Fits : diagnosis and immediate treatment of cases of insensibility and convulsions / by John H. Waters.

Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fits : diagnosis and immediate treatment of cases of insensibility and convulsions / by John H. Waters. 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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    systemic affection from which the patient will recover and again at some future time be attacked? or is the fit due to some organic disease by which life is threatened, as tumour, abscess, or aneurism of the brain, chronic meningitis, congestion of the brain, cerebral haemorrhage, embolism of the middle cerebral artery, softening of the brain, concussion or contusion of the brain ? is it due to injury, to poisoning either by alcohol, or any other poison ? to Bright's disease, hysteria, insolation (sun- stroke), heart disease, &c, &c. ? Having elimi- nated all these, we are accurate in thinking the fit is epileptiform, and that he will recover; but when we consider the difficulties that surround and almost prevent the possibility of diagnosis, we shall, I think, be justified in using any means that assist us, and in accepting all hints that shall simplify this Herculean task. The diagnosis would be sufficiently difficult were these straightforward, uncomplicated cases; but, unfortunately, with few exceptions, they have a halo of alcohol that surrounds them, masking or intensifying the symptoms upon which we rely to form our opinion; this, bad as it is, is not the greatest danger a patient runs. If we who have studied these cases fail to arrive at a just conclusion about them, still less is it