The nervous system of the human body. Embracing the papers delivered to the Royal Society on the subject of the nerves.

  • Bell, Charles, Sir.
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nervous system of the human body. Embracing the papers delivered to the Royal Society on the subject of the nerves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    No. LX. Case II.—James Saunders, aetat. 45, June 30.—This man fell only- four feet, but he fell backwards, and struck his neck against an iron railing. The transverse processes of his fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae were found to be fractured; and there was diastasis of the articulations between these vertebrae. The body of the sixth vertebra was fractured. The spinous processes, also, of the fourth and fifth vertebrae were found fractured at their bases. The house surgeon reports of this man, that when he was brought into the hospital he was perfectly sensible; that his face indicated great alarm and anxiety. Every time he drew his breath it was attended with an effort to raise the shoulders, and a contraction of the muscles of the throat: every time he breathed, his head appeared to sink beneath his shoulders. On putting his hand on the pit of his stomach no motion of the viscera of the abdomen could be perceived. He had no feeling even in the upper part of his chest: he had feeling on his face and neck, and indistinctly near the collar bone. He had a motion of his hands, a sort of rolling motion, which may have proceeded from the shoulders. When he spoke it was in a tremulous voice, like a man frightened: his voice was weak, but he did not speak in a whisper: the sound of his voice was more like sighing than common breathing. The pulse was felt at his wrist. In ten minutes after he was brought in, half an hour from the time of the accident, he died. No. LXI. Case III.—On the following day a man was brought into the hospital dead. He had fallen fifty feet, and had lighted on the ground upon both his shoulders. By the accounts of the men who carried him to the hospital, he appears to have been instantaneously killed. The dissection sufficiently proved that he was killed suddenly. For besides extensive fracture and injury to the lower part of the spine, the atlas and dentata were found fractured. The tooth-like process of the vertebra dentata was broken through just at its base. It was separated completely, and was