Anomalies And Curiosities Of Medicine Part 62

There are some curious cases of anomalous sneezing on record, some of which are possibly due to affections akin to our present "hay fever,"

while others are due to causes beyond our comprehension. The Ephemerides records a paroxysm of continual sneezing lasting thirty days. Bonet, Lancisi, Fabricius Hilda.n.u.s, and other older observers speak of sneezing to death. Morgagni mentions death from congestion of the vasa cerebri caused by sneezing. The Ephemerides records an instance of prolonged sneezing which was distinctly hereditary.

Ellison makes an inquiry for treatment of a case of sneezing in a white child of ten. The sneezing started without apparent cause and would continue 20 or 30 times, or until the child was exhausted, and then stop for a half or one minute, only to relapse again. Beilby speaks of a boy of thirteen who suffered constant sneezing (from one to six times a minute) for one month. Only during sleep was there any relief. The patient recovered under treatment consisting of active leeching, purgation, and blisters applied behind the ear, together with the application of olive oil to the nostrils.

Lee reports a remarkable case of yawning followed by sneezing in a girl of fifteen who, just before, had a tooth removed without difficulty.

Half an hour afterward yawning began and continued for five weeks continuously. There was no pain, no illness, and she seemed amused at her condition. There was no derangement of the s.e.xual or other organs and no account of an hysteric spasm. Pota.s.sium bromid and belladonna were administered for a few days with negative results, when the attacks of yawning suddenly turned to sneezing. One paroxysm followed another with scarcely an interval for speech. She was chloroformed once and the sneezing ceased, but was more violent on recovery therefrom.

Ammonium bromid in half-drachm doses, with rest in bed for psychologic reasons, checked the sneezing. Woakes presented a paper on what he designated "ear-sneezing," due to the caking of cerumen in one ear.

Irritation of the auricular branch of the vagus was produced, whence an impression was propagated to the lungs through the pulmonary branches of the vagus. Yawning was caused through implication of the third division of the 5th nerve, sneezing following from reflex implication of the spinal nerves of respiration, the lungs being full of air at the time of yawning. Woakes also speaks of "ear-giddiness" and offers a new a.s.sociate symptom--superficial congestion of the hands and forearm.

A case of anomalous sneezing immediately prior to s.e.xual intercourse is mentioned on page 511.

Hemophilia is an hereditary, const.i.tutional fault, characterized by a tendency to uncontrollable bleeding, either spontaneous or from slight wounds. It is sometimes a.s.sociated with a form of arthritis (Ogler).

This hemorrhagic diathesis has been known for many years; and the fact that there were some persons who showed a peculiar tendency to bleed after wounds of a trifling nature is recorded in some of the earliest medical literature. Only recently, however, through the writings of Buel, Otto, Hay, Coates, and others, has the hereditary nature of the malady and its curious mode of transmission through the female line been known. As a rule the mother of a hemophile is not a "bleeder"

herself, but is the daughter of one. The daughters of a hemophile, though healthy and free from any tendency themselves, are almost certain to transmit the disposition to the male offspring. The condition generally appears after some slight injury in the first two years of life; but must be distinguished from the hemorrhagic affections of the new-born, which will be discussed later. The social condition of the family does not alter the predisposition; the old Duke of Albany was a "bleeder"; and bleeder families are numerous, healthy looking, and have fine, soft skins.

The duration of this tendency, and its perpetuation in a family, is remarkable. The Appleton-Swain family of Reading, Ma.s.s., has shown examples for two centuries. Osler has been advised of instances already occurring in the seventh generation. Kolster has investigated hemophilia in women, and reports a case of bleeding in the daughter of a hemophilic woman. He also a.n.a.lyzes 50 genealogic trees of hemophilic families, and remarks that Na.s.se's law of transmission does not hold true. In 14 cases the transmission was direct from the father to the child, and in 11 cases it was direct from the mother to the infant.

The hemorrhagic symptoms of bleeders may be divided into external bleedings, either spontaneous or traumatic; interst.i.tial bleedings, petechiae, and ecchymoses; and the joint-affections. The external bleedings are seldom spontaneous, and generally follow cuts, bruises, scratches, and often result seriously. A minor operation on a hemophile may end in death; so slight an operation as drawing a tooth has been followed by the most disastrous consequences.

Armstrong, Blagden, and Roberts, have seen fatal hemorrhage after the extraction of teeth. MacCormac observed five bleeders at St. Thomas Hospital, London, and remarks that one of these persons bled twelve days after a tooth-extraction. Buchanan and Clay cite similar instances. Cousins mentions an individual of hemorrhagic diathesis who succ.u.mbed to extensive extravasation of blood at the base of the brain, following a slight fall during an epileptic convulsion. Dunlape reports a case of hemorrhagic diathesis, following suppression of the catamenia, attended by vicarious hemorrhage from the gums, which terminated fatally. Erichsenf cites an instance of extravasation of blood into the calf of the leg of an individual of hemophilic tendencies. A cavity was opened, which extended from above the knee to the heel; the clots were removed, and cautery applied to check the bleeding. There was extension of the blood-cavity to the thigh, with edema and incipient gangrene, necessitating amputation of the thigh, with a fatal termination.

Mackenzie reports an instance of hemophilic purpura of the retina, followed by death. Harkin gives an account of vicarious bleeding from the under lip in a woman of thirty-eight. The hemorrhage occurred at every meal and lasted ten minutes. There is no evidence that the woman was of hemophilic descent.

Of 334 cases of bleeding in hemophilia collected by Grandidier, 169 were from the nose, 43 from the mouth, 15 from the stomach, 36 from the bowels, 16 from the urethra, 17 from the lungs, and a few from the skin of the head, eyelids, s.c.r.o.t.u.m, navel, tongue, finger-tips, v.u.l.v.a, and external ear. Osler remarks that Professor Agnew knew of a case of a bleeder who had always bled from cuts and bruises above the neck, never from those below. The joint-affections closely resemble acute rheumatism. Bleeders do not necessarily die of their early bleedings, some living to old age. Oliver Appleton, the first reported American bleeder, died at an advanced age, owing to hemorrhage from a bed-sore and from the urethra. Fortunately the functions of menstruation and parturition are not seriously interfered with in hemophilia.

Menstruation is never so excessive as to be fatal. Grandidier states that of 152 boy subjects 81 died before the termination of the seventh year. Hemophilia is rarely fatal in the first year.

Of the hemorrhagic diseases of the new-born three are worthy of note.

In syphilis haemorrhagica neonatorum the child may be born healthy, or just after birth there may appear extensive cutaneous extravasations with bleeding from the mucous surfaces and from the navel; the child may become deeply jaundiced. Postmortem examination shows extensive extravasations into the internal viscera, and also organic syphilitic lesions.

Winckel's disease, or epidemic hemoglobinuria, is a very fatal affection, sometimes epidemic in lying-in inst.i.tutions; it develops about the fourth day after birth. The princ.i.p.al symptom is hematogenous icterus with cyanosis,--the urine contains blood and blood-coloring matter. Some cases have shown in a marked degree acute fatty degeneration of the internal organs--Buhl's disease.

Apart from the common visceral hemorrhages, the results of injuries at birth, bleeding from one or more of the surfaces is a not uncommon event in the new-born, particularly in hospital-practice. According to Osler Townsend reports 45 cases in 6700 deliveries, the hemorrhage being both general and from the navel alone. Bleeding also occurs from the bowels, stomach, and mouth, generally beginning in the first week, but in rare instances it is delayed to the second or third. Out of 50 cases collected by Townsend 31 died and 19 recovered. The nature of the disease is unknown, and postmortem examination reveals no pathologic changes, although the general and not local nature of the affection, its self-limited character, the presence of fever, and the greater prevalence of the disease in hospitals, suggest an infectious origin (Townsend). Kent a speaks of a new-born infant dying of spontaneous hemorrhage from about the hips.

Infantile scurvy, or Barlow's disease, has lately attracted marked attention, and is interesting for the numerous extravasations and spontaneous hemorrhages which are a.s.sociated with it. A most interesting collection of specimens taken from the victims of Barlow's disease were shown in London in 1895.

In an article on the successful preventive treatment of teta.n.u.s neonatorum, or the "scourge of St. Kilda," of the new-born, Turner says the first mention of trismus nascentium or teta.n.u.s neonatorum was made by Rev. Kenneth Macaulay in 1764, after a visit to the island of St.

Kilda in 1758. This gentleman states that the infants of this island give up nursing on the fourth or fifth day after birth; on the seventh day their gums are so clinched together that it is impossible to get anything down their throats; soon after this they are seized with convulsive fits and die on the eighth day. So general was this trouble on the island of St. Kilda that the mothers never thought of making any preparation for the coming baby, and it was wrapped in a dirty piece of blanket till the ninth or tenth day, when, if the child survived, the affection of the mother a.s.serted itself. This lax method of caring for the infant, the neglect to dress the cord, and the unsanitary condition of the dwellings, make it extremely probable that the infection was through the umbilical cord. All cases in which treatment was properly carried out by competent nurses have survived. This treatment consisted in dressing the cord with iodoform powder and antiseptic wool, the breast-feeding of the baby from the first, and the administration of one-grain doses of pota.s.sium bromid at short intervals. The infant death-rate on the island of St. Kilda has, consequently, been much reduced. The author suggests the use of a new iodin-preparation called loretin for dressing the cord. The powder is free from odor and is nonpoisonous.

Human Parasites.--Worms in the human body are of interest on account of the immense length some species attain, the anomalous symptoms which they cause, or because of their anomalous location and issue. According to modern writers the famous Viennese collection of helminths contains chains of tenia saginata 24 feet long. The older reports, according to which the taenia solium (i.e., generally the taenia saginata) grew to such lengths as 40, 50, 60, and even as much as 800 yards, are generally regarded as erroneous. The observers have apparently taken the total of all the fragments of the worm or worms evacuated at any time and added them, thus obtaining results so colossal that it would be impossible for such an immense ma.s.s to be contained in any human intestine.

The name solium has no relation to the Latin solus, or solium. It is quite possible for a number of tapeworms to exist simultaneously in the human body. Palm mentions the fact of four tapeworms existing in one person; and Mongeal has made observations of a number of cases in which several teniae existed simultaneously in the stomach. David speaks of the expulsion of five teniae by the ingestion of a quant.i.ty of sweet wine. Cobbold reports the case of four simultaneous tapeworms; and Aguiel describes the case of a man of twenty-four who expelled a ma.s.s weighing a kilogram, 34.5 meters long, consisting of several different worms. Garfinkel mentions a case which has been extensively quoted, of a peasant who voided 238 feet of tapeworms, 12 heads being found.

Laveran reports a case in which 23 teniae were expelled in the same day. Greenhow mentions the occurrence of two teniae mediocanellata.

The size of a tapeworm in a small child is sometimes quite surprising.

Even the new-born have exhibited signs of teniae, and Haussmann has discussed this subject. Armor speaks of a fully-matured tapeworm being expelled from a child five days old. Kennedy reports cases in which tapeworms have been expelled from infants five, and five and one-half months old. Heisberg gives an account of a tapeworm eight feet in length which came from a child of two. Twiggs describes a case in which a tapeworm 36 feet long was expelled from a child of four; and Fabre mentions the expulsion of eight teniae from a child. Occasionally the tapeworm is expelled from the mouth. Such cases are mentioned by Hitch and Martel. White speaks of a tapeworm which was discharged from the stomach after the use of an emetic. Lile mentions the removal of a tapeworm which had been in the bowel twenty-four years.

The peculiar effects of a tapeworm are exaggerated appet.i.te and thirst, nausea, headaches, vertigo, ocular symptoms, cardiac palpitation, and Mursinna has even observed a case of trismus, or lockjaw, due to taenia solium. Fereol speaks of a case of vertigo, accompanied with epileptic convulsions, which was caused by teniae. On the administration of kousso three heads were expelled simultaneously. There is a record of an instance of cardiac pulsation rising to 240 per minute, which ceased upon the expulsion of a large tapeworm. It is quite possible for the presence of a tapeworm to indirectly produce death. Garroway describes a case in which death was apparently imminent from the presence of a tapeworm. Kisel has recorded a fatal case of anemia, in a child of six, dependent on teniae.

The number of ascarides or round-worms in one subject is sometimes enormous. Victor speaks of 129 round-worms being discharged from a child in the short s.p.a.ce of five days. Pole mentions the expulsion of 441 lumbricoid worms in thirty-four days, and Fauconneau-Dufresne has reported a most remarkable case in which 5000 ascarides were discharged in less than three years, mostly by vomiting. The patient made an ultimate recovery.

There are many instances in which the lumbricoid worms have pierced the intestinal tract and made their way to other viscera, sometimes leading to an anomalous exit. There are several cases on record in which the lumbricoid worms have been found in the bladder. Pare speaks of a case of this kind during a long illness; and there is mention of a man who voided a worm half a yard long from his bladder after suppression of urine. The Ephemerides contains a curious case in which a stone was formed in the bladder, having for its nucleus a worm. Fontanelle presented to the Royal Academy of Medicine of Paris several yards of tapeworm pa.s.sed from the urethra of a man of fifty-three. The following is a quotation from the British Medical Journal: "I have at present a patient pa.s.sing in his urine a worm-like body, not unlike a tapeworm as far as the segments and general appearance are concerned, the length of each segment being about 1/4 inch, the breadth rather less; sometimes 1 1/2 segments are joined together. The worm is serrated on the one side, each segment having 1 1/2 cusps. The urine pale, faintly acid at first, within the last week became almost neutral. There was considerable vesical irritation for the first week, with abundant mucus in the urine, specific gravity was 1010; there were no alb.u.min nor tube-casts nor uric acid in the urinary sediments. Later there were pus-cells and abundant pus. Tenderness existed behind the prostate and along the course of left ureter. Temperature of patient oscillated from 97.5 degrees to 103.2 degrees F. There was no history at any time of recto-vesical fistula. Can anyone suggest the name, etc., of this helminth?"

Other cases of worms in the bladder are mentioned in Chapter XIII

Mitra speaks of the pa.s.sage of round-worms through the umbilicus of an adult; and there is a case mentioned in which round-worms about seven inches long were voided from the navel of a young child. Borgeois speaks of a lumbricoid worm found in the biliary pa.s.sages, and another in the air pa.s.sages.

Turnbull has recorded two cases of perforation of the tympanic membrane from lumbricoides. Dagan speaks of the issue of a lumbricoid from the external auditory meatus. Laughton reports an instance of lumbricoid in the nose. Rake speaks of asphyxia from a round-worm. Morland mentions the ejection of numerous lumbricoid worms from the mouth.

Worms have been found in the heart; and it is quite possible that in cases of trichinosis, specimens of the trichinae may be discovered anywhere in the line of cardiac or lymphatic circulation. Quoted by Fournier, Lapeyronnie has seen worms in the pericardial sac, and also in the ventricle. There is an old record of a person dying of intestinal worms, one of which was found in the left ventricle. Castro and Vidal speak of worms in the aorta. Rake reports a case of sudden death from round-worm; and Brown has noted a similar instance.

The echinococcus is a tiny cestode which is the factor in the production of the well-known hydatid cysts which may be found in any part of the body. Delafield and Prudden report the only instance of multilocular echinococcus seen in this country. Their patient was a German who had been in this country five years. There are only about 100 of these cases on record, most of them being in Bavaria and Switzerland.

The filaria sanguinis hominis is a small worm of the nematode species, the adult form of which lives in the lymphatics, and either the adult or the prematurely discharged ova (Manson) block the lymph-channels, producing the conditions of hematochyluria, elephantiasis, and lymph-s.c.r.o.t.u.m. The Dracunculus medinensis or Guinea-worm is a widely-spread parasite in parts of Africa and the West Indies.

According to Osler several cases have occurred in the United States.

Jarvis reports a case in a post-chaplain who had lived at Fortress Monroe, Va., for thirty years. Van Harlingen's patient, a man of forty-seven, had never lived out of Philadelphia, so that the worm must be included among the parasites infesting this country.

In February, 1896, Henry of Philadelphia showed microscopic slides containing blood which was infested with numbers of living and active filaria embryos. The blood was taken from a colored woman at the Woman's Hospital, who developed hematochyluria after labor. Henry believed that the woman had contracted the disease during her residence in the Southern States.

Curran gives quite an exhaustive article on the disease called in olden times "eaten of worms,"--a most loathsome malady. Herod the Great, the Emperor Galerius, and Philip II of Spain perished from it. In speaking of the Emperor Galerius, Dean Milman, in his "History of Latin Christianity," says, "a deep and fetid ulcer preyed on the lower parts of his body and ate them away into a ma.s.s of living corruption."

Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall," also says that "his (Galerius's) death was caused by a very painful and lingering disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate course of life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers and devoured by immense swarms of those insects who have given their names to this most loathsome disease." It is also said that the African Vandal King, the Arian Huneric, died of the disease.

Antiochus, surnamed the "Madman," was also afflicted with it; and Josephus makes mention of it as afflicting the body of Herod the Great.

The so-called "King Pym" died of this "morbus pedicularis," but as prejudice and pa.s.sion militated against him during his life and after his death, this fact is probably more rumor than verity. A case is spoken of by Curran, which was seen by an army-surgeon in a very aged woman in the remote parts of Ireland, and another in a female in a dissecting-room in Dublin. The tissues were permeated with lice which emerged through rents and fissures in the body.

Instances of the larvae of the estrus or the bot-fly in the skin are not uncommon. In this country Allen removed such larvae from the skin of the neck, head, and arm of a boy of twelve. Bethune, Delavigne, Hows.h.i.+p, Jacobs, Jannuzzi and others, report similar cases. These flesh-flies are called creophilae, and the condition they produce is called myiosis. According to Osler, in parts of Central America, the eggs of a bot-fly, called the dermatobia, are not infrequently deposited in the skin, and produce a swelling very like the ordinary boil. Matas has described a case in which the estrus larvae were found in the gluteal region. Finlayson of Glasgow has recently reported an interesting case in a physician who, after protracted constipation and pain in the back and sides, pa.s.sed large numbers of the larvae of the flower-fly, anthomyia canicularis, and there are other instances of myiosis interna from swallowing the larvae of the common house-fly.

There are forms of nasal disorder caused by larvae, which some native surgeons in India regard as a chronic and malignant ulceration of the mucous membranes of the nose and adjacent sinuses in the debilitated and the scrofulous. Worms lodging in the cribriform plate of the ethmoid feed on the soft tissues of that region. Eventually their ravages destroy the olfactory nerves, with subsequent loss of the sense of smell, and they finally eat away the bridge of the nose. The head of the victim droops, and he complains of crawling of worms in the interior of the nose. The eyelids swell so that the patient cannot see, and a deformity arises which exceeds that produced by syphilis. Lyons says that it is one of the most loathsome diseases that comes under the observation of medical men. He describes the disease as "essentially a scrofulous inflammation of the Schneiderian membrane, ... which finally attacks the bones." Flies deposit their ova in the nasal discharges, and from their infection maggots eventually arise. In Sanskrit peenash signifies disease of the nose, and is the Indian term for the disease caused by the deposition of larvae in the nose. It is supposed to be more common in South America than in India.

CHAPTER XVI.

ANOMALOUS SKIN-DISEASES.

Ichthyosis is a disease of the skin characterized by a morbid development of the papillae and thickening of the epidermic lamellae; according as the skin is affected over a larger or smaller area, or only the epithelial lining of the follicles, it is known as ichthyosis diffusa, or ichthyosis follicularis. The hardened ma.s.ses of epithelium develop in excess, the epidermal layer loses in integrity, and the surface becomes scaled like that of a fish. Ichthyosis may be congenital, and over sixty years ago Steinhausen described a fetal monster in the anatomic collection in Berlin, the whole surface of whose body was covered with a thick layer of epidermis, the skin being so thick as to form a covering like a coat-of-mail. According to Rayer the celebrated "porcupine-man" who exhibited himself in England in 1710 was an example of a rare form of ichthyosis. This man's body, except the face, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet, was covered with small excrescences in the form of p.r.i.c.kles. These appendages were of a reddish-brown color, and so hard and elastic that they rustled and made a noise when the hand was pa.s.sed over their surfaces. They appeared two months after birth and fell off every winter, to reappear each summer. In other respects the man was in very good health. He had six children, all of whom were covered with excrescences like himself. The hands of one of these children has been represented by Edwards in his "Gleanings of Natural History." A picture of the hand of the father is shown in the fifty-ninth volume of the Philosophical Transactions.

Pettigrew mentions a man with warty elongations encasing his whole body. At the parts where friction occurred the points of the elongations were worn off. This man was called "the biped armadillo."

His great grandfather was found by a whaler in a wild state in Davis's Straits, and for four generations the male members of the family had been so encased. The females had normal skins. All the members of the well-known family of Lambert had the body covered with spines. Two members, brothers, aged twenty-two and fourteen, were examined by Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. This thickening of the epidermis and hair was the effect of some morbid predisposition which was transmitted from father to son, the daughters not being affected. Five generations could be reckoned which had been affected in the manner described.

The "porcupine-man" seen by Baker contracted small-pox, and his skin was temporarily freed from the squamae, but these reappeared shortly afterward. There are several older records of p.r.i.c.kly men or porcupine-men. Ascanius mentions a porcupine-man, as do Buffon and Schreber. Autenreith speaks of a porcupine-man who was covered with innumerable verrucae. Martin described a remarkable variety of ichthyosis in which the skin was covered with strong hairs like the bristles of a boar. When numerous and thick the scales sometimes a.s.sumed a greenish-black hue. An example of this condition was the individual who exhibited under the name of the "alligator-boy." Figure 286 represents an "alligator-boy" exhibited by C. T. Taylor. The skin affected in this case resembled in color and consistency that of a young alligator. It was remarked that his olfactory sense was intact.

The harlequin fetus, of which there are specimens in Guy's Hospital, London Hospital, and the Royal College of Surgeons Museum, is the result of ichthyosis congenita. According to Crocker either after the removal of the vernix caseosa, which may be thick, or as the skin dries it is noticeably red, smooth, s.h.i.+ny, and in the more severe cases covered with actual plates. In the harlequin fetus the whole surface of the body is thickly covered with fatty epidermic plates, about 1/16 inch in thickness, which are broken up by horizontal and vertical fissures, and arranged transversely to the surface of the body like a loosely-built stone wall. After birth these fissures may extend down into the corium, and on movement produce much pain. The skin is so stiff and contracted that the eyes cannot be completely opened or shut, the lips are too stiff to permit of sucking, and are often inverted; the nose and ears are atrophied, the toes are contracted and cramped, and, if not born dead, the child soon dies from starvation and loss of heat. When the disease is less severe the child may survive some time.

Crocker had a patient, a male child one month old, who survived three months. Hallopeau and Elliot also report similar cases.

Contagious follicular keratosis is an extremely rare affection in which there are peculiar, spine-like outgrowths, consisting in exudations of the mouths of the sebaceous glands. Leloir and Vidal shorten the name to acne cornee.

Erasmus Wilson speaks of it as ichthyosis sebacea cornea. H. G. Brooke describes a case in a girl of six. The first sign had been an eruption of little black spots on the nape of the neck. These spots gradually developed into papules, and the whole skin took on a dirty yellow color. Soon afterward the same appearances occurred on both shoulders, and, in the same order, spread gradually down the outer sides of the arms--first black specks, then papules, and lastly pigmentation. The black specks soon began to project, and comedo-like plugs and small, spine-like growths were produced. Both the spines and plugs were very hard and firmly-rooted. They resisted firm pressure with the forceps, and when placed on sheets of paper rattled like sc.r.a.ps of metal. A direct history of contagion was traced from this case to others.

Mibelli describes an uncommon form of keratodermia (porokeratosis). The patient was a man of twenty-one, and exhibited the following changes in his skin: On the left side of the neck, beyond a few centimeters below the lobe of the ear, there were about ten small warty patches, irregularly scattered, yellowish-brown in color, irregular in outline, and varying in size from a lentil to a half-franc piece, or rather more. Similar patches were seen on other portions of the face. Patches of varying size and form, sharply limited by a kind of small, peripheral "dike," sinuous but uninterrupted, of a color varying from red to whitish-red, dirty white, and to a hue but little different from that of the healthy skin. Similar patches were seen on the right hand, and again on the back of the right hand was a wide s.p.a.ce, prolonged upward in the form of a broad band on the posterior surface of the forearm to just below the olecranon, where the skin was a little smoother and thinner than the surrounding skin, and altogether bare of hairs. The disease was noticed at the age of two, and gradually progressed. The patient always enjoyed the most perfect health, but had contracted syphilis three years before. A brother of the patient, aged twenty-four, for sixteen years has had the same skin-affection as this patient, on the back of the hand, and the sister and father had noticed similar lesions.