Acute cerebral meningitis, or hydrocephalus / by C. Evans Reeves.

  • Reeves, C. E. (Charles Evans), 1828-1880.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Acute cerebral meningitis, or hydrocephalus / by C. Evans Reeves. 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.

    31/66 (page 29)
    membranes and substance of the brain, may excite meningitis. When the tumours or tubercles exist in the brain, the disease seems generally to occur as a terminative affection. The same seems also to be generally the case when the tubercles are seated in the membranes, but in some cases the meningitis and the tubercular formations seem to be developed nearly simul- taneously. Whytt found tubercles in the brain in 2 cases. Coindet, Laen- necji Giraud,2 Rouchoux,^ Maxwell,* Duroseul,^ Mitrich,^ and Piet, have also observed them exist in connection with the disease. Valsalva^ and Greding^ have each seen the disease occur in a person liable to epilepsy. Several other cases have been recorded. Two instances have fallen under my observation—one a female, aged 21; the other a male, aged 14. Children who have had convulsions seem more susceptible to the disease than those who have not, and it is not uncommon to find it preceded by convul- sions. The disease has been observed to occur in connection with apoplexy, by Greding, Parent-Duchatelet and Martinet, Rouchoux and Piet, and also with chronic softening and chronic hydroce- phalus or meningitis. XVIII. Infiuence of Diseases of the Ear^ ^V^i (idjacent parts.—Meningitis sometimes supervenes on purulent discharge from the ear of long standing. There is generally inflammation of the internal ear, purulent collections, or caries of the bones, in these cases. I am acquainted with an instance where a practi- tioner injected a solution of sulphate of zinc into the ear of a female advanced in years, who had been for some years liable to an offensive discharge. Severe headache followed, and in the course of a few hours meningitis, which proved fatal. In a case observed by Coindet, and in 2 others by Goelis, the discharge disappeared before the meningitis set in. In one of the cases observed by the latter, the cessation of the discharge from the ear was preceded by fever and pain in the side; in the other, the patient had had concussion of the brain, fever, and swelling of the parotids, followed by discharge from the right ear. The occurrence of the disease in connection with diseases of the ear has also been observed by Powel,® Bourse,^*' Burn,^^ Berton, Maunthner, and myself. It is not uncommon to find that the patients have suffered, at one time or other, from scrofulous diseases of the eye. The disease has been observed to occur during the existence of diseases ' Jour, de M6d. de Corvisart, tomo ii. ' Tlifiae do Paris. 1818. ' Harris, ibid., 1826. * Edin. Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. xx. Urbe. « I'ict. ' Morgagni. e De Effus. in Cereb., Lips., 1763. Medical Transactions, vol. v. These de Paris, 1821. E'iinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol, xlii.