Memoir on leprosy in Syria / by John Wortabet.

  • Wortabet, John, 1827-1908.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoir on leprosy in Syria / by John Wortabet. 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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    end of three months, the discolorations had considerably subsided, his general health was better, the face clearer, and the hands and feet more norrnai; but the anaesthesia was the same in every respect as before. It was, however, doubtful whether the improvement was the result of the treatment, or of the cooler season of winter. In his previous attacks he had always got better in winter. Since that date the affection of the skin of the trunk and thighs has passed away, and the disease has been confined to the extremities and face. His beard has become well developed, but the face is still red and darkish. The insensibility of the hands and feet has rather increased than otherwise, and bullae occasionally appear on them. He has lost one of his great toes by ulceration, and the ring and small finger of one hand are contracted and bent. He left a few days ago to try the hot baths of Tiberias. Case 4.—M. S—, male, aged 25, non-tuberculated, (anaesthetic patches '). The disease began, three years before, in the form of a patch on the external aspect of the thigh, which has continued to increase in size until it measures now ten inches in length, and six in breadth. It is hairless ; colour somewhat dusky; and wholly insensible to the prick of a pin. There are two other patches on the face, one on the left cheek hairless, the other on the right side of the chin having a few hairs; both are anaesthetic. The patient has a sallow look, and his general health is feeble. Case 5.—K. E—, male, aged 72, native of Mount Lebanon; mixed form. The patient states that the disease commenced twelve years ago with swelling of hands and feet, which subsided four months afterwards. The forehead was also swollen, and there was much hypersesthesia in both ears. Numbness of the extremities set in from the commencement, and bullse broke out on them. A year ago, tubercules appeared on the forearms. Up to sixty years of age, he had enjoyed remarkably good health. Pace now somewhat dusky and thickened, but sensitive; lobules of the ears anaesthetic; eyebrows and beard thinned, while most of the cilia are gone; eyes red with venules; has arcus senilis j nose running, the Schneiderian membrane ulcerated, and that part of the triangular cartilage which enters into the formation of the septum of the nose completely eaten off; the inferior turbinated bones appear to be whole; the vomer is gone; the discharge from the nose is thin fetid pus; the soft palate and glottis (examined with the laryngoscope) are red, but not ulcerated. i 1 This is evidently the hlaclc Baras (lepra nigricans) of the Arabs. Dr. H. V. ’ Carter, of Bombay, makes it a third and distinct form of leprosy. Judging, how- ever, from the history of the previous case, I am disposed to think that it will ultimately terminate in the usual non-tuberculated form. Avicenna says distinctly that the black Baras is one of the phenomena which precede el judham.