Some points connected with periodic breathing / by G. A. Gibson.

Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some points connected with periodic breathing / by G. A. Gibson. 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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    there is an unvarying condition of unconsciousness with periodic breathing. The cases thus shortly referred to present a regular series of symptoms, commencing with those showing consequences de pending upon some affection of the respiratory centre alone, and passing through others having a progressive tendency to involve different centres. But the periodic changes produced by alterations of the centres may commence in, and be limited to, those which are not con- cerned in vital phenomena. The case of a child, who was lately under my care when suffering from what clearly seemed to be tubercular meningitis, but which, owing to the recovery of the patient, may appear to have been possibly an error in diagnosis, will illustrate my meaning. The patient was a little girl, aged three years, oresenting all the symptoms of subacute tubercular meningitis. During the course of the disease, when watching her carefully one day, a periodic closure of the eyelids attracted my attention, and on further observation it was easy to determine that along with this closure of the lids there was a simultaneous contraction of the pupils, and a state of complete unconsciousness. This condition remained for several seconds, the eyelids were then raised, the pupils dilated, consciousness returned, and the child raised her head to look about. The conscious state was present for some time, how long it is not possible for me to say, as it did not occur to me to notice the interval, and was in its turn followed by the unconscious con- dition, In this case there was never, so far as my observation went, any tendency to a periodic change in the rhythm of the breathing. It seems to me that such a phenomenon can only be regarded as analogous in every way to intermittent respiration, and, if this be granted, it follows that the thesis with which this con- tribution began must be admitted to be proven.