Statistical and pathological report of the cases of fever treated in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the year ending September 30, 1842 / by Thomas B. Peacock.

  • Peacock, Thomas B. (Thomas Bevill), 1812-1882.
Date:
[1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical and pathological report of the cases of fever treated in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the year ending September 30, 1842 / by Thomas B. Peacock. 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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    the rest of the mucous membrane was free from injection, and firm; the other organs in the chest and abdomen were healthy. 3. Euphemia Thomson, a child 7 years of age, was admitted from the House of Refuge on the 27th of November, 1841. She had been received into that institution from Prestonpans on the 13th, and was taken ill about four days after her arrival. When admitted into the Infirmary, she was almost moribund; the abdo- men extremely tender, and very tympanitic; the tongue dry, and covered with a white fur; the pulse very quick and feeble, and the bowels confined. She died on the morning of the SOth of November. On examination, there were found marks of intense inflamma- tion of the peritoneum,—that membrane being covered by a layer of soft lymph, while the cavity contained an opaque yellow serum, mixed with the intestinal contents. On laying open the canal, the solitary and aggregate glands were found ulcerated, and on one of the plates, about nine inches from the coecum, there was found a small slough, involving the whole of the tunics of the intestine, by which the perforation had been produced,—the slough remaining attached only on one side. The diseased plates extended from 18 to 20 inches above the coecum, and the solitary glands continued enlarged and ulcerated to the ascending colon; the plates presented little elevation above the mucous membrane around, but were studded with small points of ulceration; the rest of the mucous membrane was little affected; the mesenteric glands were enlarged; the jejunum, duodenum, stomach, and lower portion of the colon, were free from appearance of disease, as were also the other abdominal and thoracic viscera. In this case, the patient laboured under symptoms of perito- neal inflammation when admitted, and the period at which the perforation took place was not ascertained. The patient sank probably on the 13th day. In tlie former case, the ISth day was distinctly marked as the time at which the perforation occurred, and death ensued about 72 hours after. In each of these cases, the aggregate glands in the lower portion of the ilium, and the solitary follicles in the ilium, and a larger or smaller portion of the colon, were found diseased, while the interposed mucous membrane appeared little altered in colour, though somewhat softened. Entozoa.—The only other appearance observed in the alimentary canal, was the presence of entozoa in five cases. A lumbricus was found in the small intestines of a man 44 years of age, and tricoce- phali in females 22, 31, and 52 years of age, and in a man of 34. The latter were in each case imbedded in the mucus of the coecum. In one of the cases, the solitary and aggregated glands were dis- eased; in another there existed an old ulcer in the coecum, and in the other two, the mucous membrane was much reddened, but its