Prize essays on leprosy / Thompson ; Cantlie.

  • Thompson, John Ashburton, 1848-1915.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prize essays on leprosy / Thompson ; Cantlie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    137/430 (page 127)
    extract which are within square brackets have been added to it from a private communication with which Dr. Peipers favoured me in reply to certain questions : M. A—, ru., set. 30 [in 1889], native of Sydney, of Jewish descent. No hereditary taint of skin disease known. Five sisters and two brothers living, who have not evidenced any disease of the skin. [Lived in Sydney until his eighth year.] From his eighth until his fifteenth year lived in New Zealand, and then left for Melbourne [where he has lived ever since. Never mixed with Chinese or Maories. Never had any venereal affection until] in 1878 he acquired gonorrhoea. In 1879, after a suspicious connection, he had a feverish disease for three weeks, which was called typhoid. Soon afterwards there was fever and pains all over the body, swelling of the face, nose, ears, feet, &c. There were red inflamed spots on the dorsum penis. At no time had he ulceration on the penis or parts thereabouts. At that time his disease was pro- nounced to be syphilis. After that he was under specific treatment of every kind by several practitioners [among whom were some of the best known men in Melbourne], including mercury on seven occasions. “When iodide of potassium was given the symptoms were exaggerated. Arsenic, iodoform, and sarsaparilla, were given in large quantities. The local lesions in the throat and tongue were treated with Arg. Nit. and Hydrarg. Nit. On examination I found the hair on the head black, strong, with the scalp visible at the vertex. On the forehead, particularly on the right side, were a number of swellings, large and small, vaiying from the size of a threepenny bit to a florin. The swellings did not penetrate to the osseous structures beneath. The swellings presented an umbilicated appearance, and were raised somewhat distinctly at the edges. The epidermis between the swellings was apparently healthy. There was no ulceration about the forehead, but a peculiar oily brownish appear- ance of the diseased parts was observable. Similar tumours existed on the ears, cheeks, lips, and nose, forming together a general enlarge- ment and disfigurement of the face—in fact, constituting the true typical facies leontina. Some of the masses were ulcerated. On the arms, wrists, legs, and hands particularly the same state of affairs was to be seen. The skin on the fingers and toes was very much ulcerated, in parts laying bare the tendons. Remarkable symmetry was exhibited by the disease in both hands, and in the feet too. A deep brownish discoloration, sharply defined from the healthy skin, was to be observed on both sides of the sternum, extending to a line corresponding with the umbilicus. The tongue showed at the tip a flat ulcerated surface, in size about that of a sixpence. Deep fissures, intersecting, covered the tongue. The uvula was almost entirely obliterated. A deep fissure •extending into the pharynx on the left side of the uvula was clearly distinct. A localised anaesthesia seemed to be present in the left thumb. The internal organs, as far as is known and could be traced, were healthy.