Congenital Deficiency of the Pericardium

Congenital deficiency of the parietal pericardium is a rare anomaly. Sixty-four cases were collected from the literature by Moore1in 1925, and another case was added by Grant2in 1926. The case reported here is the sixty-seventh. Aside from its rarity, this condition possesses a special interest in that these cases throw some light on the function of the pericardium, a subject about which there exists considerable diversity of opinion. REPORT OF CASE A colored man, aged 56, was admitted to the Lakeside Hospital on Feb. 14, 1929, with the complaint of shortness of breath and swelling of the ankles. Prior to the present illness the patient's general health had been good. There was no history of shortness of breath, precordial pain or edema. The patient always had done heavy manual labor. About one month before his admission to the hospital, shortness of breath had developed. Orthopnea, a