A treatise on gall-stones : their chemistry, pathology, and treatment / by J. L. W. Thudichum.

  • Thudichum, J. L. W. (John Louis William), 1829-1901.
Date:
MDCCCLXIII. [1863]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on gall-stones : their chemistry, pathology, and treatment / by J. L. W. Thudichum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    were found in the liver. One of these stones, says Kent* maun (‘ Libell. de Calculis’) was of about the size of half a pigeon’s egg, entirely angular, of a livid colour, and made up of phlegm and melancholic humour. The calculi adhered to the flesh of the liver, so as only to be covered by the covering of the liver; all were moderately hard (Schenckius, edit, of 1609, p. 453). Andreas Yesalius, in his epistolary treatise entitled ‘Radicis Chinae usus,’ 1546, already referred to (I quote from the Leyden edition of 1547, in the library of the Medical Society of London, p. 249), gives the case of Belloar- matus, an eminent advocate, as an illustration that the spleen could perform the function of the liver. The advocate had listened to a lecture by Yesalius on the obstruction of the hepatic and cystic ducts, had then consulted the great pro- fessor in the library, where he was sitting with his students, and had proposed to come to the dissecting-room the next day, and to observe diligently those parts. He was, however, suddenly taken with illness and died. On dis- section, Vesalius found that he had succumbed to haemor- rhage into the peritoneum, proceeding from an abscess, which had corroded the caudex of the portal vein. The liver was found as above stated, and softened near the abscess. The gall-bladder was unusually yellow, and in it were contained eighteen calculi, very light, of a triangular shape, with even edges and surfaces everywhere, green by colour, and somewhat blackish. But when they were dry they looked more ash-grey coloured, and by their bulk reminded of chick-peas. The spleen was very large. Vesalius relates another no less remarkable case, namely, that of Prosper Martinus, a Florentine noble, who had for many years suffered from jaundice. He had at last died rather suddenly. Vesalius was riding past his house, in which some surgeons had already begun the post-mortem