Gaucher's Splenomegaly

Gaucher's disease is a rare, congenital, familial, constitutional disorder, possibly of lipoid metabolism, in which complex lipoids fail of complete disintegration and are stored in the reticulum cells of the lymphatic-hematopoietic system. The well known clinical manifestations are great enlargement of the spleen, enlargement of the liver, brownish pigmentation of the exposed parts of the skin, wedge-shaped thickenings of the conjunctiva near the cornea, marked hemorrhagic tendency, and characteristic blood changes, especially leukopenia and thrombocytopenia. Not only is the disease a familial one but the disposition to gross skeletal changes may also be familial, as has been shown by Ludwig Pick.¹The interest in Gaucher's disease has recently been revived by the description of this gross osseous form of the disease; by finding additional aids to making the clinical diagnosis; by the determination of the chemistry of the so-called Gaucher substance, and by the defining of the relation of