Anaemia and its consequences: enlargement of the thyroid gland and eyeballs / [James Begbie].

  • James Begbie
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anaemia and its consequences: enlargement of the thyroid gland and eyeballs / [James Begbie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to recommend the simple, safe, and satisfactory treatment of the former case. It was begun and persisted in for some time, and attended by beneficial results; it was interrupted, however, from various causes, so that the success has not been equal to its known efficacy. Still, however, at this time the patient is manifestly im¬ proved, the thyroidal swelling is greatly reduced, the protruding eyeballs much less conspicuous, and all the signs which accompany the anaemic condition gradually disappearing. She can walk many miles without breathlessness, and lie down and rise up without pain or confusion. III.—A third sufferer from anaemia and goitre I have at this time under my care, in the person of an unmarried lady, aged fifty, who had for a long series of years enjoyed perfect health till about four years ago, when she became the subject of dyspeptic and uterine derangement. For many months she laboured under pro¬ fuse and wasting leucorrhoea, when the protracted drain was fol¬ lowed by distressing palpitation, hurried breathing, rapid, feeble, and jerking pulse, pallid complexion, varied by flushing on the least excitement or exertion, great nervousness, disordered secretions, the characteristic eye, and the hypertrophied thyroid of this form of anaemia. The isthmus of the gland was more prominent than in the former cases, but the bulk of the tumour was less than in either. She had undergone a variety of treatment, with varying success for some years before I saw her for the first time, two years ago. At that time she was chiefly anxious regarding the protube¬ rant eyeballs, and little concerned about the goitre or her general health, which she had begun to think did not admit of remedy. The general and physical signs were those of anaemia; and, believ¬ ing that the local affection would yield to constitutional treatment, she wras immediately placed under full doses of iron, the citrate was the form employed, full diet of animal food, and a moderate share of Bass’s ale. She improved rapidly, but was seized in the autumn of 1847 with severe dysentery, then epidemic in the city. Through this ordeal she struggled, and, after a tedious convalescence, she regained her former position; the goitrous swelling and the project¬ ing eyeballs appeared to suffer no change during this long illness, neither was the anaemic murmur of the heart and arteries affected by it. She resumed her former treatment, which had been inter¬ rupted by the attack of dysentery; and now, at the close of another twelvemonth, she is greatly improved in health, the thyroidal swell¬ ing is scarcely perceptible, the protuberant eyeball much reduced, the pulse, though rapid and feeble, and still easily affected by ex¬ citing causes, greatly moderated, and the breathing much more natural. There are no contra-indications to the continued use of iron and animal food; and a confident expectation may be enter¬ tained, that, under the persistent employment of them, the func¬ tions of assimilation .and sanguification will be restored to health, O J