A Chance for an Error in Diagnosis.

I notice in some recent numbers of the THERAPEUTIST quite a good deal said about "gall-stones" and the treatment for their removal. I have treated several cases said to be of this class of diseases, but as I have never seen the stones, am doubtful of the correctness of the diagnosis, and am somewhat like the Missourians, "have to be shown."

A case in point, to illustrate what I am attempting to demonstrate to the profession, recently happened in a near-by river city. The patient, a lady, age about forty-two, afflicted for two years, attended by nine physicians, some of them of national reputation, and all diagnosed "gall-stones." Very recently the tenth was called, and disagreeing with the nine, diagnosed dislocated or floating kidney.

The diagnosis was made on Friday and the following Monday an operation was performed; the kidney was found four inches below its normal position, and turned over. Both conditions are rare and the symptoms of the two conditions have much in common, so, when we think we have a case of "gall stones," it is well to look for floating kidney. Moral.—Be extremely exact in your diagnosis.

J. M. WELLS, M. D.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.