On diseases which affect corresponding parts of the body in a symmetrical manner / by William Budd.

  • Budd, William, 1811-1880.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On diseases which affect corresponding parts of the body in a symmetrical manner / by William Budd. 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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    Soon after this, I saw M. Bizot's announcement of the same fact, as almost constantly exhibited, in the distribution of atheromatous deposits in arteries ; and from that time, I kept on the look out for in- stances of it in other diseases.* These soon came before me in great number and variety, and, in the course of some time, I was enabled to ascertain, that, in the greater number of diseases of the skin, in many diseases of the joints, in the disease of the arteries just alluded to, in diseases of the eyes, and various other structures ;— in short, that in a great number and variety of diseases, of constitutional origin, the lesions consti- tuting the local character of each, exhibit, in their situation and form, a degree of symmetry, which is, often, of the most singular exactness. Numerous examples of the fact, taken from some variety of diseases, affecting each of the several structures just enumerated, are exhibited in the drawings, preparations, and casts, which I now have the honour of laying before the Society. In all these examples a very remarkable degree of symmetry may be observed, and, in some, it is al- most absolute. * In my Inaugural Thesis on Rheumatism, which, in the summer of 1838, the University of Edinburgh honoured with one of its gold medals, these facts were brought forward, and their import- ance shown. The analogy referred to in the text was suggested, and the general occurrence of symmetry in constitutional disease was distinctly surmised. In an Article on Rheumatism which I wrote for Dr. Tweedie's Library, the frequent occurrence of the fact in that disease was mentioned, but without comment, as I had then resolved to make it the subject of a special communication.