A practical treatise on the diseases of children / by Alfred Vogel ; translated and edited by H. Raphael.

Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases of children / by Alfred Vogel ; translated and edited by H. Raphael. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    of fine hairs, in the same quantity as in the latter, fat-globules of vari- ous sizes—evidently cutaneous fat (Hauttalg, smegma cutaneum) peculiar to the vemix caseosa—crystals of cholesterine (which may partly originate in the bile, or may be retrograde products of the ver- uix caseosa), and irregular brownish and yellowish lumps and flakes, which give to the meconium its dark color, and wdthout doubt the coloring matter of the bile. It is therefore evident, that the meconium, excepting the last-mentioned substances, which origi- nate in the bile, consists principally of vernix caseosa; and from this it may be inferred that the foetus from time to time has swal- lowed a tolerably large quantity of amnion containing the vernix caseosa in suspension, the water of which is quickly absorbed by the stomach, for none is ever found in ,it, but the hairs and scales pass through the whole intestinal tract as indigestible sub- stances. After birth the intestines secrete a certain amount of mucus, an excessiveness or deficiency of which will give rise to diarrhoea or constipation, the first and most frequent diseases to which the nurs- ling is subject. Quite a severe task is imposed upon the kidneys immediately after birth. In the first few days children drink but very little, the blood consequently can part mth only a very small quantity of water, and thus it happens that the uric acid salts, the result of the great metamorphosis of the tissues, quicldy accumulate in the urinary tu- bules, remain undissolved there, and from this too highly concentrated solution the product that has been called the uric acid infarction of the new-born is deposited. The uric acid concretions are yeUowish- red or pink-red casts of the pyramids near the papillae. Generally they appear for the first time on the second day after birth, and last from five to twelve days, but I have also found them in children more than four weeks old. As this condition has been said to exist in the still-bom, in very exceptional cases it is true, and, since a considera- ble number of children who die between the second and fourteenth days do not exhibit it, no very great medico-legal value can therefore be placed upon it. It is frequently found as a carmine red powder in the diapers of the new-born, an occurrence that has also been noticed by some observing midwives. Microscopic examination reveals mi- nute columns composed of cylindrical, amorphous, urate of ammonia, and epithelium cells, with here and there solitary rhomboid uric acid crystals. On the days this powder is found in the diapers, the chil- dren are usually restless, cry on micturition, and have an inflamed meatus. Although its origin and excretion must be regarded as physiological, nevertheless it cannot be denied that kidney gravel, so 2
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