Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / By John Abercrombie.

  • Abercrombie, John, 1780-1844.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / By John Abercrombie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and bone, forming a free communication betwixt the cavity of the abscess and the meatus auditorius exter- nus.* Examples, indeed, have occurred which would lead us to suppose, that in some such cases the relief is permanent. A young lady in Edinburgh, several years ago, after the usual symptoms in the head, had lain for three or four days in a state of perfect coma, and her situation was considered as entirely hopeless. Her me- dical attendants, paying their visit as a matter of form, were astonished to find her one day sitting up and free from complaint; a copious discharge of matter had taken place from the ear with immediate relief, and she continued in good health. It is, however, by no means certain, that in such a case as this the discharge came from the cavity of the cranium ; for there is rea- son to believe, that extensive suppuration within the cavity of the tympanum is capable of producing symp- toms of great urgency, especially if there should be any difficulty of finding an outlet. In a case of this kind by Itard, the matter, after urgent symptoms, escaped by the Eustachian tube, and, by constantly dropping down in that direction, produced cough and great irri- tation of the larynx; after partial relief in this manner, the symptoms in the head and in the ear returned, and were at length relieved by the puncture of the mem- brana tympani. A disease, analogous to that now described, some- times occurs in the nose. A person who has been liable to pain in the forehead, and purulent discharge from the nose, becomes at last forgetful and delirious, and dies comatose. The ethmoid bone is found cari- ous, the dura mater corresponding to it is diseased, and there is a deposition of pus betwixt it and the brain, © sometimes an abscess in the brain itself. Several cases of this kind are mentioned by Lieutaud and Bonetus. Morgagni mentions a priest who, after being affected with fever, delirium, pain in the forehead, and convul- * Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Medical and Surgical Knowledge, vol. iii.