A 1948 autopsy specimen from a 42year old docker, who was leaning over the rail of a ship when a heavy load was dropped onto his shoulders crushing his upper abdomen against the rail. At laparotomy a splenectomy was performed. Five weeks later a pancreatic pseudocyst developed. This was drained, healed and he was discharged. Attacks of pain accompanied by pyrexia and raised serum amylase were thought to indicate residual pancreatitis. He died on the table in the course of pancreatectomy. The section of pancreas is clearly divided into two halves, separated by a furrow of fibrous tissue representing the point of healing by fibrosis of a rupture of the pancreas over the vertebral column.
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