On a haematozoon in human blood : its relation to chyluria and other diseases / by T.R. Lewis.

  • Lewis, T. R. (Timothy Richards), 1841-1886.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a haematozoon in human blood : its relation to chyluria and other diseases / by T.R. Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the disease came on again, she was unable to suckle her infant, the lacteal secretion being altogether absent.* On pricking her finger with a needle and distributing a drop of blood over several slides, I found that the Filariae were pre- sent in it also. She remained under observation for a period of about two mouths, but there was no marked change in her general condi- tion; her face, however, became swollen on one or two occa- sions, and appeared puffy, as also did the upper and lower extremities. The urine slightly improved in appearance, and the numbers of the Filariaj in it as well as in the blood dimi- nished; in the latter especially, at all events, the numbers obtainable by })ricking the fingers or toes certainly decreased; and eventually, out of half a dozen or more slides not more than one or two ha3matozoa could be detected: on a few occasions several slides were examined without any being found. The patient, however, could not be persuaded to remain longer in hospital: indeed, all patients thus affected soon get tired of being treated for their complaint, as there is seldom any great suffering which the patient can directly connect with this condition, and often no other very well-marked symptom, beyond general debility. As all the female patients suffering from Chyluria, brought to my notice, had been under middle age, and the disease had seemed somehow to bear a sort of ill-defined relation to preg- nancy or nursing, I was glad of the opportunity of examining a woman who for some ten years had ceased to menstruate : * A case is recorded by Drs. Mayer and Pearse as having occurred in the Madras Presidency, in which a young East Indian woman had suffered after two pregnancies in this manner; she continued to suckle her children uninterrupt- edly, but on being advised on the last occasion to discontinue doing so, the urine returned to its natural appearance.—Brit, and For. Med.-Chir. Reriem, Vol. IX, l^o2,2>age 611.