Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

1849.] Enlarged Prosfate Gland.the disease. No treatment can prove successful, unless thegreat toe be restored to its natural relative position parallel W\\hthe others, and the most simple and effectual means of effectingthis, is the one adopted b}^my colleague, Mr. Key ; he recommendsthat the stocking of the patient should be furnished witha division or compartment, resembling the finger of a glove, toreceive the affected toe, a similar compartment being also constructedin the inside of the shoe ; into these the toe passes, andis preserved in a direction parallel to that of the others ;but itmay be necessary before resorting to the use of this contrivanceto subdue the local inflammation by the application of leeches,blisters, or evaporating lotions.A ganglion on the dorsum of the foot or instep, sometimesproduces even a more serious form of the disease than thebunion. It may cause contraction of the extensor tendons ofthe small toes, permanently extending the latter, so that thewhole of the weight of the body falls during progression uponthe first phalanges, in which situation ganglia are found preciselysimilar to that just described as occurring at the pointof the great toe. If these become indurated by neglect or continualpressure, so that the effused contents cannot be let outby puncture, the only alternative left to the surgeon is to dividethe implicated tendon or tendons, so as to relieve the permanentextension of the phalanges, and to restore the toes to theirnatural position. I have known exfoliations of the phalanxto occur as the result of this affection, but immediately uponthe removal of the exfoliating bone, the deep ulcer which hadbeen produced in the sole of the foot, healed, and the patient atonce recovered.Enlarged Prostate Gland,(Dublin Quarterly Journ.)Dr. Mayne presented a recent specimen of diseased prostategland, taken from the body of a man aged 72, who lately diedof dysentery in the Hospital of the South Union. The prostaticdisease, under which he had laboured for a considerableperiod, was attended by the ordinary symptoms, but towardsthe close of the case it was marked by the occurrence of someuncommon circumstances, which induced Dr. Mayne to lay thespecimen before the Society. This patient frequently sufferedretention of urine, occurring at intervals of three or four weeks,easily relieved by the catheter, and again brought on by exposureto cold, by any irregularity of habits, and very often bypermitting the bladder to become too much distended ;. he wasin the habit of occasionally absenting himself from the workhouseon leave, and was always observed to return suffering