Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [481]
appearance of the external genital organs of a male Skoptzy after mutilation; Figure 233 those of a female.
Battey speaks of Skoptzies in Roumania who numbered at the time of report 533 persons. They came from Russia and practiced the same ceremonies as the heretics there.
CHAPTER XV.
ANOMALOUS TYPES AND INSTANCES OF DISEASE.
Tumors.--In discussing tumors and similar growths no attempt will be made to describe in detail the various types. Only the anomalous instances or examples, curious for their size and extent of involvement, will be mentioned. It would be a difficult matter to decide which was the largest tumor ever reported. In reviewing literature so many enormous growths are recorded that but few can be given here. Some of the large cystic formations have already been mentioned; these are among the largest tumors. Scrotal tumors are recorded that weighed over 200 pounds; and a limb affected with elephantiasis may attain an astonishing size. Delamater is accredited with a report of a tumor that weighed 275 pounds, the patient only weighing 100 pounds at death. Benign tumors will be considered first.
Pure adenoma of the breast is a rare growth. Gross was able to collect but 18 examples; but closely allied to this condition is what is known as diffuse hypertrophy of the breast. In some parts of the world, particularly in India and Africa, long, dependent breasts are signs of beauty. On the other hand we learn from Juvenal and Martial that, like ourselves, the Greeks detested pendant and bulky breasts, the signs of beauty being elevation, smallness, and regularity of contour. In the Grecian images of Venus the breasts are never pictured as engorged or enlarged. The celebrated traveler Chardin says that the Circassian and Georgian women have the most beautiful breasts in the world; in fact the Georgians are so jealous of the regular contour and wide interval of separation of their breasts that they refuse to nourish their children in the natural manner.
The amount of hypertrophy which is sometimes seen in the mammae is extraordinary. Borellus remarks that he knew of a woman of ordinary size, each of whose mammae weighed about 30 pounds, and she supported them in bags hung about her neck. Durston reports a case of sudden onset of hypertrophy of the breast causing death. At the postmortem it was found that the left breast weighed 64 pounds and the right 40 pounds. Boyer successfully removed two breasts at an interval of twenty-six days between the two operations. The mass excised was one-third of the total body-weight.
Schaeffer speaks of hypertrophied mammae in a girl of fourteen, the right breast weighing 3900 grams (136 1/2 oz.) and the right 3500 grams (122 1/2 oz.). Hamilton reports a case of hypertrophied glands in a woman of thirty-two, which, within the short space of a year, reached the combined weight of 52 pounds. They were successfully excised. Velpeau, Billroth, and Labarracque have reported instances of the removal of enormously hypertrophied mammae. In 1886 Speth of Munich described a hypertrophy of the right breast which increased after every pregnancy. At the age of twenty-six the woman had been five times pregnant in the space of a little over five years, and at this time the right breast hung down to the anterior superior spine of the ilium. It weighed 20 pounds, and its greatest circumference was 25 inches. There was no milk in this breast, although the left was in perfect lactation. This case was one of pure hypertrophy and not an example of fibro-adenoma, as illustrated by Billroth. Warren figures a case of diffused hypertrophy of the breast which was operated on by Porter. The right breast in its largest circumference measured 38 inches and from the chest-wall to the nipple was 17 inches long, the circumference at the base being 23 inches; the largest circumference of the left breast was 28 inches; its length from the chest-wall to the nipple was 14 inches, and its circumference at the base 23 inches. The skin was edematous and thickened. Throughout both breasts were to be
Battey speaks of Skoptzies in Roumania who numbered at the time of report 533 persons. They came from Russia and practiced the same ceremonies as the heretics there.
CHAPTER XV.
ANOMALOUS TYPES AND INSTANCES OF DISEASE.
Tumors.--In discussing tumors and similar growths no attempt will be made to describe in detail the various types. Only the anomalous instances or examples, curious for their size and extent of involvement, will be mentioned. It would be a difficult matter to decide which was the largest tumor ever reported. In reviewing literature so many enormous growths are recorded that but few can be given here. Some of the large cystic formations have already been mentioned; these are among the largest tumors. Scrotal tumors are recorded that weighed over 200 pounds; and a limb affected with elephantiasis may attain an astonishing size. Delamater is accredited with a report of a tumor that weighed 275 pounds, the patient only weighing 100 pounds at death. Benign tumors will be considered first.
Pure adenoma of the breast is a rare growth. Gross was able to collect but 18 examples; but closely allied to this condition is what is known as diffuse hypertrophy of the breast. In some parts of the world, particularly in India and Africa, long, dependent breasts are signs of beauty. On the other hand we learn from Juvenal and Martial that, like ourselves, the Greeks detested pendant and bulky breasts, the signs of beauty being elevation, smallness, and regularity of contour. In the Grecian images of Venus the breasts are never pictured as engorged or enlarged. The celebrated traveler Chardin says that the Circassian and Georgian women have the most beautiful breasts in the world; in fact the Georgians are so jealous of the regular contour and wide interval of separation of their breasts that they refuse to nourish their children in the natural manner.
The amount of hypertrophy which is sometimes seen in the mammae is extraordinary. Borellus remarks that he knew of a woman of ordinary size, each of whose mammae weighed about 30 pounds, and she supported them in bags hung about her neck. Durston reports a case of sudden onset of hypertrophy of the breast causing death. At the postmortem it was found that the left breast weighed 64 pounds and the right 40 pounds. Boyer successfully removed two breasts at an interval of twenty-six days between the two operations. The mass excised was one-third of the total body-weight.
Schaeffer speaks of hypertrophied mammae in a girl of fourteen, the right breast weighing 3900 grams (136 1/2 oz.) and the right 3500 grams (122 1/2 oz.). Hamilton reports a case of hypertrophied glands in a woman of thirty-two, which, within the short space of a year, reached the combined weight of 52 pounds. They were successfully excised. Velpeau, Billroth, and Labarracque have reported instances of the removal of enormously hypertrophied mammae. In 1886 Speth of Munich described a hypertrophy of the right breast which increased after every pregnancy. At the age of twenty-six the woman had been five times pregnant in the space of a little over five years, and at this time the right breast hung down to the anterior superior spine of the ilium. It weighed 20 pounds, and its greatest circumference was 25 inches. There was no milk in this breast, although the left was in perfect lactation. This case was one of pure hypertrophy and not an example of fibro-adenoma, as illustrated by Billroth. Warren figures a case of diffused hypertrophy of the breast which was operated on by Porter. The right breast in its largest circumference measured 38 inches and from the chest-wall to the nipple was 17 inches long, the circumference at the base being 23 inches; the largest circumference of the left breast was 28 inches; its length from the chest-wall to the nipple was 14 inches, and its circumference at the base 23 inches. The skin was edematous and thickened. Throughout both breasts were to be