On sclerosis of the spinal cord : including locomotor ataxy, spastic spinal paralysis, and other system-diseases of the spinal cord, their pathology, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment / by Julius Althaus.

Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On sclerosis of the spinal cord : including locomotor ataxy, spastic spinal paralysis, and other system-diseases of the spinal cord, their pathology, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment / by Julius Althaus. 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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    gross anatomical lesions have occurred. In general the disease is apt sooner or later to extend to other portions of the nervous system, and gradually to undermine the vital powers of the patient. The treatment of spastic paralysis has to vary according to the cause of the complaint. Where there are decided syphilitic antecedents, a specific treatment should be re- sorted to, on the same lines as for tabes (p. 302). On the other hand, where the sclerosis appears to be functional, more especially if the dynamometer does not show any actual loss of power, the Weir-Mitchell treatment by massage and faradisation may prove beneficial. The con- stant current, administered in the same way as for tabes (p. 310), will generally, however, be found the best remedy. Of medicines, I have found a combination of arsenic, in doses of from two to ten minims of the liquor arsenicalis, and bromide of potassium, in doses of from fifteen to thirty grains, thrice daily, the most effectual. Where the system is greatly reduced, phos- phorus, cod-liver oil, malt-extract, and the generous wines of Burgundy and Hungary should be administered. Warm baths, of a temperature of 92° to 100°, should also be given, either daily or every other day. The temperature, as well as the duration of the bath, should be gradually increased, in accordance with individual susceptibility. Warm salt or sea baths answer sometimes better than those of ordinary water. Nerve-stretching has been practised in this country and abroad with but indifferent results. Southam,^ of Man- chester, has treated a case which was, however, somewhat unusual, by stretching of the left sciatic nerve. There had been, apart from the spasmodic contraction of the muscles and the exaggeration of the tendon reflexes, severe pain in the abdomen and lower extremities, Avhich did not yield to morphia. The tendon reflexes and the ' The Lancet, October 8, 1881.