On the syphilitic affections of internal organs / by Samuel Wilks, M.D.

  • Wilks, Samuel, Sir, 1824-1911.
Date:
[©1864?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the syphilitic affections of internal organs / by Samuel Wilks, M.D. 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.

    30/102 (page 30)
    effects of syphilis and mercury. Had eruption on his hndy, and numerous cicatrices. He died of pneumonia. Post-mortem examination.—On the right side of chest strong and old adhesions, of considerahle extent. The bond of union was in many parts about a third of an inch in thickness, of a firm and dense structure, resembling fibro-cartilage, or rather softer (what might, perhaps, be called firm lardaceous). There was also some recent lymph upon it. Old adhesions on the convex surface of the liver. The liver con- tained a number of round granules, varying in size from that of a shot to a pea. They were of a rounded figure, and though not possessed of a distinct capsule or cyst, might be clearly turned out of the structure in which they were imbedded. The following case I give on account of the note attached to it by Dr. Hodgkin, although the remarks are obscure. It is difficult to know whether he referred to the fibroid or larda- ceous change, but it is clear that he had observed morbid changes in those broken down by syphilis or mercury, and which he seemed to attribute more particularly to the latter. Cask 21.—Joseph D—, set. 28, under the care of Mr. Morgan, in 1830. Long labouring under venereal and mercurial cachexia. The liver was pale and granular, containing little round bodies, which, though turned out easily, did not possess distinct capsules. Note by Dr. Hodgkin.—The same form of derangement I have repeatedly seen in those whose constitution had been impaired by mercury. The following case is also confirmatory of the previous ob- servations. Case 22 is an old preparation of a calvavia (No. 1080), showing large portions of bone exfoliating. It came from Flora N—, a young woman, a patient of Mr. Key, in 1826. She was in the foul ward, with secondary syphilis and disease of the osfrontis. She had also nodes on both tibiae, and on left ulna. On post-mortem examination there were found some rather recent pleuritic adhesions, and in the lungs themselves some minute tubercles (?) subjacent to the pleura, but no true tuberculous matter. The liver contained a few dispersed, irregularly rounded bodies, the largest of which did not exceed the size of a horse-bean; they were soft, and were of a more bilious yellow colour than the surrounding parts, from which they were readily separable. Fimbriated extremity of Fallopian tube firmly adherent to ovary. In the following case it is difficult to determine the exact condition of the liver from the description, but it was probably lardaceous. I quote the case, however, for the sake of again introducing a note appended to it by Dr. Hodgkin, in which he says, The state of liver in this case is almost peculiar to those who have laboured under a cachectic condition from mer- curv. If he refers to fibroid nodules, the observation is pro- bably not quite correct; but if reference be made, as it probably