Medical report of the Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen, for the year ending 31st December, 1873.

  • Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, Scotland)
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical report of the Royal Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen, for the year ending 31st December, 1873. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/36 page 32
    Dementia. On admission she was in weak physical condition, and if spoken to, she would wring her hands or weep. She continued to fall off in bodily condition, and died on 20th July, 1873. Post-Mortem Examination twenty-two and a-half hours after death. The body was greatly emaciated and pale. There were three small pits on the inner side of the right fore-arm, about inches above the wrist, the result of an abscess there. Head.—The skull was everywhere very thick, and especially the the occipital portion where it measured fully half an inch in thickness. The Pacchionian depressions were remarkably large ; considerable sub¬ arachnoid effusion. The brain substance was soft, but there was no discoloration. The ventricles were distended with a pale coloured serous fluid. The choroid plexus was in a cystic condition. Thorax. —The heart weighed about 9^ oz. and was covered with fat, its substance soft, and easy broken up with the fingers. The right side had a flabby feel. The right lung was adherent to its pleura at the apex. It weighed 25^ oz. The upper lobe was extensively infiltrated with miliary tubercles, as also were the lower and middle lobes, but to a less extent. The anterior and middle parts, and in a less degree, the lower lobe of this lung was emphysematous. In the left lung the visceral and parietal pleurae were very firmly adherent ; this lung was also extensively infiltrated with miliary tubercles. Case IX., M. McP., ^Et. 40.—A servant; was admitted 2nd March, 1861, in a state of maniacal excitement, with alternations of depression, restlessness, sleeplessness, incoherence, delusions of a depressing religious nature, and general a])pearance of insanity. On the 23rd July, she was discharged recovered. 3rd April, 1869, re-admitted in a condition of maniacal excitement of recent standijig from no assignable cause. On April 13, she Avas again . discharged recovered. A year afterwards she was re-admitted in a state of excitement, talking incoherently. 1st September, 1872—During the last six weeks she had beeji for the most part, confined to bed on account of growing debility, and loss of appetite. She Avas receiving as treatment, cod liver oil and \Adne ; she got gradually feeble and died on the 27th August, 1873. Post-Mortem Examination thirty hours after death. Body greatly emaciated. Fistula in ano, Avith external opening on right side. Head.—Xothing remarkable Avas observed about the brain, except a cystic condition of the choroid plexus. Thorax.—The costal cartilages of opposite sides were almost in contact for a distance of about 2^ inches from the ensiform cartilage ; this flattening A\as due to some cause acting on both sides for they were symmetrical. The right lung Avas bulky, and weighed 18 oz. The anterior part throughout its whole length was emphysematous. On the outer aspect of the upper lobe and about its centre was a pyramidal portion of hepatized lung, and
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3