Twentieth annual report of the county and city of Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

  • Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twentieth annual report of the county and city of Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    70/100 (page 70)
    Encephalon weighed only 38 ounces; the convolutions and central ganglia had an atrophied appearance. Both lungs were small and collapsed, the right weighing eight, the left only five ounces. Heart small; muscular tissue soft and friable ; valves competent; aorta contracted, only admitting the point of the index finger.—Remarks : This was a case of congenital ldiotcy, had always a very slow and weak circulation, and invariably suffered from coldness and lividity of the extremities. 7_yp j>5 female, get. 29. Forty hours alter death. Calvarium thick, measuring at some places nearly two-thirds of an inch. Can¬ cellated texture much increased in quantity. Sawn off in the ordinary manner it weighed 16 ounces. Dura mater thickened and tough. A false membrane lined the parietal arachnoid on both sides, over the vertex and lateral regions. It was of old standing and partially decolorized. Several ounces of fluid escaped from the arachnoid sac. Pia mater firmly adherent throughout to the cortical substance. Lateral ventricles much distended and contained five ounces of clear fluid. Convolutions and central ganglia considerably wasted. Brain substance pale, tough, and doughy in consistence. Drained of its fluid the encephalon weighed 32 ounces. The lungs were adherent posteriorly and at their apices. In the superior lobe of each were several cavities, varying in size from a field bean to a walnut, lined by a glistening membrane and containing purulent and cheesy matter. The bases of both were in a state of red hepatization. Heart small; valves competent; aorta contracted, admitting only the point of the index finger. Liver waxy, weighed three pounds two ounces. Spleen enlarged and firm, weighed eleven ounces.—Remarks: When admitted into the Asylum in 1866 she was in an acutely maniacal condition, and continued in that state for several months. Symptoms of brain disease and paralysis soon became manifest; she had hemiplegic attacks occurring at intervals of a few months, and gradually became perfectly demented and imbecile. The light pupil remained permanently dilated. Chest symptoms did not prominently present themselves until within a month or two ol her death. Was originally a girl of weak and deficient intellect. In the preceding six cases it will be observed that mention is made ol a contracted state of the aorta. This pathological condition is seen chiefly in congenital cases either of imbecility or idiotcy, combined or not with epilepsy ; and it is also frequently present in cases of epileptic or other insanity, commencing in early life and running on for a number cf years, soon rendering the subject of it demented and