Nervous diseases : their description and treatment / by Allan McLane Hamilton.

  • Allan McLane Hamilton
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nervous diseases : their description and treatment / by Allan McLane Hamilton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    concilftble with the statement that it is generally connected with the first dentition.' Tlie table presented below demonstrates that males are much more frequently affected than females, and of 169 deaths 91 were of males and 78 of females. Bertalot, already referred to, found that of his 24 cases fourteen were boys and ten were girls. Two cases occurred in the first year of life, seven in the second, five in the third, three in the fourth, three in the twelfth, and one each in the fifth, ninth, tenth, and fourteenth years. The youngest patient was ten weeks old. Twenty-two out of the twentv-four were attacked between November and the end of June. The chihh'en were all more or less delicate, they had frequently grown up under bad hygienic conditions, and were generally scrofulous or scrofulo- rachitic. In twelve there was a distinct hereditary predisposition to tuberculosis; two cases supervened upon chronic coxitis; one upon trau- matic erysipelas; two upon pertussis; one upon measles; and one upon the first signs of dentition. Morbid Anatomy and Pathology—From the immense mass of confused testimony before us (for the disease has been described by nearly every writer, from the time of Hippocrates), it is extremely difficvilt to say whether thepost-77io7-te7}i appearances are always those of a tuberculous character, or whether the granular substance is non-tuberculous, or again whether in some cases there is tuberculous deposit and in others simple granular collections. Paisley, Avho, Watson says, was the first to clearly describe the affection without saying much about its tuberculous nature, has given us a very admirable collection of facts bearing upon its morbid anatomy. Gerhard,^ one of the early medical writers of this country, says : It was not known, previously to the researches of Dr. Rufz and myself, that the tuberculous character of the disease was anything but a mere compli- cation. Guersent, Dance, Hennis, Greene, and others shared in Ger- hard's opinion, that tubercular meningitis was a strumous disease. Rufz' collected 40 cases, and in every instance there was complicating pulmonary tuberculosis. ' An inspection of the tabic prepared by Dr. C. P. Russell, in the Report of the Board of Health of the City of New York for 1870, will enable tlie reader to perceive the preponderance of mortality before the second year of life. Hativlty. Color- Under V.8. Por'n. ed. 1 year. 1 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 25 M. P. M P. M. P. M. P. M. P. M. P. M. F. U. P. H. F M. P. M. F. M. F. M. F. 82 7« 2 •• SO 28 21 14 9 8 fi 4 7 7 3 4 1 4 1 •• Also five males of .30, one of .50, and one of 5,5; tliis cause of death was .G2 per cent, of the combined cause. ' ])iu\rr\\Hf)n'H Prac. of Med., vol. ii. p. 243. ' Quoted by Marshall iliill, p. !)4.