Notes of three cases of acute yellow atrophy of the liver / by Dyce Duckworth, M.D. and J. Wickham Legg, M.D.

  • Dyce Duckworth
Date:
[cbetween 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes of three cases of acute yellow atrophy of the liver / by Dyce Duckworth, M.D. and J. Wickham Legg, M.D. 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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    [Reprinted from St. Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, Vol. VII.] Notes of Three Cases of Acute' Yellow Atrophy of the Liver. By Dyce Duckworth, M.D. Edin., and J. WiCKHAM Legg, M.D. Lond. THE following cases have been recently admitted into the tVards of the Hospital, and some special interest attaches to the fact that the first and third occurred in the persons of sister and brother respectively. In two of them, unfortunately, no post-mortem inspection could be procured. However, portions of the livers were obtained by means of punctures, and were subjected to micro- scopic examination. Case I. (Notes by Dr. Legg.) A girl, a3t. 10, was brought to St. Bartholomew's on May 2, 1870. Her sister, who came with her, said that she had been jaundiced for the last few days. When examined, the skin and conjunctiva} were found to be yellow, though not very deeply stained: nothing else was peculiarly noticeable; and I thought it was one of those cases of jaundice occurring in children, which are so very common, but so little under- stood. The child came agam to the Hospital on May 9 and May 16 : at the latter time the skin was far more deeply stained ; but percussion and palpation of the abdomen dis- covered nothing as to the liver or any other organ. The hepatic dullness was quite natural. On May 19 the friends came and stated that the child had been delirious since the early morning. Brought to the Hospital shortly after, the child was found to be unconscious. On examination I thought that the hepatic dullness was somewhat diminished both at its upper and lower margins. The child was at once admitted into the Hospital: on ques- tioning the friends further, I was told that before the jaundice came on, the other children in the court in which the patient lived had been greatly teasing and tormenting her ; the child had n(*b been noticed to suck matches, nor did the friends know of any means by which the child could get at phosphorus. A