Report of clinical cases treated during the session 1859-60 in the surgical wards of the Royal Infirmary under the care of James Spence.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of clinical cases treated during the session 1859-60 in the surgical wards of the Royal Infirmary under the care of James Spence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    intense. Ordered purgatives and enemata, and four leeches behind each ear, with cold to the head, which was shaved. This afforded him much benefit, and headache and drowsiness only remained. On the 1st, a blister was applied, and on the 25th, patient was dismissed, at his own request. 6. D. M 1, jet. 45, fell from a height of one storey, and, besides other injuries, received a lacerated wound of scalp, on vertex, five inches long. He was very drunk on admission. Wound closed by four stitches, and cold applied to head. Next day reaction set in strongly. Ordered ^ gr. Tart. Antim. every two hours, and also an enema. On the fourth day the stitches were removed, and warm water dressing used ; matter was burrowing under scalp. On the fifth, face flushed ; restless; during night slightly delirious. Abscess opened in scalp, and purgatives administered. On the twenty-first day he left, convalescent. III. Cases of Fracture of Skull, and those in winch symptoms of Compression came on secondarily. 1. Wm. Gr g, set. 8, was thrown violently against the corner of a chest, whereby a wound two inches long on anterior part of right parietal bone was produced. On admission, the wound bled freely, and from right ear and nostril there was considerable discharge of blood. The patient was pale, cold, and semi-conscious ; pulse 108, very weak ; pupils obedient to light. He was placed in bed. Hair cut short, cold dressings to head, and laxatives administered. On the second day a leech was applied behind the ear, to relieve headache. After this no bad symptom occurred, and on the eighteenth day he left, cured. 2. John G n, tet. 39, while in a state of intoxication, fell down a flight of ten steps. He was quite insensible when admitted ; bleed- ing from both ears (especially the right) and nostrils ; breathing stertorous and slow. Pulse 60, weak ; pupils contracted and fixed. Cold to head, and a dose of Croton Oil was administered. Next day, was semi-conscious, .drowsy, and complained of severe head- ache ; vomited violently. Ordered three leeches behind each ear. On fourth day, pain much less ; pupils natural; quite deaf, and saw double with left eye; pulse 72. On the sixth day a blister was applied to nape of neck, with good effects. On the thirteenth day all the above bad symptoms returned, along with facial paralysis on right side ; leeches and purgatives ordered. A seton was after- wards introduced, rest and low diet being constantly enjoined; and on the forty-seventh day he left, cured. 3. Christina S n, set. 36, on the 28th January 1860, was struck on the head by a quantity of hard lime and brick thrown from a house-top, three stories high. She was rendered insensible for some time, and lost a considerable quantity of blood from a wound, two inches long, situate over middle of superior part of os frontis. Ad- mitted, February 7, 1860. Patient staggers as she walks; is dull