Case of peculiar disease of the skull and dura mater.

  • Balfour, John Hutton, 1808-1884.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of peculiar disease of the skull and dura mater. 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.

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    part of the parietal bones on cither side, and extending from the coronal nearly as far as the upper part of the lambdoidal suture. (See Plate II. Fig. 1.) This green-coloured matter was of a firm cartilaginous consistence, and presented a smooth green surface, when cut with the knife. It was intimately con- nected with the outer table of the skull. Patches of a similar kind of matter existed on several parts of the parietal and occi- pital bones, and a large mass was detected below the right tem- poral muscle, attached to the bone on that side. On removing the skull-cap, its internal surface, more espe- cially at the upper part above the longitudinal sinus, was ob- served lined here and there with thin layers of a similar green- coloured matter, interspersed with some bloody spots, and the bone in these situations was distinctly roughened by absorption, and exhibited a cellular cancellated appearance. In three or four places the skull-cap was so thin as to be quite transparent. On the upper surface of the dura mater there was a large de- posit of the green-coloured matter, and several rounded masses were scattered over it in different places. The internal surface of the dura mater was studded with rounded green-coloured mas- ses covered by the inner layer of that membrane. At the back part of the inner surface of the dura mater, on the right side, there was a large bloody patch with several smaller bloody spots around it. (See Plate II. Fig. 2.) Green-coloured masses were also found outside the dura mater, close to the petrous portion of the temporal bone, on the sphe- noid bone, and in other parts of the base of the skull, as well as at the union of tlae falx and tentorium cerebelli, and under the cerebellum. Near the crista galli of the ethmoid, the orbital plate of the frontal bone, on removing the dura mater, was seen to be thin, transparent, and so soft as to be easily perforated, There was some effusion under the arachnoid, and a minute quantity of serosity in the ventricles. The brain was very firm in texture, but did not exhibit any trace of disease in its sub stance. Almost the whole of the cavity of both orbits was filled with green-coloured firm matter, similar to that found on the cranium. The matter was firmly attached to the frontal bone, and had no connexion with the interior of the cranium. The optic nerves, while in the interior of the cranium, were healthy, but in pas- sing through the green matter in the orbit, they became small and elongated. No examination was made of the chest or abdomen. Since writing the above, I have learned that several members