A handbook of the theory and practice of medicine / by Frederick T. Roberts.
- Frederick Thomas Roberts
- Date:
- 1873
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A handbook of the theory and practice of medicine / by Frederick T. Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.
980/1060 page 976
![jaunes) are produced, of tough consistence, implicating the gray matter of the convolutions. In the interior a cavity forms, bounded and traversed by a white or grayish, or sometimes yellowish vascular connective tissue, which may divide the space into loculi, and this contains a milky fluid, which holds in sus- pension abundant fat-granules and corpora amylacea. This fluid may be absorbed, followed by contraction and ultimate closure on the cavity. Symptoms.—It will be requisite in treating of the clinical his- tory of cerebral softeniug, to describe it under the two forms of acute and chronic. The latter is considered in the chapter on] Chronic Diseases of the Brain. Acute Softening.—Practically it will only be necessary here to indicate the respective symptoms of embolism of the middle cerebral artery and thrombosis. Embolism may occur at any age, being not uncommon in young persons; some morbid condition likely to cause it can generally be discovered, while there have been no premonitory head-symptoms as a rule. The usual indications of the lodgment of the embolus are sudden loss of consciousness and evidence of shock, with hemiplegia generally on the right side. The case may end fatally, or consciousness may return, but the hemiplegia remains, aphasia being also very frequent. The paral- ysis is rarely recovered from entirely, but power may be partially restored,' especially in young persons. In one case which came under ray notice the leg recovered perfectly, but the arm, face, and tongue remained permanently paralyzed. Arterial thrombosis is met with either in old persons or in those who are prematurely aged, and there are usually, but not always, well-marked signs of degeneration of the vessels in the limbs, along with a feeble heart and other evidences of decay. Com-; monly there have been marked premonitory symptoms, due to in-j terference with Jhe cerebral circulation or formation of minute thrombi, as described under Cerebral Hemorrhage, The mode of attack varies, but is usually more or less apoplectiform. Should a large artery or several smaller vessels be suddenly obstructed, a sudden apoplectic seizure occurs with hemiplegia, frequently not distinguishable from sanguineous apoplexy. By far more com- monly, however, the onset is gradual, there being marked mental](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20402740_0980.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
