KIDNEY IN A HOUSE. 
021 
I could not lift it. It was suspended close to the spine, and ap- 
peared to derive its nourishment from the emulgent artery. Its 
natural texture was lost, ahd it seemed to consist of a cheesy 
matter enveloped in a strong tunic. I am sorry to say that we fool- 
ishly neglected accurately to weigh it ; but, afterwards conversing 
about it, Mr. Hill and myself, and others who were present, thought 
that it weighed more than 112 pounds. 
Beside this substance, there was another tumour, as large as a 
man’s head, on the surface of the liver, and other smaller ones. 
The mesentery, and omentum, and peritoneum were literally covered 
with similar substances, great and small. I can compare them to 
nothing which had a greater resemblance to them than the belly of 
a hen who is laying, and the whole of it filled with eggs of various 
sizes. I should say, that there were, in all of them, at least fifty 
of these detached and separate tumours, and, altogether, making at 
least l£ cwt. of diseased substance. 
The other kidney appeared to be healthy, although rather large. 
The stomach and intestines were healthy, except that the mucous 
coat was of a leaden colour — caused probably by the superpurga- 
tion — the very bladder was healthy, the heart was rather large and 
flabby, and the right lobe of the lungs contained a little purulent 
matter, which, probably, was the cause of the slight cough. 
Will the Editor, or some gentleman, kindly give me his opinion 
as to the origin and duration of this disease 1 I do assure you 
that the account which I have given is not in the slightest degree 
overcharged. 
The tendency to spurious formations in various parts, or in al- 
most every part of the lymphatic system, is a circumstance that 
cannot have escaped the notice of any practitioner, and these growths 
are generally of a similar consistence. They are not encysted ; there 
is usually too small a quantity of cellular tissue in them and about 
them. The lymphatic glands assume the form of encysted tu- 
mours, but these are of a different character. Mr. Freeman has 
not unaptly compared them to the appearance of the eggs in 
the abdomen of a hen. They are made up of a white cheesy 
matter, of different consistence. The substance of which they are 
composed is, for awhile, of a uniform character, but in process of 
time they harden, thicken, and, at length, soften at the centre, 
where a suppurative process is established, and takes its usual 
course. 
Our practice must be very limited if we have not seen various 
cases of this, and of the tendency which these tumours occasionally 
VOL. XII. 4 M 
