Essays on the theory of convulsive diseases / by Marshall Hall.

  • Hall, Marshall, 1790-1857.
Date:
[1848]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on the theory of convulsive diseases / by Marshall Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/74 (page 17)
    I his fact is the result of all experiments on animals, and of all observations on the human subject. No disease, therefore, limited, in itself and in its effects, absolutely, to the cerebrum and cerebellum, can be the cause of convulsion. But irritation of the membranes within the cranium pro¬ duces various muscular contractions—a fact which I ascer¬ tained in an important experiment, which I carefully detailed in the second series of my “ Observations and Suggestions in Medicine,” p. 64. No doubt disease sometimes acts as an irritant to these membranes, and produces its peculiar effects, or symptoms—a fact for which we are indebted, with the light which it throws upon diagnosis, to experimental physiology. But it is when a source of irritation is applied to the me¬ dulla oblongata, or medulla spinalis, that the most energetic and frightful forms of muscular contractions, or of convul¬ sions, are induced. Lastly, when certain nerves connected with the spinal marrow, which I have designated the incident spinal nerves, are irritated, especially at the points of their origin in the cutaneous, mucous, or other tissues, various muscular con¬ tractions, now designated excited and reflex, occur. Excited through the medium of these incident nerves, the spinal centre sends forth its influence along certain muscular nerves specially associated with the former, and peculiar muscular actions ensue. I think it probable that many convulsive affections and their dire effects have their origin in utero ; certainly many of the latter are congenital. How carefully has nature protected the susceptible foetus ! and may I not add, how incautiously have we all, in testing the existence of a foetus, or of life in the foetus, applied our hand taken fresh out of cold water, or sudden pressure, or succussion, over the region of the im¬ pregnated uterus! May not this and similar acts or acci¬ dents have been the unsuspected cause of some congenital nervous affections, as podismus (club-foot)? Infancy is the most excitable period of human existence, whilst it is exposed to its own peculiar sources of irritation. Of these, one is the peculiar condition of the gums and of the alveolar processes, which occurs during dentition. It is B