Clinical records from the Glasgow Royal Infirmary / by Geo. S. Middleton.

  • Middleton, George S.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical records from the Glasgow Royal Infirmary / by Geo. S. Middleton. 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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    has been present for at least four or five years, but has become much aggravated during the past two years—i.e., he says, since he became toothless. Vision is good, except that spectacles are required for reading. The palpebral fissure is small; the pupils are normal; there is no arcus senilis. Hearing is somewhat impaired, and there are noises in the ears, but these con- ditions are not in excess of what is frequent at his age. The sense of smell is normal. Taste is at times interfered with owing to a salt taste in the mouth. Swallowing is slow, and is not infrequently interrupted by choking. The heart is normal. He has never had any haemorrhages. He has had bronchitis for the past two winters, and there are now some small moist rales at the bases of both lungs; but he has very little cough, and only a slight mucous expectoration. The bowels are generally regular. There is some delay in micturition. There is difficulty in getting a sufficiency of blood for examination. Under the microscope the appearance it pre- sents is normal. The haemoglobin is from 70 to 80 per cent of the normal; the red corpuscles number 80 per cent of the normal; and the white are not in excess. From early manhood he has suffered from the skin disease above described ; it has never entirely left him, but it has been subject to severe exacerbations, and during these the feet and legs become swollen. About six years ago he had a rheumatic attack, and for two years past he has suffered from bronchitis. He never had any venereal disease. He has used stimulants freely, but only rarely to excess. For thirty-seven years prior to 1891 he worked as a labourer in Australia, and his work was always hard. The case was regarded by myself and by the medical friends who saw it with me as one of niyxcedema, complicated with skin disease of the nature of xeroderma (a diagnosis afterwards confirmed by many others at a meeting of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Glasgow). The patient was accordingly put upon thyroid treatment. The preparation used was the tabloids of Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., and
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