Specimen sheet. The American Medical Library and Intelligencer : a concentrated record of medical science and literature / edited by G.S. Pattison, M.D. and R. Dunglison, M.D.

Date:
[1836]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specimen sheet. The American Medical Library and Intelligencer : a concentrated record of medical science and literature / edited by G.S. Pattison, M.D. and R. Dunglison, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mass, than of regular organisation. The chiasm of the optic nerves, as well as their entire tract, was so soft as to yield to a slight touch with the handle of the scalpel, and the olfactory were in the same condition. The corpus callosum, thulami nervorum opticorum, and tubercula quadrigernina, presented no pathological condition. The cerebellum and medulla oblongata were in a physiological state. The spinal column was not examined. This boy was remarkably intelligent. In my daily visits I held frequent conversations with him, and in all my observations I could not discover the slightest derangement of his intellectual faculties—no dullness of sensibility, no obtuse- ness of perception, no impairment of judgment, no want of memory, and, so far as mind is concerned, he gave no evidence of disease. His vision, audition, and voice, were unimpaired. We here have a case, which presents that portion of the brain from which the nerves arise, in a physiological condition, and the general nervous apparatus in a sound state, fit for conveying impressions, whilst the organ, upon which depends perception and the perfection of ideas, is in a great degree lost, and what remains is in a highly patholo¬ gical condition; yet we have all the manifestations of intellect, as if the encephalon were not required in those highest functions. His case contradicts the opinion of Sir Charles JBell, that disease of the general surface of the brain is always attended with derange¬ ment of the mind ; and it is equally opposed to the views of Desmoulins, Gall, Spurz- heim, and others, who contend, that the seat of intellection is in the periphery of the brain, or its convolutions. In like manner, the opinion of Magendie is contradicted,— that the sense of sight is always destroyed by removal of the cerebral hemisphere ; for here the right hemisphere was destroyed, and yet vision was perfect with either eye. Where, I would ask, were the functions of mind executed in this case ? Intellection was performed, the moral faculties were exercised, and that portion of the brain, in which we believe those important and complicated actions are generated and perfected, was either gone, or in a highly pathological state. I have given briefly, and I hope clearly, the facts in this case. To you I look for the deductions. I hope I have not trespassed too much on your time, by detailing a case, which presents much interest to the physiologist. I am, dear sir, very truly, your friend, G. W. Boerstler. Professor Dunglison. CALCULOUS AFFECTIONS. [The following observations on calculous depositions, and the mode of discriminating them, are from the “ British Medical Almanac,” for 1836;—a publication which might be imitated with much advantage in this country.] In 1776 Scheele examined a stone out of the bladder, and discovered lithic or uric acid. Wollaston, in 1797, described five different kinds of stones; (1) uric acid; (2) phosphate of lime; (3) a mixture of the last salt with phosphate of ammonia and mag¬ nesia (fusible calculus) ; (4) pure phosphate of magnesia and lime; and (5) oxalate of lime (mulberry calculus). These are the chief concretions found in the bladder ; before noticing them, we must say something of amorphous sediments and gravel. A. Amorphous Sediments may consist (1) of uric acid, which is of a yellow or brick- dust colour, like the ordinary sediment of cooled urine ; (2) 'phosphate of lime, mixed with phosphate of ammonia and magnesia, and a considerable quantity of mucus. Received on a filter, this appears like mucus, but on drying it becomes earthy, pulveru¬ lent, and smooth to the touch. Diluted acids take up the earthy salts, leaving behind the mucus. Urine in which such sediments are observed, is always alkaline; containing carbonate of soda and carbonate of ammonia. (3) The mucus of the bladder, when in excess, looks something like the preceding sediment, but being without the earthy salts, it becomes of a greenish yellow on drying, and the urine is always acid. B. Chrystaelized Deposits or Gravel. The substances most frequently met with in this form, are (1) acid urate of ammonia in the form of small, shining, red or yellow, pointed, chrystalline groups; (2) oxalate of lime (pale yellow or green crystals); (3) phosphate of ammonia and magnesia. C. Calculi should be divided with a fine saw, and polished by rubbing with water and the sawdust. They usually have a nucleus in the centre consisting of one sub¬ stance, which afterwards alternates with unequal layers of other, and at times, of all the principles of urinary calculi. Many stones consist of the same substance in