Volume 1

The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others].

Date:: 1908-1909

Credit: The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Convulsions Copaiba 'fHE STANDARD PHYSICIAN character. These also occur almost solely in young children. Over-eating, rapid eating, the presence of tapeworms, or even of pinworms, may induce these convulsive movements, usually associated with other signs of indiges- tion or of worms. Naturally, treatment would take into consideration the removal of the exciting cause by enemas, cathartics, etc. A few specific infectious diseases are attended by very characteristic convulsive seizures. Typical of these are tetanus and hydrophobia. In these diseases there is a ju'evious history of a wound or a dog bite, and later development of strong, tonic, muscular contractions. These tonic contrac- tions differ from the ordinary contractions of epilepsy and hysteria by the rigidity of the muscle, the arm or leg or hand being drawn up tightly in one ])osition and not alternately drawn up and extended. The character- istic forms of convulsions in tetanus and hydrophobia are described under R.-\bies and Tetanus. Certain drugs have a peculiar action on nerve-tissue, causing irritation of the brain centres or spinal cord centres, with the production of convul- sions. The most characteristic of these is strychnine, but drugs like calabar bean, cocaine, belladonna, and even codeine in children, may bring about convulsive movements. The convulsions of strychnine are very character- istic. They are tetanic in nature, that is of the tonic class, and are not accompanied with loss of consciousness. They involve the muscles of the jaw (causing lockjaw), the muscles of the back of the neck (drawing back the head), and the muscles of the spine (bowing the body backward). In severe cases the s])asms are so marked that the body rests on the heels and head. The convulsive seizures of alcoholic poisoning are described in the article on Alcoholis.m. Kidney-disorders are apt to cause convulsive seizures because of the retention of poisonous products which should have been eliminated by those organs. The convulsions are epileptiform in their general character, as described in the paragraph on Bright's disease in the article on diseases of the Kidney. They do not differ in any essential particular from the con- vulsions known as eclamptic convulsions, which are frequently found as the result of insufficient kidnev action in the ])eriod of child-bearing. See also Eclampsia. The peculiar convulsions of apoplexy are described under Brain, Apoplexy oE. Erom that article it will be seen that at least three different effects are to be separated : one resulting from Inemorrhage into the brain substance ; the second following stop})age of a blood-vessel of the brain without haemorrhage ; and the third caused by stoppage of the blood-current due to gradual occlusion of a vessel. In each and every one of these con- ditions, the result is due to the circumstance that a certain portion of the brain has been deprived of its blood supply. This area then becomes degenerated, breaks down, and constitutes a weak part of the nervous system.$