made by us at one of our autopsies; Great abundance of glands in the...