Cases and observations on the molluscum contagiosum of Bateman : with an account of the minute structure of the tumours / by Robert Paterson.

  • Paterson, Robert, 1814-1889.
Date:
[1840?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases and observations on the molluscum contagiosum of Bateman : with an account of the minute structure of the tumours / by Robert Paterson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    On the back of its luuuls a considerable number of tubercles are seen w liicli have been jiroduced by applying them to the face, and scratch- ing those situated there during their inflammatory stage. Some of the tubercles are small, others large, some in a state of active in- flammation, otliers nearly of the same colour as the skin, and quite free from pain. A few of them are pedunculated, but the greater of these number are attached by broad bases. They are seen on different parts of the face, on the forehead, eyelids, nose, lips, red of the lips, cheeks, and under the chin. Those under the chin have produced a considerable degree of inflammation of the skin, and tumefaction of the submaxillary glands. Two or three appear to be decaying, are shrunk and corrugated, and of a reddish brown hue. It is three months since the first appearance of the disease. The mother, though in the constant habit of nursing the youngest child, has not been infected. I am also enabled, through the kindness of Professor Thomson, to add another series of cases of this rare affection, which, some time after the last mentioned ones, came under his observation. Professor Thomson was consulted regarding the child of a farmer in the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh, who was affected with this disease in its characteristic form. It was traced to have been com- municated to this child of the farmer's by a child of one of the farm servants ; but this case could not be traced further. The farmer's child suffered severely from conjunctivitis, produced by the irri- tation of the tubercles on the edge of the eyelids. The disease was next communicated to the servant girl, who was in the habit of keeping the child during its illness, and appeared in its usual form on that side of the neck alone against which the child was in the habit of laying its face when affected with the ophthalmia. I he above cases appear to me extremely interesting in so far as they point out in the most unequivocal manner the contagious na- ture of the disease. The first case of this disease which I had an opportunity of wit- nessing occurred at the village of Newhaven in the month of De- cember 1810. The child, a girl about eighteen months old, ex- tremely robust and active, and belonging to one of the cleanliest and best class of fisher people, had been affected with the eruption for the last three months. It was first observed in the neighbour- hood of the month and nose, and it now occupies the same localities togetlier witli the lower eyelids, and a few thinly scattered over the cheeks and neck. The mother states, that, when it was first seen, the tubercles had very much their present appearance. This child was nursed on one breast, and, althongh weaned, has the habit of still sucking it. The tuberck's vary in size from that of a pin-head to a horse-bean,—the smaller ones having very much the whitu opaque appearance of pearly granulations, the larger ones bein<r ;v little more coloured. Tlic smaller tmes are round, the larger ones oblong and irregular in shape, very much resembling that of a horsel bean. They are sessile on u contracted base, not pediculated. !irg('r ones only emit a wliitish fluid when pressed. 'J hey seeni to be not the slightest source of uneasiness to the child, and do not ^ven appear painful when pretty roughly handled.