The sunburnt appearance of the skin as an early diagnostic symptom of supra renal capsule disease / by Isaac E. Taylor.

  • Taylor, Isaac E. (Isaac Ebenezer), 1812-1889.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sunburnt appearance of the skin as an early diagnostic symptom of supra renal capsule disease / by Isaac E. Taylor. 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.)

    8/34
    to render the source of the anaemic condition uncertain; and when, on a searching inquiry into the history of the case, no miasmatic poison can be detected, or malignant visceral dis- ease found, and when to all this is superadded a dark, dingy, or smoky looking discoloration of the integument, he shall be justified at least in entertaining a strong suspicion in some instances—a suspicion amounting almost to certainty in others. It must, however, be observed, that every tinge of yellow, or mere sallowness, throws a still greater doubt over the true nature of the case, and that the more decided the dis- coloration partakes of the character described, the stronger ought to be our impression as to the capsular origin of the dis- order. I have copied these quotations from the monograph of Dr. Addison, as it is probable but few have met with it, and they are given in his own language, for I have not been able to discover, in his essay on the subject, the term bronze applied as it appears to have been given to the discoloration, by Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson, in the report of his collected cases, published in the Medical Times and Gazette, of London, 1855 and 1S56. Though the application of the word bronze, to the character of the discoloration, might appear proper, yet it could only be in the more advanced cases, for in the early stages of the disease, I have not been able to recognize its adaptation, and even in the advanced cases, the analogy to the color of the mulatto, or rather of a West Indian, seems more correct and just. In the quotation from page 7, line 19, reference is made to the color, doubtless being so slight and equivocal, as to render the source of the anaemic condition uncertain; and on page 8, line 1, Every tinge of yellow- ness, or mere sallowness, throws a still greater doubt on the true nature of the case. On examining the cases of Dr. Addison, it appears that the discoloration had existed for some length of time, and in some it was not recognized till after death; and that they were not therefore seen in the early stage of the discoloration and disease, and I believe it will be shown that the dingy, or smoky, or deep amber, or chestnut-brown, or mulatto appearance of the discolora- tion, becomes quite characteristic when the disease is of a chronic nature. In the publication of the cases which have come under my observation, I would particularly wish to call the attention of the profession to the discoloration of the skin, and the pig- ment on the lips, as I believe in the early, and in two cases in the incipient, stage of the disease.