Submaxillary cellulitis : syn. cynanche cellularis of Gregory, angina externa, angina Ludovici, cynanche sublingualis rheumatico-typhoides / by W. Morrant Baker.

  • William Morrant Baker
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Submaxillary cellulitis : syn. cynanche cellularis of Gregory, angina externa, angina Ludovici, cynanche sublingualis rheumatico-typhoides / by W. Morrant Baker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    These ailments were attributed to her staying much in a room, the door and windows of which were frequently open, though the weather was cold, to prevent the chimney from smoking. About the same time also her milk began to be less abundant; but she still continued to suckle her child. She remained in this state about three weeks, at the end of which time a slight cough attacked her, and her left cheek began to be painful, red, and swollen. This disease of the cheek was at first thought to arise from a bad tooth, but as it increased quickly, an apothecary was sent for on the 20th of last March, about three days after the commencement of the swelling. The swelling and redness had now reached the left clavicle ; but as the system was very little disturbed, the apothecary conceived that those symptoms depended upon an inflammation of the parotid gland. Between the 20th and 25th the disease spread over the whole front and sides of the neck and chest, and in the same interval her pulse became very frequent, and her breathing very laborious; her cough, however, was but little troublesome. I visited her for the first time on the evening of the 25 th. The swelling of the left cheek, with which the external disease had commenced, was by this time much diminished, and the cuticle there was falling off. The swelling of the neck was inconsiderable, as was that of the chest, except near the upper extremity of the sternum, where was an elevation of the skin crossing the sternum at right angles, four inches long, an inch and a half broad, and an inch high. This evidently con- tained a fluid, but the kind was not easily ascertained, for the fluid very readily yielded to pressure, and there was a feeling experienced, when the tumour was touched, similar to that given by parchment, or a dried urinary bladder. The apothecary had hence imagined the tumour to contain air; but the same feeling was perceivable in every part of the diseased skin below the tumour, and was most remarkable where the disease was most recent. When the diseased skin was pressed, the patient felt pain, but in no great degree: I pressed it, however, very gently. Its colour was a less bright red than that of a phlegmon or erysipelas. A little above the left breast, a piece of skin, about; half an inch in length, and a quarter of an inch in breadth, was smoother than natural, and of a brown colour, resembling somewhat an eschar produced by caustic ; but there were no vesicm upon any part of the skin. The disease of the skin terminated rather abruptly, and a finger could be insinuated a little way under its edge, which felt hard. This was the case at least at the lower part of the chest, where the experiment was made. Her pulse was 136 in a minute, and not feeble; her tongue was moist, and covered with a smooth pellicle of a