On concussion of the spine : nervous shock and other obscure injuries of the nervous system in their clinical and medico-legal aspects / by John Eric Erichsen.

John Eric Erichsen

Date:: 1875

Credit: On concussion of the spine : nervous shock and other obscure injuries of the nervous system in their clinical and medico-legal aspects / by John Eric Erichsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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$i Abercrombie, writing in 1829 sajs, tliat chronic inflammations of the cord and its membranes ' may supervene npon very slight injuries of the spine;' and further on he says, 'every inj\ny of the spine shonld be considered as deserving of minute attention. The more immediate effect of anxiety in such cases is in- flammatory action, which may be of an acute or chronic kind; and we have seen that it may advance in a very insidious manner even after injuries that were of so shght a kind that they attracted at the time httle or no attention ' (p. 381). Nothing can be clearer and more positive than this statement. These remarks of Abercrombie are con- firmed by Ollivier, by Bell, and by other writers on such injuries. The following cases will illustrate this point. The two first are cases of concussion of the s]3ine resulting from railway accidents, in which there were at the time slight marks of external injury. The others are very similar cases occurring from other accidents than those received on railways. Case 18. Nervous 8hoch from Railway Collision— Chronic Meningitis of Cord and Base of Brain—Lnperfect Recovery cfter Nine Years.—Mr. R., 35 years of age, a farmer and miller, of very active habits, accustomed to field sports, and much engaged in business, habitually in the enjoyment of good health, was in a railway col- lision that took place on ISTovember 4, 1864. He received a blow on his face which cut his upper lip on the left side, and was much and severely shaken. He did not lose consciousness, and was able shortly to proceed on his journey. On leaving the station to proceed to his own home, it was observed by a friend who drove him that he did not appear to recollect the road, with G$