An inquiry into the causation, diagnosis, and treatment of fracture of the internal table of the skull / by William Frederic Teevan.

  • Teevan, W. F. (William Frederic), 1834-1887.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the causation, diagnosis, and treatment of fracture of the internal table of the skull / by William Frederic Teevan. 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.

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    brittleness of the inner table, and Dr. B. Beck gives an additional explanation—its shortness. I wUl now show that the cause of this fracture is not to be sought for in any of the reasons given, but that it occurs in obedi- ence to a well known physical law—that fracture commences in the line of extension not that of compression. If it were true that the shortness and brittleness o f the inner table were the cause of its fracturing, then it would follow that, if violence were apphed to the inner surface of the skull, it would be impossible to produce fracture of the external table only, without any injury whatsoever to the inner. Now what are the results of my experiments on this point? Why, they show that, if the inside of the skull be sti-uck, the external table can be fractured without any injury whatsoever to the internal table thus proving that the alleged shortness and brittleness can have nothing to do with the causation of this fracture. I give the following details of an ex- periment, which any one can, with a little practice, perform. A skull cap, stripped of all its soft parts, with a wet cloth inside it, is to be laid with its convexity in the palm of the left hand, which is to be protected with several layers of a moist cloth, to obviate an inconvenient amount of pain. If the inside of the skull be now struck by a hammer, with a slight degree of force, fracture of the external table will be produced, without any fracturing or fissuring of the inner. I have performed this experiment several times, and exhibited some of the specimens at the Pathological Society. *I woiild here refer to a specimen, which is quite unique, * Since the above was in type I bave met with another case:—“ Mr. Teevan exhibited a calvarium, shewing a fissured fracture of the external table only, produced by a bullet striking the vnside of the skull. The skull cap was taken from a Swiss, who shot himself a few weeks ago, and died in one of the London Hospitals. The bullet entered the right parietal bone, traversed the brain and its membranes, struck the inside of the left parietal bone, and remained im- prisoned in the cranium. There was no fissure or fracture at the spot on the inner surface of the left parietal bone whore the bullet struck, but at the corresponding spot in the outside of the bone there was a starred, fissured fracture of the external table only. Mr. Teevan remarked, that this variety of fracture had never been described, and that ho brorxght forward the speci- men to corroborate his own experiments on this subject, and in support of tho statement which ho had made to tho Society on a former occasion—that, whether the inside or outside of the skull bo struck, fracture of the distal table only, without injury to the proximal one, can bo produced in either case, and that such fracture occurred in obedience to a woll-knoxvn physical law—that fracture commences in tho lino of extension, which is tho distal side, and not iu that of compression.”—Lancet, Nov. 8th, 18C5.