5J8 I'HILUSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. i ANNO J732. 



A Letter from Dr. Huxham to Jas. Jurin, M. D., F. R. S. and Fellotv of the 

 Coll. of Physicians, co)icer)iing a remarkable Disease of the Colon. N° 422, 

 p. 236. From the Latin. 



A gentleman of rank and fortune in Devonshire, aged 40, of a bilious and 

 scorbutic habit of body, was long afflicted with colicky pains, especially in the 

 lower part of the abdomen, accompanied with flatulency. About 2 years be- 

 fore his death, he was, in addition to these symptoms, troubled with bilious, 

 purulent, fetid stools, which were occasionally streaked with blood, and were 

 so frequent, that he often had as many as 20 motions, attended with tenesmus, 

 in the space of 3 or 4 hours ; and at length there came away portions of fungous 

 flesh, livid and very foul, some of which were as large as a nutmeg. But 

 though he was generally troubled with a looseness, yet he was sometimes so 

 costive, as to require clysters and cathartics. Sometimes he had a voracious 

 appetite, at other times none at all. His urine was scanty, and always bilious. 

 His countenance was lurid, often tinged with yellow. Before he died he had 

 cedematous swellings of the feet, and was delirious. He had taken a great 

 variety of medicines in vain ; nothing but laudanum affx)rded him even tempo- 

 rary relief. 



On opening the body, the omentum, was found very much wasted, and in a 

 putrid state; the liver much enlarged, and abounding in hard white tubercles; the 

 gall-bladder half full of dark coloured bile ; the whole of the duodenum with 

 the adjoining portion of the colon, tinged of the same colour; the pancreas in 

 a scirrhous state ; the middle part of the ileum, to the extent of about 5 

 fingers, inflamed, and almost livid. The kidneys were in a sufficiently sound 

 state, nor were the mesenteric glands so scirrhous as might have been expected. 

 But what was most remarkable, that part of the colon which has been impro- 

 perly termed cascum (a name which is more applicable to its appendix) was not 

 attached, as it commonly is, to the right kidney by means of the vermiform 

 appendix ; but, having descended into the pelvis about 3 fingers below the 

 valvula Tulpii, had formed a strong adhesion to the upper part of the rectum. 

 Moreover, it adhered slightly to the peritonseal covering of the urinary blad- 

 der, and thence turning upwards, it formed a very acute angle with the rectum; 

 then ascending under the concave surface of the liver, it stretched beneath 

 the fundus ventriculi, and descending in the usual manner terminated in the 

 rectum. Both intestines were in a gangrenous state. The rectum being 

 laid open, its internal surfoce was found entirely sphacelated, and as black 

 as ink, and there were adhering to it 6 or 7 fungous, black caruncles, the 

 smallest of which were of the size of a filbert. An ulcer large enough to 



