Observations on Italian medical institutions and practice : with a brief comparative sketch of some points of French and English practice, and remarks on Italian climate / by Edwin Lee.

  • Lee, Edwin, -1870.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on Italian medical institutions and practice : with a brief comparative sketch of some points of French and English practice, and remarks on Italian climate / by Edwin Lee. 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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    2S Vertebral Disease. A woman, cot. twenty-six, had been subject, during some months, to fixed pain in the back, attended with loss of power over her inferior extremities: when admitted to the hos- pital, the paralysis had so far increased that she could only move the legs with difficulty: the spinous processes of the eleventh and twelfth dorsal vertebrse projected considerably. Professor Vacca ordered the moxa to be applied on one side of the projection, and the wound kept in a suppurating state. Before the separation of the eschar, an evident amelioration had taken place; the patient was able to move her legs more freely. At the expiration of two months she could walk pretty well, without feeling pain in the back; the spinous projection also appears lessened. At this time the patient complained of pain extending over the right side of the abdomen, she was also feverish towards the evening. On careful examination, a deep-vseated tumor was felt, giving a sensation of obscure fluctuation in the right iliac region. After some weeks, the tumor had increased in size, with evidence of fluctuation; the patient had still slight hectic fever; however, she acquired more strength in the inferior extremities, and could walk with ease. No further change took place in the tumor in the course of the two following months; the patient had in the mean time acquired flesh and strength, and left the hospital, where she had been five months. The opinion of Professor Vacca was that a cure of the caries of the spine had taken place; that a condensation of the matter of the abscess, with adhesion to its cyst, had occurred. Three months after having left, the patient came to shew herself at the hospital; she had become much fatter, and could walk several miles without inconvenience; the tumor was stationary, having nei- ther increased nor diminished. Several months after her last appearance, she returned to the hospital in a different state: she stated that the pain in the back returned, accompanied with torpidity of the right thigh. The tu- mor had increased considerably in size, and another fluctuating tumor was perceptible in the situation of the ischiatic notch; the thigh and leg were cedematous. The patient was still able to walk and did not enter the hospital: she returned, however, in five weeks' and was admitted; in addition to the two,previous tumors, another in the superior part of the thigh had supervened, and pressing the matter from one, increased the size of the others. The termination of this case is not given, but the result may be imagined. It may be questioned whether the benefit derived in the first in- stance is attributable to the good effects of the moxa, or to the matter having shifted its situation, and consequently affecting less, by its pressure, the nerves which supply the lower extremities. Jiccto-vesical Lithotomy. A young man, tet. twenty, was re- ceived into the hospital with stone in the bladder; the recto- vesical operation was performed by Professor Vacca in his usual manner: the calculus was seized with facility; but, being large