The abdominal walls were flabby, relaxed, and pendulous, and the whole surface tender.
The patient gave a history of sudden loss of flesh with almost no reason some three years before, and increasing indigestion in all forms ever since.

The tenderness made careful abdominal study difficult, but lessened enough after a few days in bed to permit the perception of a displacement of the right kidney, whose lower edge could be felt on a level with the umbilicus and two inches to the right of it.

No change of position would bring it any lower.

Examined with the patient prone, two-thirds of the kidney could be outlined, extremely tender, and causing nausea and sinking if pressed upon.
The chief trouble in treatment proved to be the irritability of the intestines, which was brought on in most unexpected fashion by foods of the simplest kind.

For some time it was so persistent that the suspicion of intestinal tuberculosis was entertained; but it finally disappeared, and after that the case progressed more favorably and she was out of bed with a tight belt and kidney-pad in a little more than twelve weeks.