Three cases of acute anterior polio-myelitis (acute spinal paralysis) in adults / by W. Allen Sturge.

  • Sturge, William Allen, 1850-1919.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three cases of acute anterior polio-myelitis (acute spinal paralysis) in adults / by W. Allen Sturge. 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.

    6/14 (page 4)
    may produce more or less damage to the organ of a permanent nature, destroying the softer, more delicate tissues—namely, the nerve-cells and nerve-fibres, and producing overgrowth of the harder less delicate interstitial connective tissue. As the result of these changes, we have the phenomena of “infantile paralysis”. It was for some years thought that this disease was one peculiar to young children, a belief which originated in the fact that it occurs very much more frequently in them than in adults, and which has been fos- tered and encouraged by the designation by which it is almost univer- sally known. One of the results of the immense advance which has been made in the last few years in our knowledge of nervous diseases, has been to show that “infantile paralysis” is by no means confined to children, but that it is met w'ith, though less frequently, at almost any period of life. It is often the case with discoveries, that the merit of having Ireen the first to make them is disputed by two or more ob- servers. The discovery is not made by a sudden leap, but is gradu- ally led up to by a succession of advances ; and as several men are w'orking in the vein thus o|iened up, it frequently happens that tw'o or more workers reach the goal about the same time, but quite independ- ently of one another. .So heie, the merit of having been the first to describe cases of spinal di.sease in adults, which resembled in all points the condition known as “infantile paralysis”, is claimed in France for Duchenne de Boulogne, and in Germany for Moritz Meyer. As a matter of chronological fact, it would appear that Meyer was the first to publish cases of this kind, but that the first detailed description w’hich show'ed the position which such cases should hold among diseases of the spinal cord was given by Duchenne shortly afterwards. Since that lime, cases have been reported in France by Charcot and one or two other physicians ; in Germany by Bernhardt, Kussmaul, Erb, Weiss, etc.; in America by Seguin ; but in this country, so far as I am aware, the only cases published have been by Dr. Althaus, in a paper which he read last year before the Medical Society of London, and which he has since published ;* a case described by Dr. Glynn of Liverpool, in a lecture which he published in the Zrrwzr’/for September 2ist, 1878; and a case in a lad of 14, described by Dr. Octavius Sturges in the Lancet for January 4th and May 3rd, 1S79. In consequence of the discovery that the disease is not confined to young children, the name “ infantile paralysis” has lost its force ; and as it has now' been settled beyond dispute wdiat is the pathological basis of the disease, an endeavour should be made to supply in its place a more strictly scientific name, one which shall in itself indicate the true nature of the disorder. It is not very easy to de.signate in two or three words a condition such as that which forms the pathological basis of this disease; and hitherto nothing better has been devised for the pur- pose than the somewhat uncouth name with which I have headed this * On I’lfaiitile Paraivsis and sotne Allied Diseases of theSpinal Cord. By Tulius Althau.s, M.D., M.R.C.'P.