Statistical and pathological report of the cases of fever treated in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the year ending September 30, 1842 / by Thomas B. Peacock.

  • Peacock, Thomas B. (Thomas Bevill), 1812-1882.
Date:
[1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical and pathological report of the cases of fever treated in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the year ending September 30, 1842 / by Thomas B. Peacock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    applicable lesion than some turgescenee of the cerebral vessels, with fluid blood. 2(/, In a male, 3-1- years of age, the symptoms were pain in the head ; delirium, at first slight, afterwards urgent and incessant, and lastly coma, and on examination the fluid in the ventricles did not amount to half a drachm; the subarachnoid effiision was very slight, and but little fluid was found at the base. The brain was firm, but its substance and membranes displayed some con- gestion. Lastly, in 11 other cases, in which delirium was a more or less marked feature of the disease, together with subsultus tendi- num, and coma, the fluid was under 3ss in 2 cases, „ „ 5i in 3 „ „ 31? m 3 ,, „ ,, 7)U in 3 „ and no other evidences of disease were detected, with the excep- tion of some degree of increased turgescenee of the vessels in 4 cases. On analysing the characteristic symptoms of the whole of the cases in which the brain was examined after death, I find, that in 4, in which, along with other symptoms of fever, there was present delirium, so active as to require restraint, the fluid found in the ventricles was copious in 1 case, in moderate quantity in 1, and very small in amount in the remaining 2. In 16 cases, in which the most striking symptoms of cerebral disorder were subsultus tendinum, delirium, stupor, and coma— in 3 there was found a large amount of fluid; in 3 the quantity was moderate, and in 10 it was small. In ] case, in which convulsions, with subsultus tendinum, and* coma, were present, the quantity was extremely small, amount- ing to less than half a drachm. In 2 cases, in which the symptoms were rather those of pros- tration of strength, than of active disease, the quantity of fluid found in the ventricles was also small. In the above calculation, I have considered as copious all quantities of fluid exceeding 3 drachms; as moderate, quantities varying from 1 to 3 drachms; and as small, all quantities less than 1 drachm. As regards the degree of congestion of the brain, or its mem- branes, in the 4 cases where active delirium was found, there was increased turgescenee of the vessels of the pia mater, or conges- tion of the substance of the brain in 2. In the 1 6 cases characterized by subsultus tendinum, delirium, stupor, and coma, the vascularity was greater than usual in 7. In the patient who had convulsions, subsultus tendinum, and coma, the brain was unusually turgid with blood; and in the two cases in which prostration of strength formed the most marked feature, there was also congestion of the vessels.