A manual of medical diagnosis / by A.W. Barclay.

  • Andrew Whyte Barclay
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of medical diagnosis / by A.W. Barclay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    S. Lying on the hack is the position of debility; it is then comj hined with listlessness: it is also the position of paralysis,! when it is combined with inability to alter it; and of stiflhesOT and pain in acute rheumatism, when it is chiefly characterizedj by stillness. ■ £. I he same position is generally assumed in acute peritonitis,! w'hen it is combined with dramng up of the knees towarusl the abdomen. I The patient assumes a prone position generally only inj abdominal spasm or colic : much more rarely in consequencej of the pressure of internal tumour. ■ t). When fixed on one side, we may generally assume that thej breathing is much obstructed in the lung of that side onj which he lies. When he is unwilling to turn to either side,! it is commonly from the sense of j^ain accompanying inflam-J mation; pressure produces pain on the affected side, while] turning on the opposite causes a sensation of dragging. I h. Posture and gait. J a. Inability to stand depends on weakness, vertigo, or para^ lysis; in the two former the patient reclines, in the latter hej sits. I /3. The body is bent to one side in curvature of the spine, and] also in disease of the hip. | y. The gaii is (piick in excitement; | c. Slow in debility ; I £. Laborious, staggering, or uneven in diseases of the brain and paralysis. It is stiff and halting in rheumatism and disease of joints. 1]. There is constant movement in chorea. 1 0. Tremor exists in nervousness, and more especially in deli- rium tremens; it is seen in fever, sometimes with what is called floccitatio ; it also accompanies severe rigor. (c. Tonic spa.sm occurs in tetanus, in disease of the spinal cord, poisoning with strychnia, &c. When long continued, it is pro- bably associated with inflammatory softening of the brain. X. Catalepsy is a peculiar form of tonic spavin; damp is its mildest manifestation. 7 ju. Clonie spasm occurs in epilepsy, eclampsia, .chorea, and hys- teria ; subsultus is also a fonn ^of' clonic spasm, allied to tremor. ^ ^ f ■ V. The museular movements generally are exalted in mania and delirium, are diminished in idiotcy and imbecility, are lost in paralysis. There is a certain restlessness sometimes belong- ing to hypochondriasis, and more rarely to hysteria, allying them with delirium in this external manifestation.