Acromegaly, with the description of a skeleton / by Henry Alexis Thomson.

  • Thomson, Alexis, 1863-1924.
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Acromegaly, with the description of a skeleton / by Henry Alexis Thomson. 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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    ACROMEGALY, WITH^-^EtIDBSCRIPTION OF A SKELETON. By Henky ' Alexis Thomson, M.D., F.R.C.S.E., Surgical Tutor, Royal Infirmary, Edin- burgh. Although but four years have elapsed since the appearance in the Revue de Medecine of M. Pierre Marie's original descrip- tion of Acromegaly, a number of valuable papers have been published both in Europe and America, in which this newly- christened disease is discussed more or less exhaustively by different writers, and medical literature already supplies an abundant store of clinical cases for the most part described under the name devised by Marie. Many isolated cases also have been discovered by diligent search in previous records, these older cases having been regarded by their observers at the time of publication, in the majority of instances, as of the nature of myxodoema. A certain amount of doubt still exists as to the exact combination of symptoms which constitute acromegaly, but M. Marie's description is generally accepted as affording the means of recognising the disease, and of differentiating it from others which simulate it more or less closely. A greater un- certainty, however, exists in relation to the pathology of acrome- galy, the disease being comparatively rare, and the opportunities which have occurred of examining the cases after death very few in number. Moreover, the recorded results of such examinations do not agree with one another sufficiently to permit of definite conclu.sions being drawn as to the etiology of the disease. The following case is in many respects a valuable addition to those already recorded, and has a somewhat eventful history. During life, the patient, a man of thirty-six, came under Dr Claud Muirhead's care in the Royal Infirmary in 1878, on