On a prolonged first stage of Tabes dorsalis : amaurosis, lightning pains, recurrent herps; no ataxia; absence of patella tenson reflex / by Thomas Buzzard.

  • Buzzard, Thomas.
Date:
[1878?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a prolonged first stage of Tabes dorsalis : amaurosis, lightning pains, recurrent herps; no ataxia; absence of patella tenson reflex / by Thomas Buzzard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    Beprinted from Brain, Part JJ.] / ON A PEOLONGED FIKST STAGE OF TABES DOKSALIS: AMAUKOSIS, LIGHTNING PAINS, EE- CUEEENT HEEPES; NO ATAXIA; ABSENCE OF PATELLAE TENDON EEFLEX. BY THOMAS BUZZARD, M.D., Physician to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. In a paper published last January Berlin. Klin. Wochensch.') Professor C. Westphal has again drawn attention to a symptom of tabes dorsalis, which he has now had the opportunity of observing in a large number of cases, and which may be de- scribed as follows:—In health, if a man sits with one leg crossed upon the other, and the ligamentum patellae be then smartly struck just below the knee cap, there occurs a contraction of the extensor muscles in front of the thigh, and there is conse- quently a sudden kick upwards of the leg. Dr. Westphal pointed out in 1875 that this, which he calls by the somewhat awkward title of the knee- or leg-phenomenon, was absent in typical cases of tabes dorsalis. In his late com- munication he gives reasons for thinking that the test may prove very useful in the early stage of tabes, before there is any ataxia. He says that he has seen cases of pains without ataxia or sensory troubles, but with coincidently commencing optic atrophy, and absence of knee-phenomenon. One very striking example is related. A woman, thirty-six years of age, suffered from pains, like knives, especially in the left lower extremity, frequent and severe. She had also hyperal- gesia of the skin, so that the least contact was painful. Pains came much more rarely in the right leg, and were not to be compared in severity with those in the left. Eepeated ex- B