Clinical observations on functional nervous disorders / by C. Handfield Jones.

  • Jones, C. Handfield (Charles Handfield), 1819-1890.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical observations on functional nervous disorders / by C. Handfield Jones. 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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    CHAPTE R III. CEREBRAL ANiEMIA. As one of the simplest morbid states of the brain, we may take angemia, which properly implies a simple decrease in the amount of arterial blood passing through the organ in a given time. The observations of Kussmaul and Tenner on six male adults, backed by those which they made on rabbits, show very conclusively what are the results of this state when it is speedily induced. When both carotids were compressed in the human subject, the vertebrals of course remaining open, the principal phenomena were, pallor of the face ; loss of consciousness ; dilatation of the pupils ; slow, deep, and as.it were sighing respiration; and, in two cases of weak intellect, a choking sensation, followed by vomiting and general convulsions, which disappeared in a few seconds after the compression was re- moved. Ligature of the common carotids, one or both in succession, may produce no symptoms, or may cause paralysis and convulsions ; the convulsions aflfecting the same, and the paralysis the opposite side. The paralysis may precede, accompany, or follow the con- vulsions. The eye of the operated side sometimes becomes blind- Other symptoms which have been observed are, dizziness, stupe- faction, insensibility, loss of consciousness, of speech, and of free play of the muscles in general; difficulty in swallowing, nausea, vomiting, swooning, and coma. The authors whom we are quoting proceed to state that post-mortem examination traces the cause of the paralysis to anaemia and softening of the corresponding cerebral hemisphere, to a greater or less extent. They are satisfied that epileptic convulsions only manifest themselves in man, when, together with the cerebrum, some or all of the parts of the encephalic mass lying behind the thalami optici are suddenly deprived of blood to a sufficient amount, but that sudden falling down, announcing the approach of an apoplectic attack (?), unconsciousness, and insensi- bility, originate in causes proceeding from the brain proper. The affection termed by Trousseau, congestion cerebrale apoplecti- forme, in which he believes there is no congestion at all, but that the disorder is rather allied to epilepsy or syncope, seems to be essentially of anaemic character. A man falls down suddenly, as if stricken by apoplexy; is taken up in a state of stupor, and for a quarter of an hour, or even longer, remains more or less in the same condition—his intelligence confused, and his gait uncertain. The following day he is quite well. In slighter cases, the patient is