Report on intra-cranial tumors : their symptomatology and diagnosis, with illustrative cases / by Roberts Bartholow.

  • Roberts Bartholow
Date:
1869
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on intra-cranial tumors : their symptomatology and diagnosis, with illustrative cases / by Roberts Bartholow. 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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    Fnrtlierinore, the symptoms produced by cerebral tumors are divisible into two orders: 1. Those common to m()rbid growths, or adventitious prod- ucts in general. 2. Those peculiar to tumors in special situations. Belonging- to the first order are headache, vertigo, amauro- sis, convulsions, derangement of the intellectual and affectiv^e faculties, etc; ; to the second, alterations of sensibility, dis- turbances of the special senses, disorders of motility, vomit- ing, urinary disorders, etc. I. Headache.—This symptom was preseut in seven of the ten cases herein reported, and was, probably, present in all if inquiry had been made to ascertain this fact. Headache is a very constant symptom; so much so thatLadame* believes it to have considerable diagnostic value. As an isolated symptom, it has but slight importance from the diagnostic point of view, for it is present in other disorders of the brain. Eostaiit considers it an important sign in softening. In both of tliese conditions the headache is obstinate and j)ersistent, incieasing steadily in violence. In the case of tumor the headache is associated with other characteristic symptoms, as disorders of the special senses, etc.; whereas in softening the headache is accomijauied by paralysis of the tongue and progressive failure of intelligence. In the cases immediately under my own care I have observed two kinds of headache : a constant uneasiness of a dull character; violent pain occur- ring paioxysmally. The situation and character of the paiu are to a limited ex- tent indicative of the position of the tumor. In tumors at the base, the pain is referred to the occipital region, and to the temporal. Tiiis was the case in three instances narrated in this paper, in which the autopsy revealed the position of the neoplasu), and was also the case in the three in which the * Symptomatologie und Diagnostik der Hirugescbwulste, Wurzburg, ]86r,. tReclioi-ches snr le Ramollisenieiit dn Cerveau. Denx Edit., 1^23. Also: Hasse. Kraiikheiten des Gebirs, iu Virchow's Haudbuch der spe- ciellen Patliologie uud Therapie, p. 560—et seq.