A practical treatise on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of spermatorrhoea / by M. Lallemand ; translated and edited by Henry J. McDougall.

  • Lallemand, F. (François), 1790-1853?
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of spermatorrhoea / by M. Lallemand ; translated and edited by Henry J. McDougall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    CASE IV. Mental derangement—Belief in a change of sex—Death. Autopsy.—Thickening of the arachnoid—Great alteration of the prostate —Atrophy and obliteration of the ejaculatory ducts. I find the following particulars related by Professor Rech respecting an insane person who died under his care. The intellect had been disordered for a long time; the patient believed he had changed his sex, and, thinking himself a woman, spent much of his time in writing to an imaginary lover: sometimes he fell on his kness and seemed to dig the ground for hours to- gether. He had entirely lost the power of vision in the left eye. Kis death took place from exhaustion after an obstinate diarrhoea. At the post mor- tem inspection, the dura mater was found healthy throughout; the arach- noid was thickened in several points, and opacities were found on its sur- face which obscured its transparency. The pia mater contained a consi- derable quantity of serosity, especially between the cerebral convolutions. The brain, cerebellum, and medulla oblongata were healthy in all their parts. The optic nerve of the right side was atrophied behind the commis- sure to the extent of half an inch, of a greyish colour and very soft. In the left eye, the retina was separated from the choroid by a considerable serous effusion ; the vitreous humour, apparently atrophied, formed a reddish and irregular mass. The lungs and heart were healthy, but the latter was remarkable for its small size. The mucous membrane of the intestines, from the ccecum downwards, was red and thickened; and this alteration increased in intensity near the rectum, in which numerous ulcerations existed. The prostate projected into the bladder, and was nearly two inches in extent in its long, and fifteen lines in its transverse diameter; its structure contained three small abscesses. The ejaculatory ducts were softened, atrophied, and obliterated. The vasa deferentia, and the vesiculae seminales were on the contrary larger than ordinary. The patient died of a chronic diarrhoea, and the intestinal mucous membrane was injected, thickened, and ulcerated; he had lost his power of vision in the left eye, and this eye was extensively altered, as was also the right optic nerve, before its entering the optic com- missure ; he believed himself to be a girl, and the functions of the testes must have been abolished, since the ejaculatory ducts were atrophied and obliterated. If this singular alteration of the genital organs were not the cause of the patient's derangement, it must at least have influenced its peculiar character. Summary of the preceding Observations. Symptoms.—In the first two patients only, were involuntary sper- matic discharges discovered, and their general symptoms well de- scribed. The other cases are hardly of importance, except in respect 4*