An undescribed symptom in peritonitis / by William Henry Battle.

  • Battle, William Henry, 1855-1936.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An undescribed symptom in peritonitis / by William Henry Battle. 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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    [Reprinted from The Lancet, March 'Z'jth, 1897.] AN UNDESCRIBED SYMPTOM IN PERITONITIS. Bv WILLIAM HENRY BATTLE, F.R.C.S.ENG. Assistant Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital and to the Royal Free Hospital, ds’c. So far as I know, the symptom to which I wish to call the attention of the profession has not been described in cases of peritonitis, and must accordingly be a very rare one. There is also a probability that this symptom appears in a late stage of the disease, and indicates a very intense inflammation of the peritoneum. On the morning of January 19, 1897, I was requested to see a patient under the care of Dr. Seward in the Colney Hatch Asylum who had developed serious abdominal symptoms. The patient was a man, aged 47 years, who had been an inmate of the asylum for three and a-half years, suffering from chronic melancholia with a previous history of alcoholic excess. He had had good bodily health until three months before the date on which I saw him ; he had then suffered from an attack of hasmate- mesis of short duration, the cause of which could not be discovered. He had resumed out-door work and appeared to have been in good health until January 12, when he had another short attack of haematemesis. Three days after this he vomited several times and complained of