Twenty-sixth annual report of the county and city of Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

  • Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-sixth annual report of the county and city of Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vertebrae ; the first especially being eaten away nearly to the spinal column. The abdominal walls were infiltrated with blood, and on section were nearly an inch in thickness. 7.—J.S.S., male, set 31. This was a case of dementia with advanced general paralysis. He was dull, heavy, and stupid, could hardly speak or walk, was dirty in his habits, and had not a vestige of mental power. His death was materially hastened by large bedsores. The assigned cause of insanity was hereditary. Autopsy 61 hours after death. Body in a state of extreme emacia¬ tion ; there were three large bedsores, one over each trochanter, and one over the sacrum ; both heels had sloughed, and the tendo achillis of the right was quite bare. Weather intensely cold. Skull-cap very thin, diploe being unequally present. Membranes thickened and opalescent, but not adherent. Pacchionian bodies very large and numerous; dura mater closely adherent to the arachnoid along the course of the superior longitudinal sinus. Considerable amount of fluid at the base of the brain. Venous sinuses and superficial cerebral vessels much engorged. Convolutions flattened and atrophied, and sulci deep. Consistence of cerebral substance moderately good. Lateral ventricles greatly dilated, and filled with serosity; their floor and that of the fourth ventricle was covered with coarse frosting. In the anterior cornu of the right ventricle was a cyst, floating in the serum quite free; it was composed of two cysts joined together, and presenting the appearance of a sub-dividing leucocyte; it was about the size of a filbert; in the one half the contents were found to be disorganised nerve cells, a few nerve fibrils, and bits of neurilemma, with a few shreds of epithelium and some granular matter; the other half was more opaque, and from the fact of its containing two or three smaller cysts was thought to be hydatid, but no booklets could be discovered by the most careful search ; the cell wall of each was strong fibrous tissue. Corpora striata much atrophied; fornix reduced to a creamy pulp. Heart small; all four cavities firmly contracted ; pulmonary valves incompetent. No atheroma or mitral stenosis. Apex of right lung in a state of grey hepatization ; middle lobe solidified, sinking in water; ]eft long slightly congested. Liver and kidneys normal.