A case of acromegaly / by W.B. Hadden and C.A. Ballance.

  • Hadden, W. B. (Walter Baugh), 1856-1893.
Date:
[1888]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of acromegaly / by W.B. Hadden and C.A. Ballance. 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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    Reprinted from Vol. XXI of the ' Clinical Society's Transactions.'] A Case of Acromegaly. By W. B. Hadden, M.D., and C A. Ballance, M.S. Read April 13, 1888. THE following case was described by card before this Society on January 23, 1885 (see Transactions, vol. xviii, p. 325, A Case of Hypertrophy of the Subcutaneous Tissues of the Face, Hands, and Feet). About fifteen months later a brief paragraph appeared in the Lancet (April, 1886), headed Acromegaly, and under this name we found that M. Marie had described a morbid state which tallied very closely with our case (Revue de Hedecine, April, 1886). In view of the importance of our observation, as it now appears, we deemed it advisable to exhibit our patient once again to the Society, to reproduce our original account, and to put forward briefly the salient points of a condition which, in all probability, has a clinical and pathological history of its own. The patient is a married woman, and is now 37 years of age. She has had three children in ten years, but no mis- carriages. There is nothing noteworthy in her family history. Up to four and a half years ago she had had no illness, and was a strong, hale woman. Scarlet fever then broke out in the house; one of her children died, and the patient herself had sore-throat, but no rash. Following on this attack she had swelling and pain in both knees, and, from her descrip- fcion, the affection seems to have been rheumatic. A little later the hands began to swell, but the face was not involved. The patient naturally enough ascribes her present condition to the scarlet fever, though it must be mentioned (and the fact, as will be seen later, is of significance) that she had previously suffered from tingling sensations in the hands, and that the catamenia had ceased a few months before the attack of scarlet fever, and have never reappeared. On comparison with a photograph taken a few months before the scarlatinal attack, the face is seen to be markedly changed. In striking contrast with her former condition, she is now a big-featured person, with a broad nose, prominent cheek bones, square, massive, and protruding lower jaw, and thick, everted lower lip. The condition of the nose is dependent