SYNONYMS.—Morbus Addisonii; Bronzed-skin disease. Fr. Maladie d'Addison, Maladie bronzée; Ger. Addisonische Krankheit.
HISTORY.—In the Halle Hospital Reports for 1823 Schötte describes a case, and one is also given by Bright in vol. ii. of his Medical Reports, 1831. A few other instances are also on record before 1855, when Addison published his monograph On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules, from which we may date our knowledge of the affection. Following close upon the work of Addison numerous observations were made in England, where the disease appears to be more common than elsewhere. Wilks of Guy's Hospital,181 and Greenhow of the Middlesex Hospital, may be mentioned among those who in England have specially studied the disease, and the latter published an important monograph in 1875.182 In France, besides numerous minor contributions, the exhaustive articles in the encyclopædias have been the most important publications. In Germany the monograph of Averbeck (1869) and the abstracts of Meissner in Schmidt's Jahrbücher may be specially mentioned. Virchow, Griesinger, Oppolzer, Bamberger, and others have made valuable contributions. Recently Burger183 has published a small monograph. In other European centres contributions have been made, among which may be mentioned that of Schmidt of Amsterdam, who brought forward cases in support of the view that the disease was an affection of the sympathetic ganglion. In America the first cases were reported by Ranking184 and Taylor.185
181 In numerous communications in Guy's Hospital Reports and Trans. Path. Society.
182 "On Addison's Disease," Croonian Lectures.
183 Die Nebeunieren und der Morbus Addison, Berlin, 1883.
184 Am. Journ. Med. Sci., 1856.
185 New York Med. Journal, 1856.
ETIOLOGY.—The causation of the disease is unknown. Cases are more frequent in hospital than in private practice. Males are more often attacked than females; the proportion in Jaccoud's table186 is 79 to 48, and in Greenhow's187 analysis of 183 good cases, 119 were males and 64 females. Under ten and over fifty years of age the disease is very uncommon; the majority of the cases occur between the twentieth and the fortieth year. Greenhow has called attention to the fact that in a number of instances the disease appears to have followed an injury, such as a blow upon the abdomen or back, and in several cases caries of the spine has preceded the attack. He refers also to the greater frequency of the disease in the laboring classes and those exposed to injury from over-exertion. The disease does not seem to be more prevalent among members of phthisical families, although the morbid process in the glands has been regarded as of a tuberculous nature, and it is common for other tuberculous lesions to occur in the course of the disease.
186 Dictionnaire de Médecine.
187 Op. cit.