On the efficacy of the bromide of potassium in epilepsy and certain psychical affections / by S.W. Duckworth Williams.

  • Williams, Samuel White Duckworth.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the efficacy of the bromide of potassium in epilepsy and certain psychical affections / by S.W. Duckworth Williams. 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.

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    were not under treatment, there were 40 entries of accidents in the Medical Journal; during the five months they were taking the Bromide, only 20 were chronicled. This morbid irritability, which is such a constant feature in epileptics, has been defined by Fraser* to be a state of the mind which disposes it to be quickly acted upon by any cause of excitement, and often and often have I noticed paroxysms of convulsions brought on in epileptics by a very moderate amount of excitement. Even a gesture of ridicule, directed against such a patient, will often raise a storm of anger, and thus induce an epileptic fit. Jfow we may presume that a fit, under these circumstances, is brought about by an afilux of blood to the medulla oblongata through an increase in the rapidity of the circulation, caused by the burst of passion. Again, the pathognomonic paroxysmal phenomena ,may be summed up briefly under three heads, viz., tonic spasm, clonic spasm, and loss of consciousness. Tonic spasm is the result of undue action in the medulla oblongata,! passing downwards to the spinal cord. Clonic spasm is caused by the circulation of carbonised blood through the medulla oblongata. Loss of consciousness is brought about by cerebral congestion, which is induced by contraction of the cerebral capillaries caused by irritation arising in the medulla oblongata, and proceeding along the vaso-motor nerves. Now I found that comparing a fit occuring before taking medicine, with one occuring soon afterwards, in very many cases, whereas the tonic spasm was as severe, and lasted as long in one fit as another, the phenomena of clonic spasm and loss of consciousness, were decidedly ameliorated. And this I noticed so frequently as to leave no room for doubting its being post hoc propter hoc. * Epilepsy and the use of the Viscus Quercvims, t Dr. Keynolds, Op. Cit.
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