CAUSES OF ACUTE ATROPHY. 87 



several children. She had a very active brain, which 

 was endowed with remarkably keen perceptive faculties, 

 coupled with a highly nervous and excitable tempera- 

 ment ; the greater portion of her face was covered with 

 the Panii'i* kepaticiis,oi liver spots ; and take her all in all, 

 she was indeed a fair specimen of a " veritable Xantippe." 

 Her husband, on the contrary, was a man of " fair pro- 

 portions," manly in form, gentlemanly in manner, and 

 amiable in disposition, and submitted with stoical 

 philosophy to his wife's frequent outbursts of ill 

 temper. In the month of July, 1865, after an un- 

 usually violent and outrageous paroxysm of passion, 

 she became suddenly jaundiced, followed by headache 

 and despondency, which alternated with irritability 

 and great restlessness. She occasionally vomited 

 mucus, bile, and the ingesta ; the tongue became furred, 

 the mouth dry, the appetite failed, the bowels irregular, 

 ami there was considerable pain (on pressure) over the 

 epigastric and hypochondriac region. She continued in 

 this condition for two days, when she aborted. After 

 this the symptoms became more alarming, and were 

 succeeded by low, muttering delirium, tremors, twitch- 

 n id rigidity of the muscles ; the urine was scanty, 

 the bowels irregular, and the faeces of a dark, grumous 

 character; the tongue became brown and dry, and the 

 ami lips covered with sordes ; the pulse was 

 small, quick, and jerking, varying from 120 to 130 

 strokes to the minute. Percussion revealed consider- 

 able diminution in the hepatic area, with an increase 

 over the region of the spleen ; the abdomen was tym- 

 panitic. In this condition she continued for another 

 twelve hours, when she became more tranquil and passed 



