Page:A Contribution to the Pathology of Phlegmasia Dolens.djvu/5



HERE is, perhaps, no subject on which a greater difference of opinion now prevails, than on the Pathology of Phlegmasia Dolens. Previous to the publication of the Memoirs of Mons. Bouillaud and Drs. Davis and Velpeau, various hypotheses had been advanced, respecting the proximate cause of this disease, but they were mere speculations unsupported by facts, and inadequate to account for the phenomena. The cases and dissections related by these authors first threw light on the real nature of the complaint, and shewed that it consisted in an inflammation of the trunks, and principal branches of the veins of the lower extremities; but the histories of most of these cases were so brief, and in many respects