On a case of fits resembling those artificially produced in guinea-pigs / by J. Hughlings Jackson.

  • Jackson, John Hughlings, 1834-1911.
Date:
[1886?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a case of fits resembling those artificially produced in guinea-pigs / by J. Hughlings Jackson. 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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    large. Contirming this part of the subject, I pass on to the next visit, when I had the advantage of the help of Dr. James Andei'son and Mr. Victor Horsley in investigating the case more fully. January 25th, 1886. There is a bruise of the right cheek. His mother told him to shut his mouth before she touched his head ; she explained that he had bitten his tongue in a recent fall. He had a habifc of running with his tongue protruded; shutting his mouth and bringing his teeth together prevented tongue-biting when he fell. However, he had only once bitten his tongue ; he never bit it in the severe epileptic attacks. In the fits we saw he fell down, and seemed to be unconscious; the two eyes turned to the right and upwards in parallelism ; his respiration stopped for a few seconds. His father had noticed that in every attack observed since the last visit the eyes turned to the right. When lying down, the fits, on touching his head, seemed to be slighter. When his head was touched whilst he was recumbent his limbs moved ; there was but one movement—a sudden jerk— which was soon over. In some the left leg moved alone, or it moved more than the other; possibly the right arm moved more than the left. Permanent Condition of the Left Idnibs.—The face and tongue were moved normally, and so it is believed were the right limbs. The left arm was slightly less than the right in circumference ; his father reported that he moved it clumsily, but his grasps were about equal. His father said that when the boy was using the right hand in such an operation as drawing, the left hand was always going, showing us in imitation movements of his own hand somewhat like those of athetosis. The boy limped slightly with the left leg; it was decidedly less in circumference than the right. There was no foot clonus on either side, and his knee-jerks were supposed to be normal. The patient's chest was well shaped. There was no evidence of rickets. At my request his father made particular observations on the fits in sleep. He had frequently seen attacks brought on in sleep, when the boy was accidentally touched either by himself or by others. On purposely touching him in sleep, his father observed that (letter, January 27th, 1886) the movements of the body were exactly the same as when awake ; the duration of the ap- parent unconsciousness the same, and, unless my observations deceived mc, the eyes were turned upwards and to the right. It