records of enormous dropsies much material of interest is to be
found, and a few of the most interesting cases on record will be cited.
In the older times, when the knowledge of the etiology and pathology of
dropsies was obscure, we find the records of the most extraordinary
cases. Before the Royal Society, in 1746, Glass of Oxford read the
report of a case of preternatural size of the abdomen, and stated that
the dropsy was due to the absence of one kidney. The circumference of
the abdomen was six feet four inches, and the distance from the xiphoid
to the os pubis measured four feet 1/2 inch. In this remarkable case 30
gallons of fluid were drawn off from the abdomen after death.
Bartholinus mentions a dropsy of 120 pounds; and Gockelius one of 180
pounds; there is recorded an instance of a dropsy of 149 pounds. There
is an old record of a woman of fifty who had suffered from ascites for
thirty years. She had been punctured 154 times, and each time about 20
pints were drawn off. During each of two pregnancies she was punctured
three or four times; one of her children was still living. It has been
said that there was a case in Paris of a person who was punctured 300
times for ascites. Scott reports a case of ascites in which 928 pints
of water were drawn off in 24 successive tappings, from February, 1777,
to May, 1778. Quoted by Hufeland, Van Wy mentions 1256 pounds of fluid
being drawn from the abdomen of a woman in five years. Kaltschmid
describes a case of ascites in which, in 12 paracenteses, 500 pounds of
fluid were removed. In 1721 Morand reported two cases of ascites in one
of which, by the means of 57 paracenteses, 970 pounds of fluid were
drawn off in twenty-two months. In the other case 1708 pounds of fluid
issued in ten months. There is a record of 484 pounds of "pus" being
discharged during a dropsy.

The Philosophical Transactions contain the account of a case of
hydronephrosis in which there were 240 pounds of water in the sac.
There are several cases on record in which ovarian dropsies have
weighed over 100 pounds; and Blanchard mentions a uterine dropsy of 80
pounds.

The Ephemerides contains an account of a case of hydrocephalus in which
there were 24 pounds of fluid, and similar cases have been noted.

Elliotson reports what he calls the largest quantity of pus from the
liver on record. His patient was a man of thirty-eight, a victim of
hydatid disease of the liver, from whom he withdrew one gallon