Statistical and pathological report of the cases of fever treated in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the year ending September 30, 1842 / by Thomas B. Peacock.

  • Peacock, Thomas B. (Thomas Bevill), 1812-1882.
Date:
[1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical and pathological report of the cases of fever treated in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the year ending September 30, 1842 / by Thomas B. Peacock. 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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    ced stage of decomposition, the firmness of the spleen was found unimpaired. In two or three cases of different diseases, the soften- ing was confined to the concavity of the organ, or was most marked in that situation, this being probably owing to the action of the gastric juice which had exuded through the tissues of the stomach after death, as it co-existed with softening and thinning of the mucous membrane at the greater cid de sac. Whatever view may, however, be adopted to explain this peculiarity, whether it be ascribed to post-mortem change, or be regarded as the direct re- sult of diseased action, the softening is of much more frequent oc- currence in cases of fever than of other diseases; thus, of 58 acute and chronic cases, taken as they occur in the Register of Dissections, and in which the organ was otherwise healthy, the spleen was found firm in . . . 43, or f ths. Flaccid, or slightly softened, in . . 11, or ;^th. and becoming pultaceous on compression, in . 4, or ^ih..: or, otherwise, while in fever the spleen was more or less softened in nearly fths of the cases; in other diseases, its consistence was impaired in only ^th, and the softening, in the latter cases, was to a much less degi'ee. Kidneys.—In nearly all the cases in which the abdominal or- gans were examined, the kidneys are reported, they were usually flaccid and tinged with blood; and in some cases the membrane of the pelvis was injected, and displayed minute ecchymosis. Liver.—The liver was also usually found flaccid, and the bile in the gall-bladder copious. In one case in which the patient died on the 8th day much jaundiced, the ducts were found throughout per- vious; the liver displayed some old thickening of its serous cover- ing, but was otherwise healthy and free from congestion; the duo- denum was healthy, and no other abnormal appearance was de- tected, but thinness and paleness of the biliary secretion. The case was characterized by active delirium and tremor, and ter- minated by coma. From the above analysis, it will be apparent that the general results correspond closely with those of Dr Reid. Pneumonia, which, during the period included in his last report, occurred in 11 out of 88 cases, has, however, been found much less frequently during the last year, or in only two cases out of the 27 examined. The disease of the mucous glands of the intestines has, on the contrary, occurred in a somewhat larger proportion of cases, in 3 out of 29 cases, or in 1 out of 9ids, while Dr Reid met with it only 8 times out of 132 cases, or in ] out of 16^th. In other respects, the results are similar, and display the same want of constant and sufficient morbid appearances after death, to account for the phenomena which were present during life.