A study of a case of family periodic paralysis / John K. Mitchell.

  • Mitchell, John K. (John Kearsley), 1859-1917.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A study of a case of family periodic paralysis / John K. Mitchell. 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.

    12/16 (page 12)
    ments, a remarkable difficulty was experienced. When the median cephalic vein was opened during an attack the flow of blood was so slow and so small that we could hardly secure the six ounces we wanted. Thinking the opening in the vessel had not been large enough, on an- other occasion we cut the vein right across, but with scarcely a better result. The patient's heart-action at the time was, as usual in the par- oxysms, rather rapid and feeble, with lowered pulse-tension, and on the occasion when we abstracted the full six ounces he felt decidedly light- headed before the bleeding ceased. Dr. Stengel's report is as follows : ''November 22, 1898. 1. Five c.c. of serum from blood drawn dur- ing an attack injected into rabbit weighing 1550 grammes at 4.30 pm. Was well at 6 p.m. ; died during the night. Post-mortem showed abundant hemorrhages at base of right lung; less at left base. No other changes of a definite sort. 23J. 2. Injected with same serum, 21 c.c, rabbit No. 2. One hour after: Red corpuscles, 5,012,000; white, 9.800. Twelve hours later: 6,000,000 red cells and 11,550 white. April 28, 1899. 3. Injected 5 c.c. of serum into rabbit weighing 2250 gnimmes. Rabbit alive after forty-eight hours. '=4. Injected 9 c.c. into rabbit weighing 2150 grammes. Died in thirty-six hours. These, like the examintions of the secretions, may be said to give negative results, and certainly do not indicate any unusual degree of toxicity in the blood. The cont^istency of the manifestations in the attacks is remarkable. In twenty-five attacks observed the only difference was in the degree to which power was lost, the more or less total disappearance of reflexes, and the varying occurrence of certain changes in heart-action and pulse- tension. Almoot all of the eighteen or twenty cases observed by various writers in Europe and in this country have presented symptoms very closely alike. In almost all paralysis has been periodic in its occurrence; generally there have been instances among relatives of the sufferer; in none have any sensory changes been found, and in those in which elec- trical study has been made electrical changes which greatly resemble the ones here described have been present, and in the intervals of the attack the patients almost invariably give the same history of complete and perfect strength and soundness. I say that in all the cases there have been practically no sensory changes. One described by Fischl had distinct impairment of sensi- bility. This case is in other ways a rather doubtful one, and might perhaps be excluded from the list. Oppenheim and Hirsch both describe temporary slight increase of