The lock-jaw of infants (trismus nascentium) or nine day fits, crying spasms, etc ; its history, cause, prevention and cure / by J. F. Hartigan.

  • Hartigan, James French, -1894.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lock-jaw of infants (trismus nascentium) or nine day fits, crying spasms, etc ; its history, cause, prevention and cure / by J. F. Hartigan. 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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    sion and recovered ; it was kept reposing on either side. In sucli cases I believe there -is every assur- ance of success when performed upon early ; but where the incurved apex cannot be rectified, the child evidently is born but to die, the symptoms being generally manifest soon after birth. ^ Drs. Wilhite and Bryson compared the effect of a si)icula in the adult to the pressure of the occi- put in the infant. ]Now while the results are the same by relieving such iDressure, it will be appar- ent that the effects on the infant are more pro- found, for instead of local irritation, we have con- tusion at the fons et origo^ or base of the brain. That such effects are not confined to the human race is shown from the following striking com- parison by Dr. Bryson. '' Those who are hunt- ers have noticed doubtless, in killing a wounded bird by pressure of the thumb upon the base of the brain, the cry of alarm, the spasm and rigid contraction of the muscles ; and if the pressure have not been exerted to a fatal extent, and the thumb be removed, how the rolling of the eyes ceases, the rigidity departs and the bird seems as well as ever. *lf called to another case like tliis, I would not hesitate to re- move the offending portion of the apex and secure the denuded pericranium to the scalp.