Selected monographs.

  • New Sydenham Society.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    88/372 (page 74)
    After having had during three years very abundant catanienia she had arrived at the critical age. Some little time afterwards she felt cramps and glacial cold in the fingers of the two hands ; the digits became very pale, the little finger of the right hand showed a patch of less than a centimetre in diameter on the dorsal side of the last joint, but soon afterwards the extremity of the middle finger and of the ring finger became gangrenous and dried up. This malady had progressed very slowly. It had lasted for ten months when I saw this lady. The affected fingers had lost their extremities up to the level of the terminal articu- lation ; cicatrisation had advanced in some measure under the scar. There was commencing gangrene in the pulp of the right index finger ; the left index and middle fingers shov/ed a similar condition equally limited to the pulp. On the scar being detached, the nail corresponding to it was found curved so as to accommo- date itself to the new form of the extremity of the finger. The thumbs and toes took no part in the progress of the disease, but the patient felt sometimes prickings in them. I recommended infusion of cinchona bark with a little opium internally, and for external use lotions of decoction of cinchona bark with a little camphorated spirit added to it. This gangrene was absolutely dry, without odour, without suppuration or putrefaction; there were neither febrile nor nervous symptom; there was no swelling or redness of the hand or the fingers. The temperature of the affected fingers was a little cool, but almost normal; the pulsations of the radial and ulnar arteries were easily felt. This woman, who is of a sanguine temperament, with habitual injection of the capillaries of the face, has enjoyed good health. Examination of the heart revealed nothing abnormal about that organ ; there was neither dyspnoea, cough, nor palpitation; the digestive tract was in good condition. The patient's habitual mode of life was healthy and regular. She had been lowered by previous treatment, but tonics very quickly improved her general condition. Mme. D. was'able to attend to her occupations as the mother of a family ; her recovery was quite satisfactory, and her health has been good for the last three years. This case interested me very much. My endeavours to ascer- tain the causes of the gangrene were altogether fruitless. ' If this woman had had any previous illness one might have regarded