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.

    76/100 (page 76)
    of fluid in the sac of the pericardium. Heart hypertrophied, weighed 15 ounces. Aortic valve slightly thickened, but competent. Mitral orifice contracted, with difficulty admitting one finger. The valve was very thick and cartilaginous, and covered with vegetations, which were easily detached, on both sides of its anterior curtain, and on the ventricular surface of the posterior. Eight side much dilated, the auriculo-ventricular orifice admitting the whole hand. Tri¬ cuspid valve considerably thickened. Both pleurae contained about two pints of fluid. Lungs crepitant throughout, but congested and oedematous. Liver knobby on the surface, capsule very thick. The organ was extensively affected with cirrhosis. Lefc kidney weighed nine ounces, its surface was studded with small cysts filled by a brown gelatinous sub¬ stance. On section, numerous larger cysts of a similar nature were observed, the gland containing very little secreting texture. Eight kidney weighed eight and a half ounces, contained a few small cysts, and some deposit in the secreting structure. — Eemarks : There was a history of syphilis in this case. He was in the Asylum about ten years. Had necrosis of the bones of both legs. Although the plug in the middle cerebral artery must have been present for some time before death, he had never any paralytic, or aphasic symptoms, but for the last few days he was in a very heavy and drowsy state. 14.—8. H., female, set. 33 Forty hours after death. Calvarium very thick, measuring in many parts fully half an inch. It was also hard, dense, and heavy. Sawn off in the usual manner it weighed 20 ounces. Dura mater adherent to its inner surface. Several ounces of fluid escaped from the arachnoid sac. Pia. mater adherent in patches to the cortical substance. Convolutions flattened and atrophied. The surface of the right hemisphere was felt to fluctuate distinctly, especially towards the occipital lobe, where the cerebral sub¬ stance was evidently reduced to a mere membranous covering of contained fluid, and on making a small incision at that part, over eight ounces of clear serum escaped. On opening into the right ventricle it was seen to be enormously distended, and still to contain about two ounces of fluid. The surrounding brain substance was tough and hard, and posteriorly and superiorly very thin, measuring from one to three or four lines. The lining membrane of the ventricle was much thickened. The optic thalamus and corpus striatum were