Three cases of cerebral abscess consequent upon suppurative disease of the middle ear, with remarks / by Thomas Barr.
- Barr, Thomas, 1846-1916
- Date:
- [1880]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Three cases of cerebral abscess consequent upon suppurative disease of the middle ear, with remarks / by Thomas Barr. 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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![regiou. He complained of a shivering sensation, especially in the head, which was attributed at the time to the fact that his hair had been cut on the previous day. For months before he had occasionally remarked to his mother that he had a peculiar creeping, shivery sensation in the head. There was severe vomiting for the tirst three or four days. It began on the Sunday night, continued the whole of Monday and Tuesday, on Wednesday not so frequently, and only once on Thursday. During that time the vomitino- was not connected with the taking of food, of which he ate'^veiy little. His thirst was great. There was great heat of skin, and the tace was flushed and pale by tuins. The bowels were confined, and remained so during the whole course of the disease, bein^ relieved by occasional teaspoonful doses of compound liquorice powder. The pain of head and back of ear was agonising for the first two days, but afterwards became less, although, till the end of this illness, he seemed to have some pain. On Thursday the 1st January, Dr. William Chalmers, who was in attendance applied two leeches over the mastoid process. On the day following blistering fluid was painted over the same rec^ion while two days after that a cantharides plaster was put over the temp e. The leeches removed a good quantity of blood and the blisters rose well. These remedies were understood to have relieved the pain. At the end of the first week severe rigors began, lasting at first about twenty minutes while afterwards they continued as long as an liour. They were followe.] by heat and then by sweating. The shivering was said always to begin in the head. On Monday, oth January, I saw him for the first time He lay on his back pale and drowsy, but easily roused, when he gave intelligent answers to questions, and seemed to observe with attention what was going on. I cleaned out the external auditory canal of a quantity of offensively smelling pus and tound the tympanic membrane almost completely destroyed and the exposed raucous lining of the tympanum covered with exuberant granulations which easily bled. Externally at the junction of the mastoid and squamous parts of the temporal bone, there was some oedema and tenderness on pressure, but here was some doubt whether it might not be connected With the blisters. The question of making a free incision at that part was considered, but it was decided to wait and wateh closely There was neither cBdema nor swelling oveT the mastoid process itself. In a day or two the «deraa and tenderness passed off, and there'^seemed no fnStTon for](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21457529_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
