STATUS THYMICO-LYMPHATICUS AMONG FILIPINOS^ 



By B. C. Crowell' 

 (From the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 



Two plates 



The term "lymphatism" is about as old as that of "scrofula," 

 and for many years it conveyed an idea about as indefinite. As 

 the advances in our knowledge of human diseases and their 

 causes have practically abrogated the use of the latter tenn, its 

 place being taken by a more definite nomenclature, so have the 

 conditions suggested by the older term lymphatism been more 

 accurately defined, the conditions associated with it been more 

 closely circumscribed, and the interpretations of the anatomical 

 changes become more elaborate. 



To the older school the term lymphatism conveyed an inde- 

 finite idea of an individual with a pasty, sallow skin, flabby 

 subcutaneous tissues, poorly developed musculature, a tendency 

 to hyperplasia of the lymphatic organs, and a vulnerable glan- 

 dular system. 



The object of this paper is to trace briefly the steps by which 

 our knowledge of this condition has become more accurate, to 

 show that the entity, which has evolved from this indefinite 

 conception, namely, status thymico-lymphaticus, occurs with con- 

 siderable frequency in the Philippine Islands, and that here it 

 has one unusual feature in that it has given rise to confusion 

 with at least one condition frequently encountered here. 



Whitmore(i) in 1911 reported 16 cases showing various grades 

 of status lymphaticus out of a series of 565 autopsies performed 

 in India. As far as ascertained, this is the only record of such 

 cases in the Orient. He remarked that the condition is in no 

 way dependent on race or environment. 



It has long been recognized that sudden death is not an 

 infrequent occurrence in persons of this type, and the almost 



' Read before the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Philippine Islands 

 Medical Association, held in Manila from November 4-7, 1912. 



'Pathologist, biological laboratory. Bureau of Science; associate pro- 

 fessor and chief of the department of pathology and bacteriology, College 

 of Medicine and Surgery, University of the Philippines. 



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