Lectures illustrative of certain local nervous affections / by Sir Benjamin C. Brodie.

  • Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1st Baronet
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures illustrative of certain local nervous affections / by Sir Benjamin C. Brodie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    a the nerve terminates, at that extremity of it which is most distant from the brain. These local nervous affections are of very fre- quent occurrence. In one shape or another you will meet with them at every turn of your future practice, and a knowledge of them is of the greatest importance, both to the physician and surgeon. Without it, you will be conti- nually mistaking the real seat of a disease: your attention will be directed to a wrong object, and, following the symptoms, you will be in danger of overlooking the cause on which they depend. The investigation, however, is not un- attended with difficulty, and it will often require all your professional sagacity and skill to trace the phcenomena, which occur in these cases, to their true origin. If you accidentally strike the inside of your elbow against a projecting body, the corner of a table for example, you feel a peculiar tingling sensation, not where the blow is inflicted, but where the ulnar nerve, which has been struck, terminates, on the inside of the hand, and espe- cially in the little finger. In like manner, an accidental pressure made for a few minutes on the popliteal or sciatic nerve, will cause that peculiar tingling sensation in the foot which is commonly described by saying that the foot is asleep, and which continues for some time after the pressure has been taken away. Guided by the light of these facts, and of others analogous J3 2
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