Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/241

 Rh

It is very difficult to ascertain the causes producing bronchocele. Of 22 cases which I examined a few years ago, some lived in situations where the water was hard; others where it was soft; some lived very well, i. e. animal food daily; others chiefly on potatoes and bacon, the ordinary food of the labouring classes. In a great majority, the right lobe of the gland was the largest, and there was no appearance of scrofulous disease. In females of the same family, more than one generally had the disease. Bronchocele almost invariably increases in size and becomes more troublesome during gestation; and, in many instances, remains, after delivery, permanently of a larger size than before. It has been supposed that the offspring of parents afflicted with this complaint, evince more or less deficiency in their intellectual endowments: in one or two of the cases alluded to above, this was the case, but not generally.