Studies in Infarction

The early history of the study of thrombosis and embolism is so completely reviewed in the articles of Virchow, 1 Cohn 2 and Welch, 3 that it seems hardly necessary at this time to consume time and space with its detailed presentation. It is very evident that Galen, Vesalius, Lancisi, Bartoletti, Bonetus, Boerhave, and Morgagni had, in a general way, fairly clear ideas as to the nature of these conditions, although, as would naturally be expected, they made no sharp distinctions between the two. Laennec's description of hemorrhagic infarction of the lung, under the name of pulmonary apoplexy, was most illuminating, although he seems to have had little knowledge of the nature of infarction in general. Rokitansky 4 had a much broader conception, but failed to differentiate the possible causes. The results of Cohn's experimental work, as well as of Pannum's, 5 are not conclusive, in that infection and secondary