Internal hydrocephalus in the adult, with remarks on the aetiology of hydrocephalus and its occasional association with other abnormal conditions of the central nervous system / by F. Parkes Weber.

  • Weber, Frederick Parkes, 1863-1962.
Date:
1902
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Internal hydrocephalus in the adult, with remarks on the aetiology of hydrocephalus and its occasional association with other abnormal conditions of the central nervous system / by F. Parkes Weber. 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.

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    or defective intelligence and to imbeciles with heavy brains; but if the nobler elements participate equally in the excessive growth unusual intellectual powers may, as Peris and Edinger have suggested, be the result. In my case (B. S.) there may have been a hydrocephalic tendency in early life, the brain afterwards undergoing abnormal increase in size1 as a consequence of recovery. The later disease may have been a recurrence started by the second attack of erysipelas. There are cases of internal hydrocephalus in elder children or adults in which post-mortem examination has demonstrated that a condition of hydromyelia or syringo- myelia of the spinal cord has likewise been present. Dr. Pierre Marie2 recorded the case of a man, who died at the age of 36, in whom at the post-mortem examination a con- dition of hydrocephalus was found associated with extensive hydromyelia or syringomyelia of the cord. I have likewise heard of two cases of fatal hydrocephalus, in which at the necropsy the presence of syringomyelia or hydromyelia in some part of the spinal cord was ascertained. In the same way hydrocephalus in infants has long been3 recognised as not rarely associated with spina bifida, a congenital abnormality certainly to some extent allied to hydromyelia and syringomyelia, even though the last mentioned con- dition can hardly be termed congenital.4 The foregoing considerations all lead one to suspect that some of the cases described as “idiopathic” acute internal hydrocephalus in adults (the post-mortem examinations being often only partial) may in reality have been exacerbations in chronic cases, or at least connected with old abnormal conditions of the central nervous system. I now come to another matter, namely, the rare occur- rence of symptoms of internal hydrocephalus in persons 1 It is unfortunate that we have not more records of the weights of hydro- cephalic brains from patients of various ages. Herve suggested that Cuvier was affected with hydrocephalus in his childhood. At the post-mortem examination it was found that the lateral ventricles were very large. According to E. Rousseau’s account the weight of his brain was 1861-2 grammes, but according to Berard’s official report it was still greater, 1882-9 grammes. (See Revue de Tlierapeutique, Paris, December, 1883, page 623.) 2 Soci4t6 de Neurologie, Paris, December 7, 1899. :t See Dr. Richard Bright, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 428. 4 See however H. Schlesinger’s classification (Syringomyelia, 1902).