A Case of von Recklinghausen's Disease

Abstract

THIS patient, a man aged 45, has very numerous soft fibromata, growing from the skin of the scalp, trunk, and limbs. The tumours, which are all of small size, do not appear to bear any anatomical relationship to the subcutaneous nerves. So far as the patient can remember, the condition commenced to develop some twenty-five years ago and has been steadily progressing ever since. On the outer surface of the right thigh the skin and subcutaneous tissues have become the seat of an enormous pendulous pachydermatocele. It is of interest to note that this is almost completely ancesthetic. In fact, the patient recently pinned a bandage to his tumour, and only discovered the accident two or three days later. There is much patchy pigmentation of the skin, particularly over the abdomen. No intra-abdominal tumours can be detected, and the patient is in good health and suffers no pain.

‘Poverty, gender and old age in the Victorian and Edwardian workhouse’

“…145 The elderly poor were usually 'dependent upon public and private charity for their support', while those aged 65 or older accounted for 48.8 per cent of inmates in York workhouse. 146 The introduction of means-tested old age pensions from 1908 for those aged 70 and above reduced markedly the number of the elderly on outdoor relief but had less impact upon those in the workhouse. 147 Recipients of outdoor relief aged over 70 totalled 168,100 in 1906, falling to 9,500 in 1912; the numbers in the workhouse were less affected: in 1906 there were 61,400 inmates aged 70 or above, 57,700 in 1910, and 49,300 in 1912.…”