On
postmortem examination it was found that the effusion was chyle,
the thoracic duct being torn just opposite the 9th dorsal
vertebra, which had been transversely fractured. In one of
Kirchner's cases a girl of nine had been violently pushed against
a window-sill, striking the front of her chest in front of the 3d
rib. She suffered from pleural effusion, which, on aspiration,
proved to be chyle. She ultimately recovered her health. In 1891
Eyer reported a case of rupture of the thoracic duct, causing
death on the thirty-eighth day. The young man had been caught
between a railroad car and an engine, and no bones were broken.
Manley reports a case of rupture of the thoracic duct in a man of
thirty-five, who was struck by the pole of a brewery wagon; he
was knocked down on his back, the wheel passing squarely over his
abdomen. There was subsequent bulging low down in the right iliac
fossa, caused by the presence of a fluid, which chemic and
microscopic examination proved was chyle. From five to eight
ounces a day of this fluid were discharged, until the tenth day,
when the bulging was opened and drained. On the fifteenth day the
wound was healed and the man left the hospital quite restored to
health.
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