Page:Tropical Diseases.djvu/389

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
XX]
PATHOLOGY
347

stained serum; the infected lungs are deeply congested and œdematous, and at a later stage pneumonic consolidation is found. The bronchi contain blood stained serum and the bronchial glands are swollen and hæmorrhagic.

The liver is congested and swollen, and its cells are degenerated. The spleen is enlarged to two or three times its normal size. The mucosa of the alimentary canal as a whole is congested, showing here and there punctate ecchymotic effusions and, occasionally, hæmorrhagic erosions, and even— especially about the ileo-cæcal valve— ulcerations.

Similarly the kidneys are congested, and may exhibit ecchymoses both on the surface and in the pelvis. The perirenal connective tissue also may be congested and infiltrated. The ureters and the mucous surface of the bladder are often found to be sprinkled with ecchymoses, in which cases the contained urine is generally bloody.

Evidence is invariably discoverable of serious implication of the lymphatic system. One, two, or many of the lymphatic glands are inflamed and swollen. Both in and around the glands there is much exudation with hæmorrhagic effusion, hyperplasia of the gland cells, and an enormous multiplication of bacteria. The glands of the groin, of the armpit, and of the neck are particularly affected. On dissection the superficial buboes are very often found to be connected with extensive, deep-seated adenitis extending either through the crural ring or down the neck, and involving the pelvic, the abdominal, or the mediastinal glands, as the case may be. Section of the affected glands will reveal any stage of inflammation from cellular hyperplasia to suppurative softening, according to the period of the disease at which death has occurred. In whatever stage death has taken place, there is always evidence of intense hyperæmia in, as well as around, these glands a hyperæmia which is specially characterized by a marked tendency to hæmorrhagic effusion. In the earlier stages of the adenitis the specific bacillus is found in the lymph spaces around the follicles; later,