446Section IV.R. Dupuy.
(which can be found by Pachon’s oscillometer) between the maximum and
minimum pressure in an artery. There is “ anangeoplasy,” as Brissaud
said. Their pressure varies between 50 and io° according to their age and
condition. The veins are either indurated or hypotonic. This fact explains the
thromboses, varicose veins, and the bad venous circulation. The capil
laries become obstructed : nutrition, tissue-respiration, and temperature are
fatally affected owing to this condition (chilblains, trophic mischief, low
temperature, congestion of the extremities, a habitual sense of cold, etc.).
The blood has an abnormal composition. It is poor in lime salts (haemo
philia). It shows lowering of the red cells (anaemia and systolic murmurs)
and an increase in the white cells. The haemoglobin index is lowered.
The hyperleucocytosis deserves attention. Can it be the explanation of
the habitual immunity of these subjects against the infectious maladies of
infancy? This lymphatism is accompanied by a hypertrophy of the lym
phoid tissues (adenoid vegetations) which causes the disorders with which
we are acquainted.
The anomalies of the nervous system are many in number. They con
sist, in the first place, of malformations of the skull, which give birth to a
quantity of types—plagiocephaly and other various cephalies which have
been well described. In the brain we find an increase or diminution of the
total cerebral substance. The most frequent dystrophies are agenesis of
certain lobules, thinness of the cortical substance, and shallowness of the
fissures. On microscopic examination, one is often struck with the rare
faction of the nervous cells, and of the blood vessels. Many of the children
who have presented symptoms of hysteria or epilepsy, and who have had
convulsions, show no trace of cerebro-spinal lesions. The glands of internal
secretion are either absent, sclerosed, or rudimentary, or in a condition of
adenomatous hypertrophy. Hypertrophy of the hypophysis if often accom
panied by enlargement of the “ sella turcica.” Sometimes these glands
appear to be normal, but they have not been studied from the chemical point
of view. We note also the persistence of the thymus.
If one passes in review the different systems of the body, one finds that
they all present either backwardness or perversion, both in their constitution
and function
Digestive apfartus; Mouth'; retarded and incomplete dentition; per
sistence of the milk teeth ; dental caries; defective insertion of teeth, on
account of the faulty position of the palatine vault (arched or flattened;
narrowed maxilla), macro and micro-dentism, Hutchinson’s teeth; thick or
narrow lips, hare-lip; tongue enlarged, elongated, webbed, faulty insertion
of the frenum.
Salivary glands, increased or diminished secretion. Stomach and Intes
tines ; gastric dilatation, rumination, obstruction, constipation, enteritis,
hepatic insufficiency, with jaundiced tint.
