Inflammation of the liver, and their sequelae : atrophy, cirrhosis, ascites, haemorrhages, apoplexy and hepatic abscesses / by George Harley.

  • Harley, George, 1829-1896.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inflammation of the liver, and their sequelae : atrophy, cirrhosis, ascites, haemorrhages, apoplexy and hepatic abscesses / by George Harley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    covered to be the presence of a thick brass pin, about an inch and a quarter in length, with its head, somewhat green and eroded, pointing downwards, and projecting halfway through the caudal extremity of the appendix vermiformis. This is an excellent illustration of how an abscess of the liver may occur in an otherwise healthy constitution, through the medium of metastasis. I shall now give an illustration in support of my doctrine that suppuration of the hver is probably an effort of Nature to expel from its tissues an intruder, be he small or be he great. The case I submit is one in which the cause of the formation of pus was an im- pacted gall-stone, which was, I beheve, floated out along with the pus when the abscess burst, after the patient had been for several days at the gates of death. The case is that of a lady, aet. 43, who is still under observation. I first saw her in 1882 along with Mr, J. Burton, of Blackheath ; she was then suffering from impacted gall-stone, and was not only jaundiced and had the urine loaded with bile, but not a trace of biUary pigment was visible in the fseces. The first stool I saw was nearly as white as snow. On another occasion the motions had a delicate pinkish mauve-white colour. The case went on very much as most bad ones generally do, until April 1883, when I was called to see her on account of her symptoms having assumed an aggravated form. The above mentioned conditions continued, but superadded to them were signs of abscess. Her pulse was 106, her respirations 34, and her temperature ranging from 100° to 103. A. week later, as Mr. Burton considered her in a critical state I was again called to her bedside. The pulse was 120, the respiration 42, and the temperature at the time of my visit, 5, p.m., 104*^, at