Physical diagnosis : a guide to methods of clinical investigation / by G.A. Gibson and William Russell.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physical diagnosis : a guide to methods of clinical investigation / by G.A. Gibson and William Russell. 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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    Sense op Taste. The sense of taste is somewhat complex. The posterior third of the toBgue with the fauces and pharynx are brought into connection with the centres by means of the glosso- pharyngeal nerves ; the anterior two-thirds are supplied by the lingual nerve; and the sensory branches concerned in taste appear to pass into the cliorda tympani, whence by its con- nections they proceed to the trigeminal or glosso-pharyngeal nerve—it is not yet certain which—and reach the brain. Subjective perversions of the sense of taste are rarely met with except in mental disease. To test the sense of taste substances devoid of aroma should be employed—such as sweet, bitter, sour, and salt bodies. They should be applied to each half of the tongue, both in its anterior and posterior parts. Increased sensibility is very rare except in hysterical patients. Diminished sensibility may be due to central or peri- pheral lesions, and the extent of the anaesthesia points to the locality of the disease. For instance, if there be loss of taste in the anterior part of the tongue, while the patient has no loss of ordinary sensibility in the tongue, the cliorda tympani is in fault. If there be loss of the sense of touch as well as of the sense of taste, it is the lingual which is affected. The attendant symptoms enable the observer to estimate the level at which the lesion is situated. 2.—Motor Functions. In an investigation of the motor functions it is necessary to examine the tone and size, the voluntary and involuntary movements, as weH as the irritabHity, of the muscles tested by mechanical and electrical stimuli. (a.) The tone of the muscles may be estimated by the rigidity or flaccidity which is felt by the hand on grasping them. Experience teaches the observer to recognise the