244 The Philippine Journal of Science 1917 



Atheroma, — Atheroma occurred as marked atheroma in 90.0 

 per cent of all cases and as slight atheroma in 10.0 per cent. 

 The type of atheroma in all cases was syphilitic, although in 

 several cases there was associated the calcified type seen in old 

 age. However, from a preceding statement under atheroma that 

 4.33 per cent of all our atheroma cases were syphilitic, and 

 since the majority of gross syphilitic changes in Filipinos are 

 seen in the arteries, while the aneurism incidence is only 0.382 

 per cent, there is evidently a large excess of syphilitic arteritis 

 to form a l?ase for aneurism formation. It would be safe to 

 conclude that syphilis of the vessels does play an important part 

 in the production of aneurisms in Filipinos. 



DISCUSSION 



Here in the Philippines an examination of the autopsy records 

 shows a low aneurism incidence among Filipinos, 0.382 per cent, 

 which is similar to the low aneurism incidence seen at autopsy 

 among the natives of India (0.36 per cent). From this low 

 incidence of aneurisms in the races, it seems that syphilis in 

 the tropics has less predilection for the arteries of the natives 

 than it has for the arteries of northern races residing in the 

 tropics. Probably what is more nearly correct is that syphilis 

 produces more pathologic effects on the arteries of northern races 

 in the tropics than it does upon the native born. ■ 



The high aneurism incidence as found among the Americans 

 is considerably in error, because the majority of the American 

 dead examined at the city morgue are examined on account of 

 unexplained sudden death, while the larger number of dead 

 Americans are not autopsied. Nevertheless, in consideration of 

 the fact that there are only about 0.15 per cent as many Amer- 

 icans residing in the Islands as Filipinos, it appears that the 

 aneurism incidence in Americans in Manila is considerably 

 greater than in Filipinos. 



There were five cases in which there occurred multiple 

 aneurisms. In one case two aneurisms were found, one affecting 

 the femoral artery and the other the ascending aorta, which is 

 reported more completely as follows : 



A CASE OF ANEURISM OP THE FEMORAL ARTERY AND OF THE AORTA 



A survey of the aneurisms found in the 42,000 clinical records from 

 the Philippine General Hospital and the 5,400 autopsy records from the 

 College of Medicine and Surgery, of the University of the Philippines, 

 shows that this case is the only femoral aneurism recorded. However, 

 primarily the case is reported on account of the large size of the femoral 

 aneurism. 



