Page:A descriptive catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum.djvu/407

 the anatomical collection of the first Dr. John Jeffries, the grandfather of Dr. J. 1865. Dr. B. Joy Jeffries.

1888. A second specimen. From a patient of Mr. B.; and the following facts in the case were obtained by him, chiefly from the mother, but partly from his own observation.

"The child, a female, was three years old, to within a month, at the time of its death, which was occasioned by a slight diarrhœa of a week's duration. The head was about twice the natural size at birth, and the anterior fontanelle very large; the enlargement increasing gradually, so that about a week before death it measured in its greatest circumference 27¾ inches. It was never able to sit up and support the head, nor even to turn it from the left side, upon which it always lay. It never spoke, and seemed to have no intelligence. The vision was always very imperfect, and occasionally quite lost; and there was also a slight strabismus from birth. For a time there was slight deafness, but this increased, so that it could only hear when the mother spoke in a very loud tone of voice. It slept generally not more than one and a half in twenty-four hours; and was very restless, moaning much of the time, as from distress, and requiring a free use of opiates, but not crying out as from sharp pain. Never convulsed. Fæces generally passed involuntarily, and sometimes the urine. In regard to its general health, it was feeble, thin, and pale, but sufficiently warm; nursed its mother heartily until the time of its death, and took cow's milk, but never any solid food.

"On examination, which Mr. B. made alone, he found the cranial cavity filled with serum, and the cerebellum sufficiently natural in appearance; but of the cerebrum he found very little remains.

"The specimen, which is an uncommonly fine one, and was very finely prepared by Mr. B., shows all the characteristics of a hydrocephalic skull, the great disproportion between the facial portion and the vault of the cranium, the thinness of this last and the great deficiency of bone in place of the anterior fontanelle, the disappearance of the supra-orbital ridge, and the numerous Wormian bones, one of which is of large size. Sutures deeply serrated. 25