VOL. XXXV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 1'J'J 



Of Ttvo uncommon Cases of Tumours of the Abdomen, from a Latin Tract 

 published at Strashurgh, Anno 1728, and entitled, Joannis Boeder i, M.D. &c. 

 ad Exteros Medicos Epistola. By IV. Rutty, M. D. R. S. Seer. N° 405, 

 p. 362. 



The first case is that of a woman of Strasburgh, 32 years of age, whose 

 belly, after an immature and hasty labour, grew gradually for 10 years together. 

 During the whole time of gestation, she complained chiefly of the weight and 

 heaviness of her belly ; and sometimes of a tense pain and a difficulty in re- 

 spiration : she said also that flatuses would sometimes be discharged from the 

 pudenda, and the more they were so, the less uneasiness she perceived. The 

 menstrua were regular as to time ; but in the latter months, towards her death, 

 she grew plainly cachectic. Her countenance was cadaverous ; her breast and 

 upper limbs perfectly emaciated; her feet oedematous, and the belly much more 

 turgid and prominent than before ; so that at length she breathed with the 

 utmost difficulty, and on taking any nourishment, complained of a great strait- 

 ness in her chest. On opening the abdomen, 2 days after her death, some 

 water flowed out, of a wheyish colour ; but on dividing the uterus, a plentiful 

 quantity of a bloody liquor issued from it, with 71 molae of different figures and 

 solidity, and chiefly of a black colour. One only adhered to the lower part of 

 the right side of the uterus, contiguous to its internal orifice. These solid sub- 

 stances weighed 64 oz. ; as the liquor also filled 15 ancient Alsace measures, so 

 that taken together, the whole weighed 80 lb. apothecaries weight. The skin 

 of the abdomen was very thin, and almost transparent ; the navel perfectly 

 obliterated ; the fat almost entirely consumed ; the muscles pale, flaccid, and 

 very thin also ; and the peritonaeum in some places so strongly attached to the 

 uterus, that it could not, without the utmost difficulty, be torn from it. The 

 body of the uterus, which is naturally thick, was extenuated to the same de- 

 gree of rarity and transparency with that of the cutis of the abdomen, and of 

 a surprising capacity. The liver appeared pale, and so flaccid that it might be 

 easily rubbed to pieces. The height of the belly from the vertebrae of the loins 

 to the navel measured ]i foot; its length from the cartiingo ensiformis to the 

 pudenda, 1^ feet ; and its circumference at the waist, 4 feet 2\ inches, though 

 the woman was naturally of a small size and etature. 



The 2d case is that of a maid-servant in the same city, of 23 years of age, 

 whose belly, from a suppression of the menstrua, grew slowly for 3 years, with- 

 out any other notable disorder ; till on an accidental fall, it increased so much 

 in 6 days, as to obliterate the navel ; and not being capable of a farther disteii- 



