Observations on yaws, and its influence in originating leprosy ; also observations on acute traumatic tetanus, and tetanus infantum / by James Maxwell.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on yaws, and its influence in originating leprosy ; also observations on acute traumatic tetanus, and tetanus infantum / by James Maxwell. 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.

    157/162 page 133
    faithfully recorded facts, and by carefully discarding every circumstance that leads to premature generalization. Nothing tends more to impede the intellectual march of science than preconceived opinions, a bigotted partiality to favourite systems, and an impatient haste to establish general principles upon insulated facts. No disease requires the solid aid of observation and experiment more than te- tanus, and records of fatal cases, with post mortem appear- ances, become exceedingly interesting to the pathologist, in as much as they may enable him to bring the light of induction to bear upon the darker features of this convul- sive affection. Several eminent pathologists have endeavoured to ascer- tain the nature of this disease by anatomical investigations, but, as yet, their researches have led to no important prac- tical results, and it still remains a matter of speculation and conjecture. In most neeroscopic examinations a similarity of result has been observed, such as an unusual turgescence of the vessels of the brain and spinal cord, and their involucra, together with a copious effusion of serum amongst the cere- bral convolutions, as well as in the ventricles and spinal canal, but these morbid appearances cannot be said to be- long exclusively to tetanus, as they are also occasionally identified with the higher grades of tropical fever, and the various modifications of coup de soleil, or insolation. To say, therefore, that it originates from inflammation of the neurilema of the injured nerves, which is afterwards propagated to the medulla spinalis, or to inflammation of the cerebral substance itself, to acute spinal meningitis, or to a deranged state of the intestinal canal, or digestive organs, acting upon a peculiar indiosyncracy, are palpable admissions
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3