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both of weak texture, and easily broken down; the structure of the liver rather coarse. The gall-ducts pervious. The gall-bladder contained the usual quantity of bile, which was thin, watery and clear. The thoracic duct was pervious throughout; and there was no obstruction to any of the veins or arteries that I could discover. The colour of the blood in the arteries had an unusually dark appearance. The kidneys were quite healthy and of full size. The supra-renal capsules were diseased on both sides, the left about the size of a hen’s egg, with the head of the pancreas firmly tied down to it by adhesions. Both capsules were as hard as stones. Intestines pale. Lumbar glands natural. No tubercular deposit was discovered in any organ. The head was not examined. (Vide Pl. 1)
In some of the cases about to be given, the capsules merely participated in disease affecting other organs, either of a strumous or malignant character, and it might consequently be doubtful whether the peculiar symptoms depended upon such complications, or upon the special disease of the capsules.
In the above instance, however, no such doubt could reasonably be entertained,
inasmuch as there was found no abnormal condition whatever of any organ,
to which these peculiar symptoms could by any means be attributed.
The slow and gradual inroads of the disease, and the remarkable excess of
pigment, were sufficiently accounted for by the universality of the change
that had taken place in the structure of both capsules; at least such
would be the legitimate conclusion to be drawn from a comparison of the
present with other cases about to be related.
c 2