Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / by John Abercrombie.
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / by John Abercrombie. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![]3 ■ iai:; 10 i’hI ( Ti-wiii. - ■“^■i'l'nfe’andaotoie I aiiet toj. ' r”’not w ittiini; itie j . intoafataltetiiikati®, ' r .iii (Itiirium, but often i jutnt'y the patient lie? in • itieoherenilv, bat out of '' 1- to talk 'eriblf. Tin? '*■ ‘'ai'aniehbv fe?*'!. i?al'''aT? i-a.-ftm f,( ibie btsiii. ..■“■Iv-otpediatfe'- ' • ‘ ■a'.rriv refeiteT to. .'..reb-al atnl fre- k .htcuhein'f w '■ ' fija' 0 K-Ott? '-■■'• itt f: ^.piicb ■> . -ftbs ft nt; 'Y.Ve'i'’- 1-# -n.- into slight delirium, and at last into coma ; the pulse rvhich was at first not affected, becoming rapid as the disease advances. In all the forms of this dangerous aftection, there is great variety in the symptoms, and much observation is required to put us fully upon our guard against the in- sidious characters which many of the cases assume, and the deceitful appearances of amendment M’hich often take place in all the forms of the disease. Even in those cases which have assumed the most formidable aspect, eveiy alarming symptom may subside. The pulse per- haps continues frequent, but it also is coming down ; at our successive visits rve find it falling regularly, and we are disposed to hope that a few days will bring the case to a favourable termination. During this deceitful in- terval, which may continue for several days, I have known a parent intimate to the medical attendant that his farther visits were unnecessary, and I have known a physician take his leave, considering his patient as convalescent. As the pulse falls, the patient is disposed to sleep ; this perhaps is considered as favourable ; it falls to the natural standard—he then sleeps almost constantly ; and in another day this sleep terminates in coma. The pulse then begins to rise again ; it rises to extreme frequency, and in a few days more the patient dies. All this may go on with very little complaint of headach, and without any syniptom that M'ill lead a su- perficial observer to suspect danger, until he finds his patient gliding into coma at the very time when he ex- pects recovery ; for the period udien the pulse falls to the natural standard is the time when the coma becomes evident, and the situation of the patient probably hope- less. ^Vhenever, therefore, at any period of a febrile disease, there have been remarkable symptoms in the head, such as violent headach, with vomiting and im- patience of light, stupor, convulsive affections, or aflec- i tioiis of the sight,—though these S}’mptoms may have 1 entirely subsided, and the complaint may again have assumed the cliaracters of simple fever, we must not consider the danger as over, but must be vipon our](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21959432_0037.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
