A RARE DISEASE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20497, 16 March 1932, Page 4

A RARE DISEASE.

RETENTION OF IRON. (FROM OUIt OWK CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, February 2. A disease so rare that it baffled two doctors, and was only discovered after death with great difficulty by a Harley street pathologist, was "described at an inquest at Poplar on Ernest Edward Clarke, 39, a totalisator clerk, of Poplar.

The mother stated that her son complained of pains in the stomach, which rapidly grew worse. A doctor was called and her son was taken to Poplar Hospital. Dr. R. O'Eegan, of Wellington, now senior resident surgeon of Poplar Hospital, said that when Clarke was admitted his symptoms were those of somo acute abdominal catastrophe. An operation, however, revealed nothing, and he died. He had made a post-mortem examination, but found nothing adequate to account for the cause of death. Dr. Temple Grey, pathologist, of Harley street, said he had made a second post-mortem examination, which revealed that the cause of death was hemochromatosis, an extremely rare disease of metabolism. The cause was unknown, and no cure was known either. The disease was duo to some toxin elaborated *by the liver which led to the retention in the body of large quantities of iron. These were disposed in various organs, ultimately

interfering with their function. In this case there was even some in the heart. "It used to be called bronze diabetes, but thia name was unfortunate, as it occurred without bronze or diabetes," said the doctor. "It was discovered in 1898, and is so rare that when a ease occurs one has forgotten about tho last." , The symptoms were strongly suggestive- of an acute condition of the abdomen, and tho disease could not have been diagnosed before death. The Coroner recorded a verdict of death from natural causes.