On spinal apoplexy / [Alexander Peddie].

  • Peddie, Alexander, 1810-1907
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On spinal apoplexy / [Alexander Peddie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a considerable interval between the effort and the effect, the de¬ termination of the will, and the transmission of its mandate to the ex¬ tremities. An accumulation of pathological facts such as these now communicated, will, it is trusted, ere long make this difficult and interesting subject more intelligible. Whether or not the free nervous communications just alluded to, between the medulla, the spinal ganglia, and the great sympathetic, even become endowed with powers not originally possessed, or become new channels of sensation and volition in extraordinary circum¬ stances, in this case, doubtless, their ordinary functions were much quickened in power for the work of secretion and nutrition. These functions were no doubt to a considerable extent of an abnormal character, as evinced by the large growth of the liver, and the increase of its secretion, the great quantity of fat found in the ab¬ dominal parietes, omenta, and under the skin—even of the inferior extremities, and the formation of the splenetic bodies found in the abdomen ; yet it must be remembered how decidedly he rallied from the prostration of repeated fever; how his body renewed its stout¬ ness ; and healthful granulation and cicatrization again and again repaired the ulceration over the trochanters. It was certainly asto¬ nishing that with such a diminution of healthful nervous energy, life was sustained so long. I shall now endeavour to compress into as narrow a compass as possible, the present extent of our knowledge regarding spinal apoplexies, in attempting to do this considerable difficulty is ex¬ perienced from the information on the subject being much scattered in our medical literature; yet I believe that I have succeeded in gathering together all the cases of spinal apoplexy on record ; and those, for the sake of brevity and the more ready perception of inference, are now presented in a tabular form. From this table I have excluded altogether extravasations in the cord and its theca when occasioned by accident, such as fractures and dislocations of the vertebrae, and blows or strains so violent as immediately to lacerate the vertebral contents—cases, such as have been reported by Morgagni,1 Sir Everard Home,2 Chevalier,3 Payen,4 Brodie,5 Howship,6 and others. I have, also, for manifest reasons excluded instances of sanguinous effusion into the spinal canal—the fluid having forced it's way from a rupture in the brain itself; and have also omitted to note any case of simple serous effusion, analogous to those to which, when occurring in the cerebral cavity, 1 De Sedibus et Causis Morb. Epist., 54, art. 25. 2 Philosophical Transactions, May 1814. 3 Transact. Medico-Chirurg. Soc. of London, vol. iii. 4 Essai sur l’Encephalite These de Paris, 1826, p. 2J. 5 Transac. Medico-Chir. Soc. of Lond., vol. xx. p. 147. 6 Discrimination and Appearances of Surgical Disease, p. 77.
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