Latent gastric ulcer / by Frederick Henry Alderson.

Date:
[1895?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Latent gastric ulcer / by Frederick Henry Alderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    5/24
    By Frederick Henry Alderson, M.D. Hon. Vice-President of West London Medico-Chirurgical Society, and Ex-President of the Incorporated Medical Practitioners' Association. I ESTEEM it a privilege to have the opportunity of taking part in so important and interesting a subject for debate as gastric ulcer, the existence of which is often unsuspected, the symptoms frequently being obscure, and ergo, the disease is in' consequence concealed or unrecognised. This was the case in the history of the two pathological specimens that I have the honour of showing the Society this evening. In the smaller specimen, kindly lent me by Dr. Donald Hood, the senior physician of this hospital, the symptoms were, at least during the life and illness of the patient, entirely latent. I have taken great interest in the subject of gastric ulceration, and thinking the disease is very frequent and often unrecognised, I obtained the permission of Dr. Collier, the medical officer of health for this district (containing over 100,000 inhabitants), to examine the mor- tality tables for the last five years, and I find out of 8305 deaths, in only ten (six males and four females) is gastric ulcer given as a cause of death. Five of these were from perforation, and four out of the five deaths were females; in two others perforation is mentioned as the immediate cause of death, but one of these was certified as arising from cancer of the pylorus, and the other, a male, aged 72, was certified as the sequel to pernicious anaemia, the result,' no doubt, of malignant disease. I have not included either in the ten registered deaths from gastric ulcer, but I think it quite probable, as no post-mortem was made, that the perforation in both cases was due to gastric ulcer. A death was also registered of a man, aged 81, from senile gastric disease : this, too, may mean gastric ulcer. On October 29th, 1894, the sister of a medical friend, aged 60, had been feeling very unwell with painful dyspeptic symptoms, for which she consulted a well known hospital physician and a recognised authority on gastric ulcer (Dr Habershon). After careful examination of the patient, he was able to allay anxiety by the assurance that her illness Novem'ber Medico-Chirurgical Society.