Remarks on Hodgkin's disease / by the late Sir James Galloway, K.B.E., C.B., M.D., consulting physician to Charing Cross Hospital.

  • Galloway, James
Date:
[1922?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Remarks on Hodgkin's disease / by the late Sir James Galloway, K.B.E., C.B., M.D., consulting physician to Charing Cross Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mouth, repeated during the day till as much as a grain or a grain and a half is administered daily. The patients bear this preparation well, with little intestinal discomfort. It is usually an /indication to stop administering the drug, tem¬ porarily, whfn the characteristic garlic-like odour can be appreciated on approaching the patient closely. As a result of the administration of the drug, I believe that I have seen the glands diminish in size and the patients become more comfortable. A point of some interest has to be borne in mind. It appears that in some of the cases who have developed the characteristic pruritus of the disease, arsenic, at any rate after a time, seems to increase the pruritus. On stopping the drug I have known the pruritus diminish in degree. A second method of treatment of undoubted value in certain cases of the disease is the use of x rays. The most distressing and dangerous complications of the disease occur when the glands within the thorax are affected. They may increase in size, producing at first discomiort, then symptoms of serious dyspnoea with stridor, owing to the pressure of the tumours on the trachea, bronchi, and other structures. A good many cases are now on record showing that the careful use of x rays in such cases of mediastinal Hodgkin’s disease has brought about a great improvement in the symptoms and much comfort to the patient. Not only so, but repeated 37-ray examination of the chest in these cases shows very clearly that, at any rate, the shadow produced by the tumour is greatly shrunken, no doubt owing to diminution in size of the glandular masses. I have under observation at the present time a lady who was brought to me with clear evidences of Hodgkin’s disease. There were enlarged glands in the axilla and in other parts of the body, but the main seat of the disease seemed to be those in the right side in the mediastinum. The patient suffered from dyspnoea with severe exacerbations and much stridor, so that her life was in immediate danger. She was treated by my late colleague Dr. Ironside Bruce, more than two years ago, with very satisfactory results. The patient improved, the dyspnoea and other discomforts almost dis¬ appeared, and she was able again to undertake her duties in her house. More than a year after a recurrence of the symptoms took place and she was once more treated by Mr. Stanley Melville. The favourable results, with relief of the symptoms, once more occurred. The patient after two and a half years still remains free of her symptoms and is able to carry on her duties. (See Figs. 1 and 2.) In this case an enlarged gland was removed from the right axilla and shows the characteristic histological structure of the disease. I am glad to be able to demonstrate the 37-ray photographs in this case, before and after treatment, and I have also had the advantage of comparing with these the aj-ray photographs in a very similar case with similar results treated by my colleague Dr. Russell Reynolds. There is one observation I should like to make with respect to cc-ray treatment of this disease—the lesson was strongly impressed upon me when treating some cases with the help