Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [236]
the left half of the chest only and could be obtained concentrated by collecting the perspiration on a handkerchief, heating it with four ounces of spirit, and distilling the remaining mixture. The administration of the salicylate of soda modified in degree this violaceous odor. Hammond also speaks of a young lady subject to chorea whose insensible perspiration had an odor of pineapples; a hypochondriac gentleman under his care smelled of violets. In this connection he mentions a young woman who, when suffering from intense sick headache, exhaled an odor resembling that of Limburger cheese.
Barbier met a case of disordered innervation in a captain of infantry, the upper half of whose body was subject to such offensive perspiration that despite all treatment he had to finally resign his commission.
In lethargy and catalepsy the perspiration very often has a cadaverous odor, which has probably occasionally led to a mistaken diagnosis of death. Schaper and de Meara speak of persons having a cadaveric odor during their entire life.
Various ingesta readily give evidence of themselves by their influence upon the breath. It has been remarked that the breath of individuals who have recently performed a prolonged necropsy smells for some hours of the odor of the cadaver. Such things as copaiba, cubebs, sandalwood, alcohol, coffee, etc., have their recognizable fragrance. There is an instance of a young woman taking Fowler's solution who had periodic offensive axillary sweats that ceased when the medicine was discontinued.
Henry of Navarre was a victim of bromidrosis; proximity to him was insufferable to his courtiers and mistresses, who said that his odor was like that of carrion. Tallemant says that when his wife, Marie de Medicis, approached the bridal night with him she perfumed her apartments and her person with the essences of the flowers of her country in order that she might be spared the disgusting odor of her spouse. Some persons are afflicted with an excessive perspiration of the feet which often takes a disgusting odor. The inguinoscrotal and inguinovulvar perspirations have an aromatic odor like that of the genitals of either sex.
During menstruation, hyperidrosis of the axillae diffuses an aromatic odor similar to that of acids or chloroform, and in suppression of menses, according to the Ephemerides, the odor is as of hops.
Odors of Disease.--The various diseases have their own peculiar odors. The "hospital odor," so well known, is essentially variable in character and chiefly due to an aggregation of cutaneous exhalations. The wards containing women and children are perfumed with butyric acid, while those containing men are influenced by the presence of alkalies like ammonia.
Gout, icterus, and even cholera (Drasch and Porker) have their own odors. Older observers, confirmed by Doppner, say that all the plague-patients at Vetlianka diffused an odor of honey. In diabetes there is a marked odor of apples. The sweat in dysentery unmistakably bears the odor of the dejecta. Behier calls the odor of typhoid that of the blood, and Berard says that it attracts flies even before death. Typhus has a mouse-like odor, and the following diseases have at different times been described as having peculiar odors,--measles, the smell of freshly plucked feathers; scarlatina, of bread hot from the oven; eczema and impetigo, the smell of mold; and rupia, a decidedly offensive odor.
The hair has peculiar odors, differing in individuals. The hair of the Chinese is known to have the odor of musk, which cannot be washed away by the strongest of chemicals. Often the distinctive odor of a female is really due to the odor of great masses of hair. It is said that wig-makers simply by the sense of smell can tell whether hair has been cut from the living head or from combings, as hair loses its odor when it falls out. In the paroxysms of hysteroepilepsy the hair sometimes has a specific odor of ozone. Taenia favosa gives to the scalp an odor resembling that of cat's urine.
Sexual Influence of Odors.--In this connection
Barbier met a case of disordered innervation in a captain of infantry, the upper half of whose body was subject to such offensive perspiration that despite all treatment he had to finally resign his commission.
In lethargy and catalepsy the perspiration very often has a cadaverous odor, which has probably occasionally led to a mistaken diagnosis of death. Schaper and de Meara speak of persons having a cadaveric odor during their entire life.
Various ingesta readily give evidence of themselves by their influence upon the breath. It has been remarked that the breath of individuals who have recently performed a prolonged necropsy smells for some hours of the odor of the cadaver. Such things as copaiba, cubebs, sandalwood, alcohol, coffee, etc., have their recognizable fragrance. There is an instance of a young woman taking Fowler's solution who had periodic offensive axillary sweats that ceased when the medicine was discontinued.
Henry of Navarre was a victim of bromidrosis; proximity to him was insufferable to his courtiers and mistresses, who said that his odor was like that of carrion. Tallemant says that when his wife, Marie de Medicis, approached the bridal night with him she perfumed her apartments and her person with the essences of the flowers of her country in order that she might be spared the disgusting odor of her spouse. Some persons are afflicted with an excessive perspiration of the feet which often takes a disgusting odor. The inguinoscrotal and inguinovulvar perspirations have an aromatic odor like that of the genitals of either sex.
During menstruation, hyperidrosis of the axillae diffuses an aromatic odor similar to that of acids or chloroform, and in suppression of menses, according to the Ephemerides, the odor is as of hops.
Odors of Disease.--The various diseases have their own peculiar odors. The "hospital odor," so well known, is essentially variable in character and chiefly due to an aggregation of cutaneous exhalations. The wards containing women and children are perfumed with butyric acid, while those containing men are influenced by the presence of alkalies like ammonia.
Gout, icterus, and even cholera (Drasch and Porker) have their own odors. Older observers, confirmed by Doppner, say that all the plague-patients at Vetlianka diffused an odor of honey. In diabetes there is a marked odor of apples. The sweat in dysentery unmistakably bears the odor of the dejecta. Behier calls the odor of typhoid that of the blood, and Berard says that it attracts flies even before death. Typhus has a mouse-like odor, and the following diseases have at different times been described as having peculiar odors,--measles, the smell of freshly plucked feathers; scarlatina, of bread hot from the oven; eczema and impetigo, the smell of mold; and rupia, a decidedly offensive odor.
The hair has peculiar odors, differing in individuals. The hair of the Chinese is known to have the odor of musk, which cannot be washed away by the strongest of chemicals. Often the distinctive odor of a female is really due to the odor of great masses of hair. It is said that wig-makers simply by the sense of smell can tell whether hair has been cut from the living head or from combings, as hair loses its odor when it falls out. In the paroxysms of hysteroepilepsy the hair sometimes has a specific odor of ozone. Taenia favosa gives to the scalp an odor resembling that of cat's urine.
Sexual Influence of Odors.--In this connection