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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![her speech was distinct, except that, in speaking, she Avas sometimes seized with spasmodic twitches of the lips and lower jaw. She lived in this state Avithout any change in the symptoms, her general health con- tinuing good, for about twenty years. In the morning she Avas taken out of bed, and placed in a chair so con- trived as to support her in a sitting posture. Her arms Avere supported on a cross board Avhich passed before her; and if, by any accident, one of them slipped from this support, she had no resource but to call the assist- ance of another person to replace it. Having been on one occasion left alone for about tAvo hours, after one of her arms had thus slipped doAvn, the hand had become extensively oedematous. In the same manner, if her head fell forward upon the thorax, it remained in that position until raised by an attendant. Her mind was entire. She died of four days illness, Avith symptoms of low typhus fever. I examined the body Avith the utmost care, along Avith Dr. Pitcairn, Avho had been in the habit of seeing her for several years, and Ave could not discover any disease, either in the brain or the spi- nal cord. Case CLVII—A lady, aged 30, had been liable for several years to a feeling of stiffness of her neck, Avith an uneasy feeling in the back part of it, Avhich made her sometimes sit Avith her head bent very much for- Avard, and at other times throAA'n backAA-ards ; about tAvo months before her death, these feelings increased, and Avere accompanied by pain, extending along both the arms ; at first like rheumatic pains Avith stift’ness, but soon amounting to paralysis. She bad noVv only a A'cry imperfect motion beloAV the elboAA', and could not raise either arm to her head ; there Avas very slight motion of the fingers, and they Avere sometimes spasmodically contracted. The speech became thick and partially inarticulate ; she had considerable difficulty in SAvalloAv- ing, and she observed that there Avere certain positions of the neck, in which she could SAvalloiv Avith greater facility than in others. Her pulse Avas good, the other ,Mite ms noia a ' kfore iff dfa'ii; sliifli warrfd in paro.usn].', .k apptJKinff of pjfrtion ” pin BfCD pro.'siirf, in wvoral ot tflra. IsiUfs mre insorlfd in ijc-eksk seemed letter; sle andileffiolionoftliearmswa' Ontleeieninjollle liliOctol )j comatose will some convulsi conmlsiTe motion of tie loner j (■me in a state of constant ant aad sliiitio^j with violence. “^f^^lnic, ^lesceracd t’Ot, after irrri Iia.... , sank again rc ^xipeclioi dleas. '-In lie tflliet Most ( I'*»»**!, 5 'lek7'‘‘ove,Yftlei^ , •«■() and of after s»«i; I’c itiH? '^*on “ fje](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21959432_0420.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
