THE

Leavenworth Medical Herald.

C. A. LOGAN, M. D., AND T. SINKS, M. D., EDITORS.

Vol. II.

AUGUST, 1868.

Original Communications.

No. 3.

ART. I.—A Case of Hydatids of the Uterus. By W. W. CROOK, M. D., Mt. Pleasant, Kansas.

On the 5th day of April last, I was called to Mrs. M., aged twenty-three years, and found her suffering the most intense agony it has ever been my lot to witness at the bed-side. She made the following statement: "That she supposed herself pregnant for the last five months; had been under treatment for two months past for the prevention of abortion; she had lost considerable blood, eminating, she supposed, from the uterus. The flooding, she stated, was periodical, and only a few times at each period." She had been entirely free from pain until this morning, (5th) when about seven o'clock she felt a slight pain in the lower part of the bowels, which she supposed would soon be followed by the more expulsive pains, and she therefore felt no great alarm; but about nine o'clock she felt a keen, sharp pain in the joint of the great toe, which passed up the leg along the track of the anterior crural nerve, thence into the bowels, where cramping, or spasm of the abdomen, with the pain produced the most terrific suffering I certainly ever witnessed. The pain and spasm would last about twenty minutes at each paroxysm, when in about half hour the pain would return with the

same intense suffering as before. At the beginning of each paroxism she would feel the pain at the great toe and uterus simultaneously. After witnessing one or two paroxysms, I prepared myself to meet the attack when it returned. I sent for chloroform and administered it when she would feel the premonitory symptoms coming on, and by its timely use the paroxysms would be warded off and leave her feeling comfortable. I then made an examination per vaginum, and found a mass lying partly in the vagina and partly in the uterus, which, to the touch, felt like placenta. I was in much doubt as how I ought to proceed, as I had an idea the case was one of placenta previa. But while I was thus deliberating upon the consequences of delivering the mass, it was expelled, and upon examination it proved to be a clump of hydatids. From first to last there were about twelve pounds of hydatids expelled. I saw her again on the morning of the 6th. She was in considerable distress owing to a constant sharp pain about the womb. I examined the uterus again, and to my surprise I delivered the bones and decayed parts of a foetus, which, from circumstances, I have every reason to believe had been dead for two months, and had doubtless been destroyed by the presence of the hydatids. I am at a loss to understand the cause of those paroxysms of pain and spasm— why the pain should be first felt at the great toe, simultaneous with the contraction of the uterus. She has ever been a very healthy woman, and the mother of four healthy children; never had neuralgia in her life that she knew of. I forgot to mention that after the decayed foetus was delivered, she felt the pain no more, and in about one week was so much better that she walked about the house, and recovered entirely in a short time thereafter. Did the morbific influence of the decayed fœtus have anything to do in producing this spasmodic neuralgia?

ART. II.-Report of the Committee on Climatology to the Kansas State Medical Society. By C. C. SHOYER, M. D.

Table of Meteorological Observations made at Leavenworth City, Kansas, for the year ending March, 1868.

Mean temperature for the year, 52.50°.

Mean temperature for the year, for thirty-four years, 52.81°, vide Prof. G. C. Swallow's Report on the Geology of Kansas. Climatology by T. Sinks, M. D., p. 178.

Mean diurnal range for the year, 18.91°.

Our meteorological system is essentially continental-more subject to the laws that control remote inland districts than oceanic influences-situated between the two and not exposed to the extremes of either.

Here the climatic conditions of the past year were but modified sequences of phenomena arising in the mountains; for every radical change in temperature could be traced over a vast internal field westward, reaching from New Mexico to Montana, differing in degree only.

The 5th day of January was the beginning of our past winter. The mercury on that day, marked at Helena, Montana, 29° below zero; at Cheyenne, Dakota, 20° below; at Denver, Colorado, 16° below; at Omaha, 4° below; at Leavenworth City,

range.

2° above; at Jefferson City, Missouri, 4° above zero; and beyond this these characteristics merged into conditions that govern the eastern slope of the Valley of the Mississippi.

Snow storms that originated in the mountains or on the plains, were visited upon us in proportion to the duration and force of their elements.

Our rains, too, proceeded from the same quarter, and it would seem that the vapor arising from the melting snow and ice, furnished the necessary moisture.

The rainy season began with the melting snow of the plains and in the mountains, and ended when it was exhausted in the far regions of the north, or the elements were again locked up in the conditions of an approaching Arctic winter. Our rains rarely result from saturation, but are preceeded by electrical phenomena, and are what are termed tempestuous rains. The lower current of our atmosphere is most always comparatively dry, except immediately after a copious rain. This absence of humidity is often protracted to the moment when rain commences falling. During the rainy season the winds were exclusively continental with a preponderance from the southwest. From this direction, also, came our first rains, but later in the season they proceeded more from the northwest.

Our continental position, comparatively free from oceanic influences, gives us an advantage of several degrees in latitude, and an immunity from frost at the close of the season, not generally enjoyed within the same parallels.

In illustrating this, reference is had to the effects of a storm that prevailed in the North Atlantic States at the close of September past, and extended from New Hampshire to Nashville, Tennessee.

"One of the most terrific snow-storms experienced in the White Mountain region in many years, began on the evening of September 29th, and continued with violence throughout the night."

"BOSTON, September 30, 3 o'clock P. M. A cold northeast rain-storm commenced here this morning and still continues."

"NEW YORK, October 1.

A decidedly cold snap has been the sequence, if not the consequence, of the gale of Sunday night."

"ALEXANDRIA, Va., October 1.

There was a heavy frost on Monday night. Surely the fall has come upon us with a rush."

"RICHMOND, Va., October 1.

There was a heavy frost here last night."

"NASHVILLE, Tenn., October 2.

We had a heavy frost here last night."

ST. LOUIS, Mo., October 1.

A slight frost occurred here last night."

While here at Leavenworth City, at 3 o'clock P. M., of October 1st, the mercury marked 86°, and the mean temperature of the night following, was 75.5°, with the thermometer in the open

air.

In these results we have an anomoly in the fact that frost occurred at Nashville, Tennessee, on the night of the first of October, while here at Leavenworth City, over three degrees further north, the mean temperature of the same night was at summer heat; and I might here add, that we were further exempt from frost for twenty-eight days after. Such exhibits might tax our credulity, were not the elements for their solution before us. The storm referred to, originated on the ocean, probably high in the icy region of the north, and swept down the North Atlantic States in great fury, bringing with it the temperature of a frosty region. In its course it deposited snow in one State, cold rain in another, and the result of a low temperature in all.

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The force of the storm sent its cold winds far down into the southwest. When at Alexandria, Richmond, Nashville, and St. Louis, they produced frost; but the storm-belt was not broad enough to take in Leavenworth City.

This was not an isolated case, for nearly all similar storms of the many that subsequently occurred, produced like results, while here our genial weather continued undisturbed, and without frost until October 30th, after an absence of one hundred and seventysix days, equal to half a year, lacking about six days.