The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-11-22

his column.
/ opened it ! found a rock about
the size Of the ball Of an adults
thumb. did manage TO make the
diagnosis Of it, from the shape,
that it was q gladstone.
His letter, which came under
separate cover, told me he thought
! might and the public might be
interested in the case. The patient
was himself and the gladstone was
removed in 1916 and he is still
going strong, attending to busi-
ness every day and having no
trouble from the region where the
stone was. The surgeon who re-
moved the stone said it was the
largest he ever saw come from a
gallbladder. These large single
stones are unusual in the gall
bladder, mostly gallstones are
multiple and small.
The larger the gallbladder stone
is the less trouble it causes. A
small stone can move around and
get in the duct and stop the flow
of bile and raise Cain generally,
but the big stone just rolls around
from side to side and causes symp-
toms that are often put down to
intercostal neuralgia or dyspepsia,
or just nervousness,
X-ray Diagnosis
My friend told me he had vague
dyspepsia symptoms for years and
went to several doctors none of
whom tumbled to the real trouble.
That was, of course, before the
days of good Xray diagnosis. Now
adays such a patient would be al
most routinely submitted to X-ray
and the stone, which was a calcium
stone and therefore would throw
a shadow on the X-rsy plate, would
be detected.
AS this fellow said, we are prob
ably all Of US more or less stone
quarries after the age of 40. Stones
get deposited in the kidneys, the
bladder, the gallbladder, the sail
vary ducts and all sorts Of places.
There have even been reported
heart stones. In many cases, prob
ably most cases, they are silent
and make no trouble.
The records are quite a chapter
In the realm of curiosities. The
largest stone ever removed, VI az
least on record, weighed three
pounds, found in the bladder. The
record for numerousness is held by
no less a person than Chief Justice
Marshall, from whose bladder DR..
Physick, of Philadelphia, removed
over thousand stones. No wonder
his interpretations of the consti-
tuition were so solid; they were
founded on impregnable rocks.
The stones which form in the
salivary ducts are very pulling
unless the doctor has had expert
cnce with them. The stone, or
stones, get in the duct and obstruct
it and when the patient takes any
thing in the mouth the saliva auto
matically begins to form and the
saliva gets damned back and the
gland swells up. Most of the pa
tients are told they have tonsilitis,
but the association of pain and
swelling only with eating is what
gives the situation away.
Mineral Deposits
Stones are merely mineral de-
posts Of salts and are naturally
found most often in regions when
some fluid is cooped up in a cavity
or recess Of the body-such as the
bile in the gallbladder, or the urine
in the kidneys, or bladder. The
salts are deposited around a nue.
leus which may be a bit Of mucous
or a collection of germs, or some
other form of foreign body.
1t would be hard to say just how
many stones really make trouble
in the body. Some humans take
naturally to being stone quarries.
The stones rest quietly and do no
harm. Probably one out of ten
people you see on the street car is
blithely carrying q silent rock
around inside him.
If anything can dissolve one Of
them, l never heard Of a proved
case. Nor did any other doctor of
my acquaintance.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
NJ. C.:-Can a baby be born with
pneumonia?
Answer: Yes. There is a variety