Status lymphaticus is a constitutional hereditary anomaly characterized anatomically by certain external peculiarities of configuration, by hypoplasia of the cardiovascular apparatus, by hyperplasia of the thymus gland and of the lymphoid tissues in other localities, and, incidentally, by congenital structural defects in different viscera. Clinically, the condition is not infrequently terminated by sudden death on apparently trivial provocation, oftenest in children, but occasionally in adults.
Among the first to recognize the anatomic defects in status lymphaticus and to apply their visible manifestations to purposes of diagnosis during life were Dr. Charles Norris in New York and Neusser in Vienna. Clinically, the condition may be identified in the living male subject by bodily configuration simulating that of the female. The face is beardless, or nearly so, and the axillary and other hairs are scanty, the skin is smooth and unusually delicate, the pubic hairs are sharply defined in a transverse direction,