19HOSPITAL MEDICINE AND SURGERY.

enlarged ; this was interesting because both tonsils were

partially removed before her attack of scarlet fever. She spokewith a nasal intonation and liquid returned through the nose.There were no other palsies. The grasps were equal ; re-flexes normal ; walking normal ; no history of congenitalsyphilis, nor could the paralysis be accounted for in any way.The lesion must have been above the geniculate ganglion tocause the implication of the soft palate. There was

nothing in the case to suggest syphilitic or new growthimplication of the nerve or neighbouring nerves and it is

probable that the neuritis extended up to the point mentioned.But such a ’bold statement is not by any means sufficient.Gowers1 says : "My own observations have led me toentertain considerable doubt as to the occurrence of

paralysis of the palate from disease limited to the facialnerve in any part of its course." Only once in 100 caseshad he found paralysis of the palate and this wason the side opposite to the palsy of the face. "The bestestablished fact regarding paralysis of the palate is that it isproduced by disease at the side of the medulla, damagingthe hypoglossal and spinal accessory. " Gowers is of opinionthat it is very doubtful whether the petrosal branches of thefacial nerve supply the palate and considers the spinal accessoryresponsible. Hughlings Jackson also says that he has neverseen paralysis of the palate due to disease of the facial nerve.Other writers, however, are of opinion that paralysis of thepalate does occur in cases of facial paralysis sometimes.Any suggestion that might be made as to this being anotherinstance of anatomical or physiological eccentricity of the palatecan be met with the fact that fluids returned through thenose, showing unmistakably that there was paralysis. It wason the same side as the lesion and not on the opposite, as inGowers’ case. At no time was it possible to detect evidencesof disease in other or neighbouring portions of the nervoussystem, and with the exception of the facial paralysis thechild, as far as could be discovered, was perfectly well. Shewas seen by Dr. Syers of the Great Northern Hospital andhe quite concurred with the diagnosis which had been made.Until something occurs to negative this supposition the

original diagnosis must hold good. Her name and the datewhen she was last seen have been given, so that should shehave passed under the care of any other physician a sequelmay be added. The child has left the address given and nofurther tidings of her can be obtained.CASE 3.-A child aged seven years attended on April 13th,

1891. She had suffered from pain in the head and right earfor years. Her mouth was drawn to one side for a week.There was a neurotic history in the family in the shape ofchorea, convulsions and epilepsy, and a great-aunt was in anasylum till she died. Three weeks back the child hadan unusually severe" screaming fit " at night. She woke

up screaming at midnight, did not know her mother and wouldnot speak to her. She soon fell asleep, however. The next

morning the girl was "puffy about the eyes. " A week ago shecomplained of pain in the head and right ear and she wasnoticed .to be deaf on the right side ; the face was drawn tothe left side. The child was thin-faced and pale ; the rightside of the face was expressionless, the right eye watery andthe mouth drawn over towards the left side. When shefrowned the left eyebrow alone moved. The right eye couldnot be closed; tongue protruded naturally; soft palate normal.Right ear : Tympanic membrane (?) marked by desquamatingscales. She could not hear a watch held half an inchfrom the right ear. When the watch touched the mastoid pro-cess she could hear it. She had a discharge from the ear whenquite young ; nothing seen for two years.-April 20th : Muchabout the same.-June 22nd : Face is much better.CASE 4.-A boy aged two years and five months attended

as Dr. George Carpenter’s out-patient on Dec. 17th, 1891.On getting up a week prior to this he fell and could not standup. He was quite well the night before ; not subject to fits.There was never a discharge from the ears ; no history of ex-posure to draught or cold. The following day something wrongwas noticed with his face. The patellar reflexes were brisk.The arms were used equally and well. When the child

laughed or cried the left angle of the mouth and the leftorbicularis palpebrarum did not move. The eyeball did notroll up when an attempt was made to close the eye. Thesoft palate moved equally. The ears were full of wax, butotherwise normal. In three weeks’ time under galvanism hewas almost well.

1 Diseases of the Brain, p. 218.2 THE LANCET, April 2nd, 1887.

SEAMEN’S HOSPITAL, GREENWICH.ABSCESS OF LIVER WHICH RESULTED IN DEATH FROM

SEPTICÆMIA.

(Under the care of Dr. CURNOW.)THIS case was an interesting one in many particulars, for

(1) the rigors were so regular day by day that malarialfever was diagnosed and the plasmodium sought for until thefailure of quinine and other anti-malarial remedies led to achange in the diagnosis, for although septicaemia frequentlysimulates the rigors of an ague, yet this case shows this co-incidence most strikingly; (2) the paroxysms of fever occurreddaily for over fifty days, and on one occasion a temperatureof 108° was noted ; (3) the abscess could not have beenreached, even if its situation had been diagnosed ; (4) theage of the abscess as shown by the thickness of its capsuleand its fibrous character, but yet causing death by pyæmia,with secondary abscesses in both lungs as well as in theliver ; and (5) the absence of any dysenteric mischief in theintestine. For the notes of this case we are indebted toDr. Spencer, house physician.The patient, a German, aged thirty-nine, was admitted

into the Seamen’s Hospital, Greenwich, on Oct. 5th, com-plaining of daily shivering fits followed by sweating andfever. He had been a sailor for the greater part of his life,but had not lately visited any malarial countries. Eightyears ago he was at Panama, but had no fever there and hadnever suffered from dysentery. Three months before admis-sion, when at Boston, U.S., he was attacked with pain in theright side, which he attributed to a strain caused by lifting aheavy weight. He was laid up in hospital for five days, afterwhich he recovered and seems to have kept in his usualhealth until two days after reaching England (Sept. 30th),when he began to suffer with severe shivering fits every day,followed by fever and sweating and accompanied by severeheadache. In the intervals between these attacks he expressedhimself as feeling fairly well.On admission (Oct. 5th) the patient was a well-nourished

man with a sallow complexion; there were no abnormal.

physical signs over the lungs or heart ; the splenic dul-ness was enlarged and the edge of the spleen was justpalpable ; the liver could be felt about two inches belowthe costal margin in the nipple line and was a littletender on palpation; the tongue was much furred ; theurine was free from albumen or bile pigment. Everyday he was attacked with a violent rigor, with a rise oftemperature to 103° or 104°, followed by profuse sweating.The attacks came on generally in the evening and lasted.from twenty minutes to a couple of hours. During theserigors he was in much distress, with rapid pulse and respira-tion, vomited and complained of pains about the body. Hewas fairly comfortable, however, in the intervals. Examina-tion of the blood showed nothing abnormal, except someincrease in the number of white corpuscles. He was treatedfirst of all with quinine, to which in a few days arsenic wasadded. By Oct. 21st the quinine was increased to fifteengrains every six hours. This treatment had no effect on thecourse of the disease. The rigors continued. The tempera-ture rose higher than ever during the attacks, reaching on oneoccasion 108°. A few days were passed without a rigor, butoccasionally two would occur on the same day ; theyoccurrèdmore frequently in the evening than at other times, but therewas no marked periodicity in the times of their occurrence.By Oct. 29th he had lost some flesh and had developed a.

cachectic appearance with sallow, earthy complexion ; tinc-ture of eucalyptus was ordered in three-grain doses andsteadily increased without any influence on the disease.After continuing much in the same condition for about

three weeks he became markedly worse, pleuritic friction de-veloped over the lungs in the infra-axillary regions andin front of the chest on either side and coarse rales were heardover the lower part of both lungs, especially on the rightside, with some impairment of resonance. Some intermittentpain was complained of in the right shoulder and arm.On Nov. 25th Warburg’s tincture was ordered. The

temperature now became less oscillating, although still veryirregular. The respiration became continuously hurried andthe strength failed rapidly. There was towards the closesome cough, with thick muco-purulent sputum in smallquantity. Death occurred somewhat suddenly on the morningof the 28th.

-zVee2,&psy, Nov. 29th.-The liver was considerably enA 3

20 HOSPITAL MEDICINE AND SURGERY.

1 arged. In the posterior part of the right lobe, beneath thediaphragm, to which the organ was densely adherent, was anold abscess about as large as an orange. This abscess wassurrounded by a dense whitish capsule and contained verythick, curdy pus ; at its upper part was a small perfora-tion through the diaphragm communicating with theright lung. In the neighbourhood and internal to itthe liver substance was breaking down, riddled withnumerous small abscesses containing a thinner greenishpus. The right lung was adherent to the chest walland bound down to the diaphragm by dense adhesions. Thelower lobe was honeycombed with abscesses containingthick green pus, one of them as large as a pigeon’s egg,several others rather smaller ; there were also small scatteredabscesses in the middle lobe and one near the apex of the

upper lobe. The left lung was free from adhesions, the lowerlobe contained several small abscesses near the surface andsome fairly recent infarcts already breaking down in thecentre, one of them about the size of a walnut. The left

kidney was in a condition of hydronephrosis evidently of longstanding, the upper part of the ureter being much dilated.The right kidney had undergone compensatory hypertrophy,but was healthy in structure. The bladder was small, with ahypertrophied wall. No calculi were found. The spleen wasenlarged and soft, but contained no abscesses and was freefrom infarction. There was some clear straw-coloured fluidin the peritoneal cavity, but no signs of lymph. The intestinewas perfectly healthy. The heart was natural in appearance,with the exception of slight thickening of the mitral valve.

LINCOLN COUNTY HOSPITAL.CASE OF SWALLOWING A RAZOR ; GASTROTOMY ; DEATH.

(Under the care of Mr. W. J. CANT.)IT would occupy too much of the space at our disposal to

enumera,te the various foreign substances which have beenintroduced into the stomach either by accident or by design,and we need mention only those which, from their character,consistence or shape, have necessitated removal by the operationof gastrotomy. The first recorded instance of the operation(which has been a very successful one) is that by Mathis ofBrandenburg in 1602, who removed a knife nine inches inlength from a man aged thirty-nine. Beckhar of Dantzic in1636 removed a knife from a peasant, which was afterwardspreserved in the library at Konigsberg. Dr. A. C. Bernays re-moved a knife nine inches and a half long an hour after itsingestion. He refers in his paper to thirteen published accountsof the operation spread over a period of 251 years. ProfessorLoreta removed several needles from the stomach of a

young woman. M. Pollaillon removed a steel fork whichhad been swallowed by a juggler. A magnetic needle sus-pended by a cord proved useful in establishing the dia-

gnosis. Dr. M. E. Witte of Iowa removed a heavily plated four-pronged spoon-handled fork seven and a half inches in lengthfrom the stomach of an insane woman about three monthsafter it had been swallowed. The prongs of the fork had pene-trated through the stomach wall into the wall of the abdomen.Dr. Radestock operated on a prisoner who had attempted ,,u ’cide. Twenty-three days afterwards the latter had swal-lowed a rubber cliff, five pieces of glass (each as broad as thefinger) and ten pieces of wood (each as long as the fingerand as thick as the thumb). It was necessary to open theintestine to remove some of these. After recovery from thefirst operation h2 again swallowed similar pieces of wood,which had to be removed from the intestine. Dr. M. H.Richardson operated on a lady who had swallowed on threeconsecutive days a gold pencil-ca,se, a large open safety-pin,a steel crochet needle five inches in length and severalcommon pins. The safety-pin was the only foreign bodyfound in the stomach and had perforated its coats. One

pin and the pencil-case were subsequently passed per anum ;the other things were not again seen. Perier recorded thecase of a man who had swallowed a teaspoon; he proved itspresence in the stomach by means of an electric exploringinstrument and afterwards removed it by operation. Mr. D.Lowson removed a skewer seven inches and a half in lengthwhich had penetrated through the parietes, but could notbe removed without operation on account of a piece of claypipe which was attached to it in a transverse direction. Wemust not omit reference to the performance of this operation for

the removal of masses of hair-forming tumours occupying theinterior of the stomach ; they hardly come under the samecategory as the cases above enumerated, the formation of themasses being slow and their diagnosis difficult ; the resultsobtained by Knowsley Thornton, Schönbarn and John Bergin the three recorded cases were brilliant. In a recentnumber of THE LANCET we referred to some instances inwhich gastrotomy was performed to enable foreign bodiesimpacted in the lower part of the oesophagus to be removed.

Mrs. S-, aged sixty-eight, was admitted into the LincolnCounty Hospital on Tuesday, Dec. 13th, 1892, as she said shehad’ swallowed a razor" for the purpose of destroying her life.She was in a very depressed state of mind, frequently sayingshe was "lost" and that there was no hope for her. " Shetold her tale clearly and Mr. Cant felt convinced she haddone as she said. The friends, however, were doubtful ;they thought she must be under some delusion, especially asthey had, so far as they knew, removed everything withwhich she could destroy herself. The razor case had, how-ever, been found empty. Thirty years ago she had attemptedsuicide and had been detained for some time in an

asylum. It was elicited from her friends that she was a’’ bleeder." She had been bleeding from the gums and mouthfor five or six weeks before her admission into the hospital.On examining the pharynx a slight abrasion was found andfrom this blood frequently came. The tongue was crackedand sore. This continued so throughout. No symptoms orsigns of the razor could at first be detected, so it was decidedto watch the case, also to endeavour to determine experi-mentally the presence of the razor. Dr. Belcher, sciencemaster to the Science and Art Schools, Lincoln, attemptedto do this by means of the compass needle, having firstmagnetised the razor; this gave no satisfactory result.Mr. Cant then ordered her twenty drops of dilute hydro-chloric acid. After an hour the stomach was washed out,the washings collected, filtered, evaporated down and redis-solved. The presence of iron in a large quantity was shownby the Prussian-blue test. At a consultation held on Satur-day, Dec. 17th, it was decided to wait for further proof. On

Sunday morning (the 18th) the end of the razor could beclearly felt, fixed at the pyloric end of the stomach. OnSunday night she had vomiting and slight pain. It wasdecided to operate on Monday, the 19th, at 12.30 P.M.

Operation.-No food was given by the mouth for eighteenhours before the operation, the patient being fed on nutrientenemata. Fifteen minutes before the operation one-sixth ofa grain of morphia was administered subcutaneously andA. C. E. mixture was given by Mr. Watkins, the house sur-

geon, whose unremitting care together with that of thenurses deserve the highest praise. The skin of the abdomen,as also everything that would be likely to come in contactwith the wound, was made aseptic. An incision four inches

long was made in the middle line above the umbilicus directlydown to the peritoneum. This, after complete cessation of thebleeding, was opened on a director. The left lobe of theliver came into view and on passing the finger down to thestomach Mr. Cant felt the razor lying lengthwise therein, thenarrow end in the cardiac region. The finger was passedbehind the stomach, which was with some difficulty broughtforward into the wound, with the narrow end of the razorprojecting in it. A small opening was made into the stomachso that the small end of the razor projected through it. Alittle of the gastric juice escaped, but none was allowed to getinto the abdominal cavity. There was some bleeding fromthe stomach wound and it was necessary to tie a smallartery. The razor, six inches and a half long, was thendrawn through the wound. Hot pads of sal alembroth woolwere constantly applied to prevent any chilling of theabdominal contents. The stomach wound was then stitchedup with a double row of eight fine silk sutures (anordinary sewing needle being used). This was doneby Czerny’s method. The stomach was then returned.The abdominal incision was sutured with silk and dressedantiseptically. The patient was then removed to a warm bedand fed with pancreatised milk enemata every four hours(an egg was added on Dec. 21st to every half-pint ofmilk). These she retained throughout. Nothing whateverwas given by the mouth, but it was occasionally sponged outwith cold water till 9.30 P.M., when she had a teaspoonful oftoast-water. This was repeated occasionally, as she had

great craving for drink. She remained comfortable andslept at intervals ; she was pleased when she heard the razorhad been removed and her mental condition improved fromthat time. She voided urine naturally and thirteen hours