Acromegaly / by Maximilian Sternberg ; translated by F.R.B. Atkinson.

  • Sternberg, Maximilian, 1863-
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Acromegaly / by Maximilian Sternberg ; translated by F.R.B. Atkinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    tions, as clironic nephritis, which, in a chronic disease, and especially connected with changes of the heart and vessels, is not exactly surprising. The enlargement may therefore provisionally, not with certainty, be conceived as true hyper- trophy. There is nothing specially to be noticed as regards the urine. Of the reproductive organs, as regards the external geni- tals, the penis, clitoris, and their prepuce, and the labia pudendi are often much enlarged. It is not known whether the changes are only in the skin or in the substance of the organs also. The skin of the scrotum is frequently thickened. On this point also histological observations are wanting to determine the condition of the smooth muscular fibres in the hypertrophy. Hutchinson lays stress in his case on the man-like appear- ance of the female cadaver, and of the want of the pubis and breasts. There appears, however, to have been a cessation of development, as the internal genital organs were also not fully formed. The breasts moreover, in severe cases, quick in their progress, are firm (Pineles), in older women, atrophied, which is certainly an ordinary occurrence (Marie and Marinesco). The uterus has been found in some cases very small, infam tile (Laneereaux, Bury). In Hutchinson’s above-mentioned case the uterus and tubes were very small, the fimbriee rudi- mentary (aplasia). In other cases, associated also with long standing amenorrhoea, the uterus was normal or enlarged (Duchesnau, Claus and Tail der Stricht, &c.). The ovaries frequently show cystic degeneration, and not seldom other changes in addition. A detailed examination of the internal female reproductive organs, especially on account of the amenorrhoea, w^ould be interesting and desir- able. The same applies to the impotence of the testicles, and the accessory male reproductive organs, regarding which hardly anything is reported. They have been described as atrophied (Mosse and Daunic), or moderately large, pale, and lax, or as normal. Regarding the so-called blood glands, wre have already described the hypophysis. The carotid and coccygeal glands