Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1894 — A PECULIAR AILMENT. [ARTICLE]

A PECULIAR AILMENT.

An Odd Malady Which la Known M“the Bleeders.” 7 f Martinsville Special to Indianapolis Mews. _ The family of Albert Thomas, a well-to-do farmer, living 1 two mi’6s east of this city, is afflicted with haemophilia, more commonly known as “bleeders.” While this physical peculiarity is no new thing, to the medical profession, it is extremely rare. It means, sooner or later, that persons than afflicted will bleed to death,-generally before reaching twenty-orm years of age; and what is worse, the disease Is transmitted from parent to'child without terrnination. Last, week Use two-year-old 1 son of Mr. Thomas received a small scratch on the finger, no more than any child is likely to receive while playing, and one that would not generally be noticed, but it cam ' near proving fatal. Dr. E. M. Sweet, the family physician, was called and did what lie could in the way of putting on a light compress and adnc.fnsterTtTg’tnedfcfneimri’niilly, days the blood continued oozing out at the wound. The boy was completely exhausted, and his blood was so thin that it took on a yellowish tint and assumed the fluidity of water. —_ -I-. VI > ■ •■' . This case but illustrates the family disease. Two sons have died iu this singular way and from insignificant injuries. One of them was kicked by a horse in the face, the force being so near spent that the horse's shoe barely broke the skin below and above the eye. Each wound was less than a quarter of an inch in length. A physician was called and the wound above the eye was almost healed when the lower one began bleeding. Then the lower one was checked, but the upper one opened again. Thus the blood oozed from one and then from the other until he died. The attending physician said the blood became so thin and colorless that it would not stain the pillow case. The other bov received a scratch on the bottom of <is foot. Again the bleeding set in. Almost every physician in town wat called, and after a consultation it was decided that a compress should be placed over the wound. So one the size of a dollar was put on. but it had to be removed. When it was removed the flesh under the compress was found to be decayed, and thus a further source of the trouble was augmented. In three hours the boy was a corpse. There is no remedy either internal or external • that can give any aid. “To administer a|bypodermic injection or to attempt to infuse lamb's blood into an artery,” said the physician, “would only add death more quickly.” It is a peculiar feature of this hemorrhage, in the few cases that have come to the notice of the medical profession, that death does not result from the first bleeding, but the second one always proves fatal. r - - -

These people are clear-skinned and rosy-cheeked, and to the untrained eye nothing unusual is noticeable. !Fhe bleeding of the two-year-old son last week was the first time for him, and this was all that gave Dr. Sweet any hope. He says the flow of blood ceased from unexplainable natural causes, rather than any means he employed to check it. After bleeding for two or three days, when life seems almost extinct, and when the afflicted would have convulsions from lack of blood on the brain, but two or three days is ever required for them to assume their normal condition. Mr. Thomas .has three sons living, one nine years old, 6ne two, and one an infant, any one of whom, it is almost certain, can not live to be twenty-one years old, but should such an improbable thing occur, the disease would not be transmitted from him to his sons, but his daughters’ sons would be thus afflicted. The disease is transmitted from mother to son without termination. Mr. Thomas also has several daughters, but they are free from the disease, and have no fear of scratches and bruises. The condition and cause of this peculiar hemorrhage is not understood. Not one doctor in ten thousand will meet a case.in a life’s practice, and probably not that often. Its rarity probably is the cause of no known remedy. Some authorities attribute it to a lack of congulation power of the blood. One thing, however, is certain, and that is that it is hereditary. The mother of these children, Whffetf wiaideu nnaio was Hull, had two brothers, both of whom died of this strange affliction. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are in constant fear every time their children scream for fear the skin has been broken, thus opening the floodgate which would hurl them into eternity. The smallest prick of a pin point is as a dangerous as a severe cut.