The connection between tuberculosis and insanity / by T.S. Clouston.

  • Thomas Clouston
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The connection between tuberculosis and insanity / by T.S. Clouston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    principal symptoms. All the cases in which lung diseases are the assigned causes of death only amount to 189 out of the 282 with tubercular deposit. I'or the sake of showing how many diseases may be associated with tuberculosis, I have given in the following table the assigned causes of death in all the cases. Table IV. Assigned causes of deatli. Male. Fem. Total. 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 7 8 3 1 4 0 1 1 1 4 5 V^UlluCl Ul lllamici ... 1 L n V 1 1 0 1 Cancer of stomach 1 0 1 Cancer of peritoneum... 0 1 1 Chronic bronchitis 1 3 4 1 I 2 0 1 1 3 2 5 2 1 3 0 1 1 3 0 3 Erj'sipelas of leg I 0 1 1 1 2 20 26 46 Assigned causes of death. Brought np General paralysis .... Hanging Hytlrothorax Morbus cordis Paraplegia Peritonitis Phlebitis Phthisis Pleurisy Pneumonia RamoUissemeat Scrofula Strangulation of bowels Suppuration of kidney Tubercular meningitis Tubercular peritonitis Ulceration of intestine Male. Feni. Total. 20 26 46 24 6 30 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 3 1 0 1 2 3 5 2 0 2 73 97 170 2 2 4 4 1 5 2 1 3 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 ] 1 0 4 4 0 1 1 136 146 282 Pathology of the brain among the tubercular.—In the majority of the cases tlie brain did not present any very well-marked pathological lesion. By well-marked I mean a decided change of structure that could in any way be directly connected with the tuberculosis, or suf- ficient to account for the insanity. In eight of the cases there was tubercle in the nervous centres, and in ninety more of them, including the general paralytics, there were organic changes in the braui Eamollissement, thickening, and morbid adhesions of the membranes, granular ventricles, and intense hyperjEraia, were the chief of these well-marked deviations from the normal standard. But in ad- dition to these, there was in nearly all the others a state of the brain which, although often found in cases of dementia without tuberculosis, yet seems to me to be more common in phthisical cases than in any others. There was great anaemia of the gray substance, with more or less atrophy of the convolutions and dropsy of tlie membranes and of the brain itself, while the white substance was soft and pale generally, with irregular patches wliere the punctse vasculosie were more numerous than usual. The white substance was especially softened in Ihe fornix and its neighbourhood ; sometimes, indeed, being quite diffluent at that part. Louis notices tliis softening