On aphasia, or loss of speech : and the localisation of the faculty of articulate language / by Frederic Bateman.

Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On aphasia, or loss of speech : and the localisation of the faculty of articulate language / by Frederic Bateman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    Right and subsequently Left Hemiplegia, with Lesion of Speech. Frontal convolutions sound. John Sutherland, a shoemaker, aged 60, was admitted into the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, December 22nd, 1866, with the following history. He had not heen a drinking man, had smoked very little, had suffered from gonorrhea, but had never had syphilis or rheumatic fever. Whilst at work on September 4th, he suddenly lost the entire use of his right side, and also of his speech. The loss of articulate language was almost complete for about a fortnight, at the expiration of which time he could just make himself understood by those who knew him well; the partial recovery of his speech coincided with a little returning motor power in the leg, but it was not till two months later that there was any improvement in the hand. Condition on admission.—There is still considerable loss of power in the right arm, and the forearm is contracted on the arm; he walks with difficulty, but there is less impairment in the use of the leg than the arm. The memory and intellect are unaffected; he answers questions remarkably readily, and there is now no hesitation in his speech, but he speaks in a muffled, unnatural tone, as if the mouth was full. There is no evidence of cardiac disease, no unilateral sweating; he fancies he cannot smell as well as before the attack. There was nothing in the treatment of this case to record, except that some weeks after his admission, galvanism was twice applied to the right leg, but this seemed to aggravate his condition, for in a few days there was complete paralysis of this limb. Some days later he had a severe apoplectic seizure, resulting in paralysis of the entire left side, with great difficulty of speech, and he died in a few days. A most careful post mortem examination was made, which I will not describe in detail; suffice it to say that the loss of motor power on the two sides was explained by a clot in the central part of each hemisphere; there was no obstruction of the middle cerebral arteries, and we clearly satisfied ourselves that the frontal convolutions were in no wise affected.