Lectures on the diagnosis and treatment of the principal forms of paralysis of the lower extremities / by C. E. Brown-Séquard.

  • Brown-Séquard, Charles-Edouard, 1817-1894.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the diagnosis and treatment of the principal forms of paralysis of the lower extremities / by C. E. Brown-Séquard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    LECTURE II. DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF THE REFLEX PARAPLEGIA. Answer to objections against the existence of the urinary reflex paraplegia. —Affections of the urinary apparatus may cause paralysis either by a simple reflex influence, or in producing myelitis.—Condition of muscles in reflex paraplegia.—Diagnosis between the reflex paraplegia and para- lysis of the lower limbs due to myelitis, meningitis, pressure upon the spinal cord, a tumor in the gray matter, hysteria, seminal losses, hemor- rhage in the spinal canal or in the spinal cord, congestion, serous effusion, non-inflammatory softening, obstacle in the circulation of blood in the aorta or other large arteries, pressure on nerves, etc.—Remarks on the pretended essential or idiopathic paraplegia.—Prognosis of the reflex paraplegia.—General principles of treatment of the reflex paraplegia.— Means of diminishing the external irritation that causes a reflex para- plegia.—Means of improving the nutrition of the spinal cord.—Means of preventing the ill effects of rest in the paralyzed nerves and muscles. Gentlemen: There is an objection against the exist- ence of the reflex urinary paraplegia, of which I must speak, as it has been put forward by a most able physi- cian, Dr. W. W. Gull.1 This distinguished observer has found the spinal cord apparently healthy, when exa- mined with the naked eye, while the microscope proved that it was inflamed, in a case of paraplegia succeeding to a gonorrhoea; and he relates other cases of paraplegia due to myelitis, and preceded by a disease of the urinary apparatus. lie is inclined to think that in the cases of urinary paraplegia published by Mr. Stanley, there was 1 Medico-Ckirurg. Transactions, 1856, vol. xxxix. pp. 195-204.