Proceedings at the Sixteenth Anniversary Meeting of the Hunterian Society, held on the 4th February, 1835 : with the report and list of officers and members.

  • Hunterian Society.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings at the Sixteenth Anniversary Meeting of the Hunterian Society, held on the 4th February, 1835 : with the report and list of officers and members. 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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    expectoration, and he died. The liver was changed into irregular clumsy masses, so that with its greatly thickened peritoneum, its natural character could not be discovered. It was converted into two thick cysts, containing very numerous large and small hydatids, the lower cyst was firmly contracted on several dead hydatids, and in the upper cyst there -were numerous living hydatids. This upper cyst communicated, by an aperture through the diaphragm, with the right lung, ■where there vras a large abscess containing shrivelled hydatids. It was mentioned that spontaneous cure some- times occurs. The hydatids shrivel up, the cyst contracts, and remains dormant unless inflamma- tion be excited, when the whole cyst may slough. Two fatal instances of this nature were adverted to. Could it be ascertained that adhesion had taken place, it wras thought it would be safe to open with a scalpel. The importance of correct diagnosis was pointed out, and in aid of this it was mentioned that the specific gravity of the fluid of ascites is to that of hydatids as 1014 to 1001, and that the fluid of hydatids contains no albumen. Encysted Dropsy;—the patient, in this case, was tapped, and only a few ounces of fluid drawn off. Some hours afterwards another cyst burst, and seven or eight pints escaped. Four days after- wards symptoms of collapse came on, and the