Meningitis, arteritis and choroiditis in a child the subject of congenital syphilis : gummata on cranial nerves; disease of cerebral arteries; cicatrices of liver and spleen in a case of congenital syphilis / by Thomas Barlow.

  • Barlow, Thomas, 1845-1913.
Date:
[1877]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Meningitis, arteritis and choroiditis in a child the subject of congenital syphilis : gummata on cranial nerves; disease of cerebral arteries; cicatrices of liver and spleen in a case of congenital syphilis / by Thomas Barlow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    There were a few spots of thin superficial softening in the cortex ; they were mere flakes. The lateral ventricles were a little bigger than natural, but the fluid was clear. The ganglia were natural. The areas of fibrous thickening of the pia mater, the little patch of calcification, the changes in the small vessels, the presence of only one minute patch of greenish lymph—all these things pointed to old- standing, chronic, smouldering disease. The child was only ten months old when she died. If these changes were chronic changes they must have dated from very early. Reference to the history, imperfect as it is, shows that after the child was five weeks old she was without any mercurial treat- ment for three months and had several Jits. I believe that it is to that period that the starting of the meningeal disease must be referred. The choroids were examined microscopically by Mr. Nettleship, and this is his report: The changes in the choroid consist in the presence of small isolated collections of corpuscles in the chorio-capillaris. Sections of several of these were found in the part of the choroid which bad shown during life little flecks of exudation, and none were found elsewhere. I ! ! ! I 1 ! ! ! 1 1 ■/0'0q inch X 120 Vertical section of choroid at seat of a minute syphilitic cell-growth. Chorio-capillaris crowded with corpuscles. A thin layer of fiattish cells between pigment epithelium and elastic lamina. The corpuscles are about as large as pus-corpuscles and stain deeply with logwood. They stand in no evident relation to the blood-vessels, and none of them occur in the deeper part of the choroid. In all these particulars they differ from tubercle. The elastic lamina over these deposits is slightly raised, and sometimes a little puckered. In several instances at the seat of