Petro - J 1873 - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

On Wednesday of last week a difficult and delicate surgical operation was performed by Dr. Baker, of Stockwell, on the person of a Miss Petro, of Linden. She had been afflicted from infancy with superfectation(*?), and for the last ten years had suffered intensely. It had taken the shape of a tumor, and was located in the lower part of the abdomen. It had become so large that it had pushed her stomach upward so far that it was with difficulty that she could breathe. While it was understood that her death was only a question of time, the operation of taking a portion of the mass out was performed to enable her to breathe more freely. She lived until Tuesday of this week when she died. Drs. McClelland & Cowan of this city assisted in a post mortem examination yesterday and found that the tumor altogether would have weighed about fifty pounds. -s

Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Thursday, 14 August 1873

“I am not in the habit of intruding on the papers any medical news, but as a recent post mortem examination made by myself and several other physicians has called out notices, both editorials anonymous in our city papers, I deem it but just to the public that a correct account should be given.

Miss J. Petro, aged 30, died July 22, 1873. At her personal request made before she died, I attended the post mortem examination the next day. The previous history of her case, as obtained from her parents and from herself, was, that at her birth she had a deformity which appeared as a slightly movable tumor, just below and the right side of the breast bone, and was near the size of a man's fist. There was not noticed any change in place or size of this tumor until she was four years of age. At this time she had a severe illness. On her recovery from this, the tumor began to enlarge and as the growth increased it gradually changed its location, sinking lower down in the abdomen and passing transversely across to the left side. Her parents became alarmed at the rapid increase of the tumor, and when she was 12 years old consulted a noted physician, who on examination, said nothing could be done for it. No further examination was made of the case until about two years ago when by the advice of some friends; she called on me for my opinion. I found a hard, compact tumor, extending from above the middle of the sternum (breast bone) down into the pelvis, and stretching the walls of the entire abdomen to their utmost extent. My statement to her, which at her request, I wrote down, was that she had a solid, at least not fluid, tumor, which was exterior to the uterus and most probably in no way connected either with the uterus or the ovaries, and that from the rate of growth, she could not expect to live over two years, and that nothing except by way of palliation could be done for her. From this time I saw her repeatedly. About two months before her death she called at my office, when I detected alight fluctuation in the most dependent portion of the tumor. Her respiration by this time was so impeded as to threaten suffocation. She was so urgent for some relief, that I suggested that temporary relief might be obtained by tapping. I saw no more of the case until summoned to the post mortem examination. Dr. Baker, of Stockwell, was called, and in hopes of giving temporary ease tapped the tumor, but little fluid came through the macula and no relief was experienced. The doctor then made a free incision and extracted from three to four gallons of granular matter.

The patient seemed much relieved for two or three days, but sank and died on the seventh day from the operation.

A post mortem examination was held, and on opening the body a tumor enveloped in a dense sack was found, which weighed after removal from the body 38 pounds. This tumor had but slight attachments and was comparatively easily removed. On cutting through the sack or external covering there was found a number of smaller sacks of various sizes, varying from half an inch to six and ten inches in diameter. These sacks were bound together by fleshy bands and each sub-sack was filled with a substance somewhat resembling yellow corn meal, wet with a gummy substance and pressed together. Through all this gummy substance was more or less hair. On removing this substance, a central fleshy mass was found. This contained fragments of bones with a partially developed fetal head with curls and bunches of hair around it. The lower jaw was so perfectly developed as to be easily recognized. Enclosed in the bony substance of the jaw were teeth fully developed. Portions of the upper jaw and temporal bone were also found; the teeth in this, as in the lower jaw, were developed, the primary teeth and permanent teeth both being present. This tumor was not attached to either the ovaries or uterus, both of these organs being normal in place and condition, except as displaced by the pressure of the tumor.

The extreme rarity of this case may well lead the public to disbelieve that such a thing could occur. But we have a number of parallel cases recorded, and well authenticated, in medical works. Prof. Paul F. Eve, in his work entitled "Remarkable Cases in Surgery," has collected from all sources six cases bearing more or less resemblance to this. He gives his cases under the head of "Imperfectly Developed Fetuses," and says, "A concenitum menstrum, or monstrous production, coeval with the body in which it is produced, seems to have frequently obtruded itself upon public notice."

The case of Miss Petro is one in point. The continuance of life and even a reasonable degree of good health for so long a period, 30 years, is so far as my investigations go unprecedented. It is not by any means rare to find cases of twins adhering together. Some unusual amount of compression exercised try the organs of the mother producing this effect during the soft embryonic state. In more rare cases these monstrosities are so identified, that organs are deficient in each or are replaced by a common organ for both. In the first case monstrosity depends on a mechanical cause; in the latter on a fault in the primary germs or ovaries. In case of a partially developed fetus enclosed within the body of a twin, the sex of the free developed child is indifferent. Cases analogous to this one are recorded where the fully formed child was of the male sex. The growth of the enveloped fetus depends for its sustenance on the subject in which it is enclosed. While the perfect or imperfect character of development of the enclosed twin will be changed by the situation, it may occupy, and the pressure it may have to undergo. Constitutional or inherited tendencies may also have some modifying influences on the nature of the growth and deposits around the enclosed fetus.

Begging leave to offer you an apology for occupying so much of your space, I am truly yours,  J. S. McClelland, MD