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 arachnoides; in the ventricles about four ounces of
water were contained--some large hydatids were discovered on the plexus
choroides of the right side. The consistence of the brain was natural.