The Tumor That Ate Through a Man's Spine
A Port Townsend autopsy found that a long-growing aneurysm had eroded bone and pushed through the skin of the spinal column.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
DIED.—Mr. Nelson, a native of Sweden, aged 45 years, died in this town on Sunday, the 15th inst., after an illness of some years, and was buried on Monday by Masonic rites, of which order he was a member. Deceased had resided in Port Townsend for several years, six of which were spent in the employ of Mr. J. P. P—. Mr. Nelson had always attributed his ill-health to the result of a fall some years before, and physicians here and in California had given him only temporary relief. He requested Dr. Williams to find out the cause of the trouble. Accordingly Drs. Williams, Minor and Wheeler held an autopsy on the body, when the disease was found to be an aneurismal tumor of the large blood vessel leading from the heart. This for some time had been gradually increasing in size until death came from exhaustion. The tumor, from its long-continued pressure upon the vertebrae, had absorbed a portion of the bone until at length it had extruded through the skin of the spinal column.
“The tumor, from its long-continued pressure upon the vertebrae, had absorbed a portion of the bone until at length it had extruded through the skin of the spinal column.”
Before CT scans and ultrasound, an autopsy was often the only way to explain a long, wasting illness. An aortic aneurysm is now routinely detected and repaired; in 1876 Port Townsend, the diagnosis arrived only after the patient's death—and the gruesome detail made it news.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.