Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/110

 Malades, where upwards of five hundred children die annually, and whose bodies are almost uniformly opened, nearly one-half of them presented scrofulous tubercles in some part or other. It is undoubtedly true that, in many of the fatal cases of hydrocephalus inspected after death, marks of scrofulous inflammation have been detected. It is no infrequent occurrence to find the ventricles of the brain distended with serum, at the same time that the peritoneum exhibits marks of inflammation, and depositions of various sizes, which have passed into the form of the tuberculated accretions on the peritoneum, described by Dr. Baron. What is the postmortem appearance in fatal cases of rubeola? In some we find the interior surface of the peritoneum studded with tubercles, but, especially in the bronchial tube, and in the intestinal canal, their number is often great. At other times the mesenteric glands are in a tubercular condition. The bones, too, do not escape the ravages of scrofula, which affects the softer and more spongy structure at the heads of cylindrical bones, the bones of the carpi, tarsi, and vertebræ. In its early development, so insidious and imperceptible is the change, that it is most frequently overlooked. Perhaps a sense of slight weakness is all that attracts attention, until the disease is more advanced, and a dull pain is felt in the hip, knee, or ankle joint, which is aggravated by pressure or long exercise. As the inflammatory stage advances, the constitution sympathizes with the local affection, and an abscess is formed. The cartilages ulcerate or are absorbed, and, perhaps, the whole joint is implicated in the disease. This,