Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the stomach, the intestinal canal, the liver, and other viscera of the abdomen / By John Abercrombie.

  • John Abercrombie
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the stomach, the intestinal canal, the liver, and other viscera of the abdomen / By John Abercrombie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    67/460 (page 37)
    FATAL BY PERFORATION. 3] very tense. The pulse was extremely feeble; she was scarcely able to speak, but her countenance was expressive of extreme suffering. Nothing afforded the smallest re- lief, and she died about two in the morning, 29 hours from the attack. Inspection.—The cavity of the peritoneum was distend- ed with air, and likewise contained upwards of eight pounds of fluid of a whitish colour, and fetid smell. There was slight but extensive inflammatory deposition on the surface of the intestines, producing adhesions to each other, and to the parietes of the abdomen. In the upper part of the small curvature of the stomach near the cardia, there was a small perforation of a size which admitted the point of the little finger. Internally this opening communicated with an ulcerated space on the mucous membrane, about the size of a shilling, with slightly thickened and hardened edges, and a considerable perpendicular loss of substance. The stomach in all other respects was entirely healthy. Cast VIII.—A gentleman, aged about 60,—in the year 1825, had for a considerable time suffered from com- plaints in his stomach. He had occasional pain, but it was not severe ; his more prominent symptoms were an intense feeling of Pyrosis, and occasional vomiting. He was often obliged to leave the table suddenly during meals from at- tacks of this kind, in which he chiefly brought up small quantities of an extremely acrid fluid. He became much emaciated, and had every appearance of extensive organic disease, though none could be discovered on examination. He required to be kept upon the most cautiously regulated diet ; and after continuing for some months in.a state from which he was not expected to recover, he gradually got in- to his former good health, and his stomach entirely re- covered its healthy functions. He had at various times,