Page:A Contribution to the Pathology of Phlegmasia Dolens.djvu/6

4 so imperfect, that pathologists remained in doubt whether they should be considered as examples of genuine Phlegmasia Dolens, or viewed as analogous to those formidable attacks of Phlebitis which sometimes succeed to venesection and wounds.

In the XIIth Volume of the Transactions of this Society, published in 1823, the valuable Essay of Dr. Davis appeared, and since that period there has not been recorded in the medical literature of this country any unequivocal example of Phlegmasia Dolens, where the actual condition of the affected parts has been ascertained by dissection. I hope, therefore, that the case which I am about to relate will not be uninteresting to the Society, as it affords me an opportunity of giving an account of the morbid appearances which I observed in the iliac and femoral veins of a patient, who died twenty-one months subsequent to an attack of Phlegmasia Dolens.

Case I.—Mrs. J, æt. 31, was delivered ofher fifth child on the 10th of March, 1827, after a labour of twenty hours' duration, during which she frequently complained of severe pain shooting into her left thigh and leg. This pain entirely subsided subsequently to the labour, and she appeared to recover in the most favourable manner until the 14th of March, the fourth day after her confinement. She then began to experience a sense of pain in the left groin and calf of the leg,