Two cases of post-typhoid anæmia : with remarks on the value of examinations of the blood in typhoid fever / by W.S. Thayer.

  • Thayer, William Sydney, 1864-1932.
Date:
[1894?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two cases of post-typhoid anæmia : with remarks on the value of examinations of the blood in typhoid fever / by W.S. Thayer. 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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    blood. Jaccoud(1B) (1863) held that the red corpuscles suffered in typhoid fever just as they did in any acute disease. Ernesti0^ (1864) reported an interesting case of post-typhoid anaemia which deserves repetition. A man, aged forty-six, previously healthy, passed in the early fall through a severe fever which was associated with consider- able diarrhoea. Though he recovered from the attack and was able to leave his bed, he was never strong enough to return to his occupa- tion, and in February, on account of progressive loss of strength and oedema of the dependent parts, he entered the hospital (Greifswald). The most striking symptoms were the excessive pallor, the soft and rapid pulse and the oedema. The temperature was normal; the spleen was not enlarged. The anaemia increased steadily and the patient died five' months later. There was diarrhoea at times, and during the last three weeks of the patient's life there was a moderate daily evening rise in the temperature. Four weeks before death, dulness on percussion with a prolonged expiratory murmur were noted just below the left clavicle. No mention is made of any examination of the blood. On autopsy, beyond undoubted evidence of a previous typhoid fever, freshly cicatrized ulcers, and the extreme emaciation and anaemia, there was found to be a marked atrophy of the mucous membranes of the ileum and jejunum. There were also areas of tuberculous consolidation in both lungs, a cavity as large as a walnut at the left apex, and fresh tuberculous pleurisy. Consid- ering the history of the case, the author believes that the tuberculosis had no influence on the development of the anaemia, but was, on the other hand, itself secondary process. See<18) (1866) admits that the anaemia which develops in typhoid fever may be so severe as to mate- rially retard convalescence. Gautier(23j (1874) notes an anaemia developing during the course of typhoid fever. Bonne(25) (1875) found a marked anaemia in two cases—2,500,000 and 2,400,000 red corpuscles per cubic millimetre. The lowest point in the latter case was reached on about the twentieth day, after which there was a gradual rise to normal. Sorensenr27) (1876), in eleven cases examined during the febrile period, found eight with more or less anaemia; while in three patients who were cyanotic and moribund, the pro- portion of red blood corpuscles was normal in two instances and somewhat increased in the third. These last three cases of Sorensen were doubtless instances of an actual condensation of the blood. That this condition does occur has been very clearly shown by