Eight cases of melanosis : with pathological and therapeutical remarks on that disease / by William Norris.

  • Norris, William.
Date:
1857
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eight cases of melanosis : with pathological and therapeutical remarks on that disease / by William Norris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    early life—one in my own practice in a young woman, aged 24; another published by my old friend and colleague, Mr. Lloyd, of Bartholomew's Hospital; and in most of these early cases the diseases began in the skin, though I must not omit to mention it has occasionally appeared in the eyes of children and in adults. I shall now proceed to describe some of the most interesting cases that have occurred in my own practice; and although Mr. D.’s case has been published before, and was, I believe, the first genuine general good case, affecting the heart, membranes of the brain, and most of the vital organs, described in this or perhaps any other country, I shall endeavour to give from notes, and from conversations with the gentleman who kindly assisted me in the post mortem exami- nation, a more minute account of symptoms during life, and of morbid appearances after death ; and I am desirous to republish it, because I understand it has excited some interest on the Continent; and Mr. Cliff, late curator at the College, told me that a Russian doctor, one of the favourites of the Emperor Alexander, begged a drawing of the melanotic heart, and said he would not part with it for half his museum. I wish the zealous man could have seen the corpse of my patient; the body, externally and internally, almost appeared one diseased mass. When the abdomen, cbest, and cranium were thrown open, it was a most extraordinary phenomenon ; thousands upon thousands of coal black spots, of circular shapes and various sizes, were to be seen closely dotting the shining mucous, serous, and fibrous membranes of most of the vital organs : I should think the most dazzling sight ever beheld by morbid anatomist. I shall never fjprget the pleasing thrill that came over me when I first beheld them. It would have puzzled the most powerful descriptive talent to have done full justice to such a novel and striking disease, displayed so beautifully in endless profusion everywhere. I was requested to make only a slight examination, late at night; whereas, if time had been allowed to have searched more minutely, it is my firm belief that those organs that appeared to be free externally, if they had been examined internally, the disease would have been found in some form or other; and most probably the internal coats of many arteries and veins, joints, sinews, nerves, and other tissues, participated in the diseased action, for I can scarce think it possible, with such pure melanotic blood, flowing for such a period, at an age favouring the development of the disease, that any structures could escape being con- taminated more or less. Case 1. February 6, 1817. Mr. D., catat 59, of light hair and fair complexion, apparently in good health, applied to me in consequence of the inconvenience he felt from a tumour, situated nearly mid-way be- tween the umbilicus and pubes. He told me there had always been a mole exactly in the same spot, and that, nine months ago, tlie skin around this congenital mark assumed a brownish hue, aiul slowly froiu