J. W. was a man of sixty-two years of age, who had been many years in the
house as an incurable patient, but with the other parts of whose history I
am totally unacquainted. He appeared to be a quiet and inoffensive person,
who found amusement in his own thoughts, and seldom joined in any
conversation with the other patients: for some months he had been troubled
with a cough, attended with copious expectoration, which very much reduced
him; dropsical symptoms followed these complaints. He became every day
weaker, and on July 10th, 1795, died. He was opened eighteen hours after
death. The pericranium adhered loosely to the scull; the bones of the
cranium were unusually thin. There were slight opacities in many parts of
the tunica arachnoidea; in the ventricles about four ounces of water were
contained--some large hyatids were discovered on the plexus choroides of
the right side. The consistence of the brain was natural.