Case of carotid aneurism / by James Duncan.

  • Duncan, James, 1810-1866.
Date:
[1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of carotid aneurism / by James Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ~i \ CASE OF CAROTID ANEURISM. By JAMES DUNCAN, M. D.. Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. (From the Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, No. 160. J Elizabeth Haugh, aged 30, unmarried. Admitted into Ward No. 1. of the Surgical Hospital, December 19, 1843. This patient was placed under my care by my friend, Mr Gil- christ of Leith, who has kindly furnished me with the early his- tory of the case. She was, by her own and her mother’s statement, about 30 years of age; but she looked much older, and had the appearance of a person who had led an irregular life. In her early years she had been in domestic service, but for some time previously to her coming under Mr Gilchrist’s care, she had been working in a her- ring-curer’s yard,—an employment in which she was much ex- posed to cold and wet. Like most of those engaged in the same occupation, she considered the use of ardent spirits indispensable, —drank whisky as often as occasion offered, and also, according to Mr Gilchrist, under favourable circumstances, frequently allow- ed her indulgence to run into excess. As might have been ex- pected, this irregular mode of life told considerably upon her,— her complexion was bloated, her person flabby, and her whole ap- pearance indicated a depraved state of the constitution. From several circumstances, ascertained by Mr Gilchrist in his examination of the patient, he was led to infer that, some years previously, she had laboured under some form of syphilis, and likewise, that mercury had been exhibited at that time so as to produce salivation. She was first seen by Mr Gilchrist on the 21st October last, in consequence of an attack of the epidemic fever. The attack was not characterized by more than usual severity, but the subse- quent articular and rheumatic pains were exceedingly troublesome. Subsequently to this she had a bronchitic attack, but of no great severity, as it yielded speedily to a simple opiate tincture. She was casually seen by Mr Gilchrist on the 7th December, and she then spoke of a small swelling which had been accident- ally discovered two or three days previously, below the angle of the jaw on the right side. A