Contributions to practical medicine and surgery / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James, 1794-1885.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to practical medicine and surgery / by James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    cases of headache at the same institution, when the pain did not arise from organic cerebral affection, and was neither sympathetic with other disease, nor symptomatic of hys- teria.* ]>. Epilepsy and other Spinal Affections. In the intro- duction to my collected essays on congelation, published in 1852, I proposed its employment in epilepsy, founding the suggestion on its good effects in a case of disease of analo- gous character which had been lately under my care. Sub- sequent experience has confirmed the soundness of the sug- gestion, and subsequent pathological research, particularly by Vander Kolk, has elucidated the mode in which cold operates in such cases. There can hardly be a doubt, judg- ing from the effect of remedies as well as pathological ap- pearances, that the spinal marrow is that portion of the ner- vous system which is mainly implicated in epilepsy, and especially its upper part, including the medulla oblongata; nor is it less probable that the affection of these parts con- sists of an excessive susceptibility of irritation, leading eventually to organic change. Without this morbid irrita- bility the usual eccentric causes of epilepsy would be incapable of producing it. No remedy would seem better calculated than intense cold to remove this condition. It is likewise related in the pub- lication just referred to, that on a visit which I made some years ago to the obstetric wards of the Edinburgh Infirmary, I was informed that frigorific mixtures had been beneficially applied over the lumbar vertebrae, in certain uterine affec- tions supposed to arise from spinal irritation. Dr. Watson mentions that the late Dr. Todd suggested the application of ice to the spine in hydrophobia; and certainly, in a disease * Practical Illustrations of the Treatment of the Principal Varieties of Headache, 1849.