A study of the paths of secondary degeneration in a case of injury of the cervical spine / by Arthur V. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Arthur Vincent, 1850-1912.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A study of the paths of secondary degeneration in a case of injury of the cervical spine / by Arthur V. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/30
    A STUDY OF THE PATHS OF SECOiTDARY D ERATIOi^ IN A CASE OF INJURY 0. THE CERVICAL SPINE. By ARTHUR V. MEIGS, M.D., PHYSICIAN TO THE PENNSYLVANIA AND CHILDItEN'S HOS' [Read March 5, 1890.] Although at first sight it might appear that one case of any given disease is like another, and, therefore, that isolated cases are hardly worth placing upon record, yet the one I propose to relate presented features that are not so common as to render them trite, and, at the same time, showed the incor- rectness of statements which common acceptation has caused to be looked upon as facts. The subject of the results of spinal injuries has long occupied a large share of the attention of surgeons; and neurologists and anatomists have been much occupied of late in studying the upward and downward paths of the secondary degenerations which follow injuries of the spine, whether traumatic or the result of the processes of disease; for, beside the interest which always attaches to the study of pathology, it being an acknowledged fact that the more perfectly we understand the morbid processes of any disease the more competent we are to treat it, anatomists have learned that from a study of the course of the secondary de- generations they can best follow the paths of the nerve fibres from their origin in the brain to their final termination in skin, muscle, or elsewhere, according to what their special function may be,^ 1 My most hearty thanks are due to Dr. Packard, my colleague at the Pennsylvania Hospital, who placed the case at my disposal and under whose charge the patient was while in the ward, and to Dr. W. D. Green, the resident physician who made the ()ost-mortetn examination and prepared the liisfory for me.