Dear Sir,

A case occurred in my practice a short time ago of sudden death in a girl aged 16 years—

She had been apparently well, till a minute before death when she suddenly became collapsed with violent pain in the abdomen, & was dead before her companion could fetch help— At the P.M.¹ I found a large abscess (entirely unsuspected during life) had burst into the peritoneal cavity, in the centre of it was a cherry stone which had worked through a ragged hole in the vermiform appendage of the cæcum— In re-reading your Descent of Man (Edit 2. p. 20–21) I thought this short record might be interesting to you as bearing on a statement there made.²

I trust you will forgive the presumption of an entire stranger writing to you on so small a point and believe me to be | Yours respectfully | Frederick Parsons