Three cases of acute anterior polio-myelitis (acute spinal paralysis) in adults / by W. Allen Sturge.

  • Sturge, William Allen, 1850-1919.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three cases of acute anterior polio-myelitis (acute spinal paralysis) in adults / by W. Allen Sturge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tumour in the larynx, which the doctor said was “ cheesy”. There was no history of neuroses, tubercle, or gout in the family. The patient was married, with six children ; he was a merchant in good circumstances till nine years before this illness. Since then, owing to failure in business, he had worked in zinc; he had never worked in lead at any time. His previous health was always excellent, until within three years of his pre- sent attack. There was no history of syphilis. For the last three years, he had been living very poorly in consequence of his reduced circum- stances. There was a history of an abdominal attack w'hich came on about a year before the present illness. He was seized with vomiting, diarrhoea, and severe pain in the left side of the abdomen. The pain lasted for several months, but the diarrhoea was replaced by constipa- tion. He was treated for nine weeks as an in-patient at the Gernran Hospital, and was very much relieved. The present illness began in September 1874. Except for the slight remains of the illness just described, he had been in fair health, from time to time suffering from slight pain in one knee. One morning, after walking to the railway station in the rain and getting damp, he sat down to wait half an hour for a train. Both at the station and afterwards in his workshop, he sat in a draught. In the afternoon, he felt pain in both shoulders. That night he woke up from his sleep with “horrible pain” in the shoulders. The shoulders were very stiff, and he was in a profuse perspiration. Next day, he was taken to the German Hos]rital, where he was ad- mitted an in-patient, under the care of Dr. Hermann Weber. The pain and stiffness soon extended down the arm, Imt were worse on the right side than the left, the right arm becoming “perfectly useless”, but with the left he could still carry a cup of coffee to his lips. The pain was very acute, and was increased by movement of the limbs ; it did not seem seated in the joints, but rather in the fleshy part of the arms, and in the forearms was worse two or three inches above the wrists. There was no particular pain in the fingers. He believed there was slight swelling of the finger-joints, but he did not recollect swelling of any of the other joints. At the end of a fortnight, he began to have pain and stiffness in the knees, ankles, and feet; but these were never so severe as in the arms. He was three weeks in bed, by the end of which time all his limbs were considerably better. He was beginning to be able to walk about, and to do things for himself, but there was still acute pain in the right forearm wdien the muscles were put on the stretch ; consequently his arm was carried in a sling. During the whole time he was in bed, he sweated profusely. He said his tempera- ture was taken regularly, and that it was never so high as 100 deg. Fahr.; he was told, moreover, that there was very little fever. At no time did he complain of pain in the back, or any sense of constriction round the chest, waist, or elsewhere. His bladder was unaffected. After he began to get better, he noticed that the muscles of the legs, arms, and trunk had become smaller than before his illness ; he was very much thinner altogether, and he attributed the shrinking of his