History of a case of paraplegia from injury of the spinal chord, causing inertia of the kidneys, and other anomalous symptoms / by John Home Peebles.

Date:
[1834?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of a case of paraplegia from injury of the spinal chord, causing inertia of the kidneys, and other anomalous symptoms / by John Home Peebles. 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.

    11/16 (page 9)
    statements; because, among the long series of facts recorded by medical observers, there were not any to be found that in any respect resembled this case. The legal authorities also request- ed to be informed of the precise nature of the facts which had been published concerning a man who had rendered himself by his crimes deserving the rigor of the laws. In consequence, a letter, .dated the 18th of July 1829, of which the following is a translation, was written by Dr Montesanto, to the Count Selvatico, Vice-President of the Tribunal of Appeal, and Di- rector of the Provincial Tribunal of Padua. Agreeably to the demand which your Excellency has done me the honour to make, I present to you along with this let- ter, the history of the very singular disease of the unfortunate Domenico Valetto, now confined in the Infirmary of the Pri- son ; a history drawn up by me, and published for the purpose of informing professional men, of the circumstances of a pa- thological case, no example of which, so far as I know, is to be found in the most accredited collection of medical observa- tions. This man, besides having the inferior part of the body para- lytic from the waist downwards, has had neither intestinal eva- cuations nor urinary secretion for about ten years, during which time he has always lain as he does still, continually de- prived of every motion of the inferior extremities, in bed in the infirmary. Vomiting in certain determinate hours after his daily meal, in this man, invariably takes place, of every other evacuation, without depriving him, however, of as much as is necessary for the support of life ; and it so happens that this exists in him under laws unusual to human organiza- tion, and such as to reveal in a greater degree the wonderful re- sources of nature, even amidst the most difficult, circumstances. The history of Valetto is therefore most interesting in it- self, for which reason, with permission of your Excellency, and with the concurrence of Dr Celega, the ordinary physician to the prison, I continue to observe the course of the malady, on purpose that I may be able to give the best account of what is taking place in its progress. But although this person may be treated in the Infirmary of the Prison, like all the other pri- soners, with every kind of charity, and on account of the extra- ordinary length of his malady, he may be regarded even with particular humanity ; yet, since the peculiar circumstances of the place render it impracticable for the physician to make those accurate observations, which science demands in a case so important, and so capable of affording in its progress new views to the cultivator of physiological science, I would solicit B