A case of disease of the lymphatics of the abdominal integuments, with occasional discharge of large quantities of a chylous fluid / by William Roberts, M.D.

  • Roberts, William, Sir, 1830-1899.
Date:
[©1870?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of disease of the lymphatics of the abdominal integuments, with occasional discharge of large quantities of a chylous fluid / by William Roberts, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    intervals of complete dryness were similarly uncertain, and varied from a day or a few days to two or three weeks. The character of the discharge also varied : sometimes it was like thick milk, sometimes like skimmed milk, and sometimes perfectly pale like gum-water. Whether white or pale it was always spontaneously coagulable, and white or yellowish clots collected about the seat of discharge. The colour of the unruptured vesicles varied in correspondence with that of the discharge, from milk-white, or opalescence, to pale straw. The degree of milkiness at any particular moment was always the same in all the separate vesicles, showing that the cause of variation was not a local one particular to any vesicle, but something affecting the eruption generally, and depending presumably on the state of the blood. The vesicles varied not only in colour but also in fulness and turgidity; and it was noticed that the whiter they were the more distended they appeared, and that when they were pale they were .also more flaccid. Two circumstances affected, though somewhat irregularly, the whiteness and fulness of the vesicles, namely, the general state of the patient's health, and the digestion and assimilation of food. On the days when the patient was out of sorts or feverish, the vesicles were paler and more flaccid, but when the appetite and sleep returned the vesicles became milky and turgid. As his health finally declined, the milky condition became less marked, and in the last week of life the vesicles became permanently pale and flaccid. The effect of food was found to be tolerably constant in kind though not uniform in degree. The vesicles were paler in the morning before breakfast, after the prolonged fast of the night. At this period they were often quite lymphous. Soon after breakfast they began to grow fuller and whiter, and, as a rule, the milkiness increased through the day, attaining its maximum some seven or eight hours after dinner. Of course the appearance of the discharge, if there were any, followed the same rule. The vesicles seemed to be situated in the substance of the cutis, and their surface-wall was evidently composed of something besides