Possible cerebral origin of the symptoms usually classed under 'railway spine' / by G.L. Walton.

  • George Lincoln Walton
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Possible cerebral origin of the symptoms usually classed under 'railway spine' / by G.L. Walton. 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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    eruption on his body, nor falling out of hair. He relates that while soldering about two years ago some of the hot solder ran through the fly of his pants and burned the back of his penis. The only history of severe injury to be elicited, other than the explosion, is that some months after leaving the hospital in 1862 he was struck on the head by a freight train drawn by mules. He was knocked down, somewhat stunned, but was able to get upon the car. Recovery said to be rapid, and with- out nervous or other symptoms. Physical examination. The patient is a short stout man of intelligent mien and good muscular development, excepting that all the muscles of the left arm are decid- edly smaller and less resistant than those of the right. On the scalp exists a cicatrix high up in the occipital region a little to the left of the median line. This cic- atrix is broadly linear, two and one half centimetres in length, non-adherent, non-sensitive, and shows no loss of substance. On the dorsum of the penis, well back from the glans, appears a superficial white oblong cicatrix, 0.7 centimetre in length. The cicatrices representing the course of the shot received in the thigh are as follows: a horizontally linear cicatrix 2.5 centimetres in length, situated at the outer extremity of the fold of the left buttock, and showing considerable loss of substance ; a horizon- tally linear cicatrix 1.5 centimetres long on the inner side of anterior surface of the left thigh, opposite the scrotum, representing considerable loss of substance, quite sensitive, pressure on it causing tingling sensations down the leg ; a linear cicatrix four centimetres in length on the outside of the left scrotum, running down- wards and inwards from a point opposite the cica- trix on the thigh, and forked at its upper end; a small cicatrix in the posterior perineal region (where the ball was extracted). No enlarged glands found. The pupils are of aver- age size, alike, and react both to light and to (attempts at) accommodation. The patient’s gait is somewhat