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I have a direct female ancestor who died in 1872 aged 40 from ''Disease of the Mesenteric Glands''.

Googling does not tell me much at all so are there any medical experts on here please who can give me an idea of what this complaint might be? ie is it cancer of the lymph glands or what?? I am looking into any hereditary ailments in my family tree of not so much this disease but certainly a major prevalence of diabetes in the female side of my family.

Many thanks in anticipation.

I wonder whether this wasn't yet another manifestation of tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis, or phthisis as it was called, killed so many.

http://chestofbooks.com/health/disease/Pathological-Anatomy/3-Tuberculosis-Of-The-Lymphatic-Glands.html

The 1872 death certificate of one of my gr-grfather's brothers cites phthisis abdominalis (as compared to phthisis pulmonaris in the case of other family members around the same time -- affecting the lungs, as we tend to think of tuberculosis as doing) -- and aha, as I googled that just to check the spelling, I found this:

http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/International/Latin.htm

Phthisis Abdominalis
Tuberculosis affecting the mesenteric glands or the intestines. [Appleton1904].

and

Phthisis Meseraica
Tabes Meseraica, Phthisis Mesenteric. [Dunglison 1874].

so I think my guess may have been a lucky one. ;)

Thank you Janey.

I think, and I'm no doctor but the mesenteric glands are in the abdominal cavity and certain diseases are due to the mesenteric nodes.

hope this helps a little bit

Jack

Mesenteric glands, or mesenteric lymph nodes, are nodes located in the mesentery. They are of three classes: mesenteric lymph nodes, juxta-intestinal lymph nodes, and the superior middle group of mesenteric lymph nodes.

The Juxta intestinal lymph nodes are located close to the intestinal wall. The mesentric lymph nodes are scattered among the arterial arcades and the superior central nodes are located along the proximal part of the superior mesentric artery.

The Mesenteric Glands are seated in the fat, between the layers of the mesentery, near the branches of the blood-vessels. They are commonly scattered over the mesentery, at a little distance from each other; but there are seldom any observed within two or three inches of the intestines. They differ from each other in size, some being about half or two-thirds of an inch in diameter, while others are so small as to be traced with difficulty. Their structure is the same as that of the absorbent glands in other parts of the body, but they are generally flatter, and are of a pale colour. When filled with chyle, they are nearly as white as the fluid contained in them. The lacteals, having passed through these glands, proceed forward, and by anastomosing form a set of trunks, which, together with those of the lymphatics, unite and constitute the thoracic duct, which ultimately opens into the subclavian vein. Much discussion has arisen as to the mechanism by which the chyle is made to pass forward through the lacteal system: capillary attraction would appear to have some influence in the operation, since absorption continues after death; during life, the pressure of the abdominal muscles, and the pulsation of the arteries, no doubt contribute to the effect.

In the interior of the thoracic duct, and in the lacteals, there exist valves, so disposed as to permit the fluid to pass forward towards the subclavian vein, but to prevent its return.

Thank you Jack and Ann. I must admit that these medical terms are new to me but I do like Janey's diagnosis of TB.

I was curious because the deeper I get into my genealogy I am discovering that my family has a lot of diabetes cases particularly in the female line. These are both present day cases and in my ancestors and I wondered with Frances dying young whether she could be an early, perhaps undiagnosed, case.

One other thing I meant to mention -- it was someone in a thread here at GR a while back said this, and it certainly fit with one case in my family.

Tuberculosis heightened the libido in women (she didn't say about men) -- and pregnancy alleviated the symptoms.

My gr-grfather married in Q3 1872, his daughter was born in Q4 1872, and his wife died of tuberculosis in Q2 1873. (The daughter died 20 years later, also of tuberculosis.) This fits the pattern: the wife died within a few months of giving birth, aged only 24.

My gr-grfather's sister (whose daughter died of tuberculosis at 16 in 1896) disappeared from records after the birth of her third child in late 1881. Her husband went bankrupt not long after, and has a new (alleged) wife in 1891. I suspect she too died of tuberculosis, again after having three children in rapid succession.

Your person was 40, but if she was having children up to her mid-late 30s, this could have delayed the fatal consequences of the disease.

Having said all that -- googling finds me some reports that pregnancy doesn't affect the symptoms of tuberculosis, so I offer a grain of salt. ;)

I do think tuberculosis was the likely cause of the disease/death in your case. My partner has Type I diabetes, diagnosed in middle age not long after we met, and two years ago nearly died of diabetic ketoacidosis, so I've become quite educated on it, and I don't know of any complication that sounds like this.

... Hmm, reading what I've copied below -- my mum has an abdominal lymphoma, and it looks like that's another possibility. But given the prevalance of tuberculosis, that would still be my guess.


http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/376015-overview

Abdominal lymphadenopathy in intestinal TB may be demonstrated with US and CT. The distribution of lymphadenopathy is sometimes difficult to differentiate from lymphoma. Contrast-enhanced CT may be useful in differentiating lymphomas from TB. Mesenteric lymph nodes are involved more often in disseminated TB (80%) and in nondisseminated TB (52%) than in patients with untreated Hodgkin disease (6%). ...

[caption on an image] Barium examination shows loss of normal orientation and displacement of jejunal and ileal segments in a young Asian boy; this finding suggests mesenteric disease due to tuberculosis.

She had 3 sons 1857, 1862 and 1864.

You are brilliant Janey and if you are taking on patients I would like to sign on with you please.

Ah, I fear that in my misspent youth I went to law school instead of medical school. ;) Honed the detective skills in practice, though!

And years later, when I'd left practice and gone into a different but related field, my friend who was doing an M.Ed. degree practised on me with a career aptitude test. It told me my first choice should be lawyer, and my second choice should be something very similar to what I was then (and am now) doing ... and if they didn't work out, I should seriously consider .............. professional genealogist!

Modern medicine is certainly a good thing. My gr-grfather apparently told of having a first family that was "wiped out by a plague". I'd thought maybe one of the horrible smallpox epidemics that devastated Europe in the 19th century ... but then I started getting the death certificates, and found that it was TB: his brother, first wife, daughter and niece that I know of, and likely his siblings who died in childhood (a mining area in Cornwall where TB would have been endemic), and so on. A century later, that gr-grfather's grandson's wife had TB, in the 1950s, and lived a long life after treatment.

My grandmother knew a woman who continually fell pregnant to alleviate the symptoms of TB. This must've been in the 20s/30s. Not a single one of them survived.